I recently heard a speech by a 15-year-old young lady named Hannah.  The point to Hannah’s 5-7 minute speech was two-fold: 1) to challenge her peers to embrace responsibility and, 2) to persuade adults to help teens develop by trusting them with increasing responsibility.  If you had been in the audience that evening you would have heard an organized and captivating message delivered with passion; a message that was both a wake-up call to the generation of adults and a call to action to the up-and-coming generation.  If you had been there you would see that Hannah was dressed professionally, spoke intelligently and presented herself with confidence.   Her voice was strong and well-paced, her gestures natural and purposeful.

What you wouldn’t have seen was the Hannah that I knew several months ago, part of a group of local junior and senior high school students that I was privileged and blessed with leading through the Toastmasters International Youth Leadership Program (YLP)(http://www.toastmasters.org/Members/MemberExperience/SatellitePrograms/YouthLeadership.aspx).

That was a different Hannah – one that seemed unsure about her own quiet voice and not comfortable speaking in public.   Over the course of the 16-week program Hannah discovered her voice and was provided an opportunity to lead  class meetings.  Turns out, not only can Hannah boldly speak about important topics such as injustice and responsibility, but her peers naturally look to her for leadership!

Hannah’s experience is one echoed by students and adults around the world who find the courage to join a Toastmasters International program to help them conquer public speaking fears, and soon discover that the fear has turned into a passion for communicating and leading.

How does this happen?  The YLP curriculum  is  designed to help our young people of today become our leaders for tomorrow.  It is based on the traditional Toastmasters International program for public speaking, a model for discovering and developing communication and leadership skills.  Through the program, Hannah and her classmates learned how to combat nervousness, organize their thoughts into a speech format with an opening/body/ending, make their speech content purposeful and focused, and incorporate gestures and visual aids.   They learned the difference between speaking to inform and speaking to persuade.  They practiced speaking at every meeting (builds innoculation to nervousness), learned to provide effective feedback, spoke  ’impromptu’, and organized and lead class meetings.  This is the same outline of the Toastmasters International club agenda that serves myself and my fellow club members of TASC Toastmasters (#3130).  I would also like to share my appreciation to the Executive Committee of TASC Toastmasters: not only did they encourage my desire to lead a Youth Leadership Program (YLP), but they also backed up that encouragement with the club’s financial support for all class materiatls.  The club’s support led to breakthrough moments for each student in the course! 

If you are a Toastmaster and are passionate about helping prepare our leaders of tomorrow, or are interested in Toastmasters and know some students who would benefit from learning how to speak in public, please consider the Youth Leadership Program.  Like Hannah told us that evening, there is a generation coming up that has much to contribute, a generation of visionaries, leaders, builders and artists, and it is our responsibility to help this new generation ‘find their voice’!