Youngsters Take Center Stage

In the summer of 2015, I began the journey towards achieving my Girl Scout Gold Award, which is the highest honor any young woman could hope to achieve through this great organization. Throughout my years as an active member of the Girl Scouts of Nassau County, I’ve experienced firsthand the rewards of giving back to my community and as I embarked on my pursuit of the Gold Award I felt inspired by the possibility I had to make a personal impact in the lives of others through my project, just as many young women have before me. I felt empowered by the fact that I could take action using my talents to target an issue I feel strongly about, helping young children “find their voice” through public speaking. Through various educational and leadership roles, I have seen how necessary and important confident public speaking is. This is a valuable skill from as early as elementary school and continuing far into the future. Throughout my schooling I’ve seen how hard speaking in public can be for others. Being involved in theater from a young age has made me very comfortable presenting in front of a group. This is why I focused my project, Taking Center Stage, around theatrical-based games and exercises to help young children overcome their fears of public speaking.

I planned my program over the course of four sessions, in which a few different skills related to public speaking were introduced and then reinforced through the games. I created a plan of what I wanted to achieve during each workshop but I received more insight about each group’s individual needs through an anonymous survey I gave at the very first session. This survey gauged individual comfort levels related to specific areas of public speaking. Through this data I also learned the most common fears of the members of each group and the areas where they wanted to improve the most. Knowing that many of my participants would be uncomfortable at first, I always engaged them in short ice-breaker activities at the beginning of each session. These activities allowed them to get to know more about each other, be imaginative and act silly. It was amazing to see how many of the children’s reservations fell away during these activities and allowed them to fully participate in the more challenging and lengthy games. The games that followed this activity focused on one or a few specific skills, such as eye contact, volume, speed, body language, on-the-spot-thinking, and vocal variation. As the sessions went on, the games switched from larger group participation to individual participation.

Throughout these workshops, I saw the effect of my project first hand as my participants became more and more comfortable and confident while speaking in front of a group. I noticed how easily they were able to pick up new skills that are essential to public speaking while playing games that allowed them to show their true personalities. However, the most important evidence of my project’s impact was the participant’s feedback in a final questionnaire. In this conclusive survey, they rated their current comfort level when presenting in front of a group, stated their favorite and least favorite activities, and left final comments and suggestions. According to the results, all participants felt an increase in their confidence level when public speaking and enjoyed the games they played during the program. They had retained skills that will benefit them in different aspects of presenting and they had a great overall experience during the program. I was thrilled to find that not only did my program make an impact on the wonderful children who choose to participate, but it also helped me grow in new ways. This project called for me to use various skills in creating, planning and executing my workshops that I had never discovered before for myself. I encountered a few roadblocks throughout my journey but was able to figure out solutions that in turn only benefitted my experience. If I had not chosen to complete my Girl Scout Gold Award, I would have missed out on a truly enriching journey that comes from helping others.