Each year at camp, Sly Majid can typically be found leading the ethics discussion with the campers, shouting the time from his golf cart during Round Robins, rallying the alumni staff, and in recent years, donning the eggernaut suit on the night of the egg drop. A camper in 1999 and an AC in 2000, Sly has been apart of RYLA for ten years.
The Allen High School graduate returns each year because he feels it is important to give back to the camp that has given him so much. Sly’s camper year gave him a new-found sense of confidence and helped him to understand that leaders weren’t always just the loudest or most talkative people in the room. “I was able to grow and develop from that point forward into the person I am today,” he says.
After graduating from the University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Arts in Government, Sly was appointed the Executive Director of Eastside Community Connection (ECC) in 2005. ECC is a small nonprofit agency that provides food to thousands of families in the East Austin community, along with educational services.
Sly oversees all the operations of ECC, working on everything from fundraising to the organization’s continued development. His favorite aspect of his job is managing the staff of interns from UT that manage and lead the organization and its programs. “The really exciting part of our work is that we are preparing college students to be the next generation of service leaders in our community,” he says.
RYLA’s principles of leadership and service are keys tenets in the way Sly chooses to live. “I want to live my life to make an impact, not an impression. Finding opportunities to use my skills as a leader and make the community a better place is a direct result of the lessons I’ve learned from Camp RYLA,” he says.
As the current leader of the RYLA alumni group, Sly is directing the alumni towards the creation of a succession system to maintain a transitional leadership structure for Camp RYLA.
“I wouldn’t be where I am today without the people who make Camp RYLA what it is,” he says. “I am determined to give each camper the same quality experience I was given over ten years ago.”
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