Youth Toastmasters Awards

September 15, 2006

Live from Our Speaking Studios - It's Toastmasters!

On July 10, four Plano ISD students - Zen Ren, Harvey Liu, Sachin Shama, and Kyle Yuan - represented a Youth Toastmasters club at the Broadband TV Toastmasters meeting held in the Comcast TV Studios.

Pictured: Zen Ren with Speaker Cynthia Brown.

Toastmasters is the leading global organization for developing communication and leadership skills for over 80 years. While membership in the over 9,000 sanctioned clubs worldwide is restricted to those 18 years of age and older, a special Youth Club program is available and uses the same materials and
processes.

This Youth Club is affectionately called, "Torture Chamber"
(TC). These four TC club members represented their club by taking on specific meeting roles. Zen delivered a prepared speech, Harvey delivered an impromptu speech, Sachin was an evaluator of one of the host club speakers and Kyle delivered an announcement about Toastmasters and the TC club opportunity.

This Youth Toastmasters group is coordinated by Dr. Lisa Wang and Mr. Chris Wright, and is sponsored by the Nortel Toastmaster's club, Verbal Expressions. It is designed to develop young students' speaking and leadership skills. Students learn how to prepare and present speeches, conduct meetings, evaluate, and have effective listening skills. By developing these skills, they will be more prepared to meet the demands and challenges of today's world.

Zen Ren, 13 years old All State Musician winner, won the best Speaker award for the meeting. In her speech "The War", she used metaphors to illustrate an invisible war among a group of mothers who use their children's achievements to impress each other. Her style, the expressive and animated delivery and the message in this 5-7 minute speech were all compelling and impressive for someone her age.

Even though this is her fifth appearance on TV, Zen confided she was nervous at first. She said, "I didn't want my friends to see me mess up. But then I thought about how happy they would be for me just to do a speech on television, and I cheered up a little." Zen hopes that one day her appearances on TV will be as normal as eating breakfast.

Harvey Liu (pictured) is 16 years old and won the impromptu speaking award. He delivered a hilarious impromptu speech about fireworks on the Fourth of July that had the studio audience rolling with laughter. He looked calm and light-hearted during the performance despite the pressure of having to make up the two-minute speech in such a short time.

Harvey said the experience was "exciting and enlightening". It was a new thing for him. "Speaking among and getting to know such well-composed speakers was truly a blessing. I was in awe of these great speakers and their mastery of language. What more, was the respect we were given by this elite group," says Harvey. He felt honored to have been treated as an equal.

Thirteen-year-old Sachin Sharma, provided a speech evaluation for a high-level adult speaker. Sachin's keen observations and constructive critique truly impressed the audience. An evaluation speaker has only a very short time to hear the speech and then provide feedback.

Sachin was thrilled by the opportunity to appear on TV. "I learned that nobody ever went anywhere by being too shy. They had to find the confidence and just do something that might be embarrassing, but had to be done... I have learned not to worry about what anyone else is thinking about me, but to follow my heart and just express my beliefs."

Kyle Yuan, the club announcer, is 12 years old. Although he was nervous about delivering the announcement, nobody could tell as he stepped up to the podium and recited the entire announcement and invitation with a calm smile on his face. Kyle said going to BBTV and being in the TV Studio was a very fun experience. He had never been on TV before and was very excited about going to the meeting.

This Youth Toastmasters club meets during the school year on every other Saturday from 7-9:30 pm at the Nortel Auditorium in Richardson. The club officers work very hard to have rigorous and entertaining programs. If you are interested in learning more about developing communication and leadership skills by visiting the Torture Chamber Toastmasters Youth Club and/or want to join, please contact Zen Ren at drwangtalk@yahoo.com.

This club is for young people only and requires some parental
involvement. Adults seeking a Toastmasters club for themselves should go to: www.toastmasters.org and use the FIND A CLUB feature on the top menu bar.