This post features guest blogger, Mercy Niyi, who is part of The Expressive Leaders Program at The Practice Space. This post is about her project to create a speech and debate club at her school. We hope that after you read this you can feel like you can do anything you set your mind to.
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My name is Mercy Niyi and I am a freshman. I live in the city of Vallejo and moved here 4 years ago from Nigeria. I love public speaking and learning new skills. I am an Expressive Leader because I want to help and give back to my community. I want to address the issue of youth not being able to speak up or find their voice.
My project is about creating a safe community where people can learn new skills, speak their mind, and enjoy themselves. I chose this project because I was once in a speech and debate club that I enjoyed. It taught me a lot of new things, opened my eyes to things bigger than myself and gave me a community. I want to do that same thing for other people. My inspiration was my former speech and debate club.
Something not a lot of people know about this issue is sometimes people just need support and a community to be able to find their voice. People may also have a lot of potential but just need someone to push them forward. This issue is important because we are the future and if we want a better tomorrow, we have to start today and start from the people who will one day be the people in charge.
As part of this project I am creating a club. To start this project I will talk to an administrator about the club and get the proper forms in place. Next I will gather people to sign up to be a part of the club and find an advisor.
One challenge I have had is finding people to be a part of the club. One surprising thing I have learned is that repetition can be a good thing. As a result of this project, I hope people would feel more confident speaking up and would have found their community.
What you can do to support my project is send some feedback. Please contact The Practice Space to get more information about my project and its progress.