Showing kids how to become leaders

Growing up, Rikki Kyle never sought the spotlight.

Rikki, now 19, says leadership “was something I wasn’t really sure I was interested in.”

That all changed when Rikki, who lives in East Cleveland and graduated from Beaumont School, began accepting leadership roles at her Club and in the Ohio Youth Leadership Council.

“It became apparent that I could be a voice and a supplier of information in my own community,” says Rikki, who became a Club junior staff member, president of the character-centered Keystone Club and the first editor of Club News, a newspaper written by members.

Today, Rikki is a sophomore at American University in Washington, D.C., where she is majoring in public relations and strategic communications management and is director of diversity and inclusiveness for the university’s Public Relations Society of America chapter. She still works at the Club during summer break – and uses what she’s learned to connect with kids.

“Communication is huge – learning how to adjust and adapt,” she says. “At the Club, it is never the same from one day to the next and from one kid to the next. Not every kid receives information the same way.”