|
T O A S T M A S T E R S I N T E R N A T I O N A L D'Utama Advanced Toastmasters Club
(7564-51) |
|||
Home Last Updated: 1 July 2002 |
Activities | ||
SRK Menjalara 13 & 14 July 2002 Ramdas Nayar, ATMB, CL Youth Leadership Program Coordinator When I was first asked by the President, DTM Peter Siew to conduct a Youth Leadership Program, I accepted the assignment without any reservation as in my years with Toastmasters, I had assisted in conducting the programs many times over. I got a shocker when Peter later told me that I had to deal with children, the ages were revealed later that they were from 9yrs to 12yrs old. I was dumfounded. I asked what can I give to these children, more so when I do not have any teaching experience with children. What I discovered during the 2-day session with the kids was indeed remarkable. They came with the intention of learning and they were totally immersed with the session. We taught them basic communication skills but we have to do this differently from when dealing with adults. The presentations had to be entertaining and fun. We had to maintain the children’s attention by being interactive. We added games to facilitate participation. We were pretty successful there, but I must confess that this can also be attributed to the children’s willingness to learn. It was a wonderful experience for me and I learnt one very important thing, and that is “PATIENCE”. Dealing with kids, one has to have a lot of patience. The rewards were great as they were willing learners. They are simply marvelous and loveable.
I will be looking for
more of this programs in the future, and this time I am READY!
Chow Chiew Chin (from D'Utama Toastmasters Club) (YLP—mentor to participants) I truly enjoyed myself throughout the 2-day YLP. Although I have a few cousin sisters and brothers who are of the same age as the participants, I have never learnt and played with them in a study environment. I sacrificed my weekends to take part in the YLP because I wanted to be a good leader myself, by observing the kids being trained, I learnt a lot. When I was young, nobody taught me how to be a leader and I have no idea what makes a good leader until I joined my present company about two years back. I approached my new boss to get some tips on how to be a good leader. He only said, “Lead by example”. He learnt these leadership skills through observation and realised that how good leaders are being respected. Through attending the Toastmasters meetings and the KL2002 Convention, as well as through the daily work experience, I picked up some leadership skills. Overall, it was an EXCELLENT IDEA that kids are trained at an early age to be more confident, to speak their mind, etc. I believe that if they have this kind of quality, the rest of the leadership skills will come along when they grow up.
Delia Yip Mong Kei (D'Utama Toastmasters Club) (mentor to YLP participants) T
hat Monday morning at 1.30 am, hours after we bid farewell to our class, I was wide-awake thinking of this boy, Denish! I was drawn to this cute little Indian boy on my very first day at Sekolah Rendah Sri Menjalara. He had these full cheeks, round doe-like eyes and upturned lips. His nose was perpetually thrust upwards to keep his professor-like oval spectacles in place. He seemed so eager, clinging and agreeing to every single word we said. To top it all off, he had this little prefect necktie to his small frame. That night, his unconditional trusting face kept flashing across my mind. It was one of those nights I dreaded because I knew I would be tossing for a long while. The Youth Leadership Program for Sekolah Rendah Sri Menjalara was organized by D’Utama Advanced Toastmasters Club. We had in our team : Peter Siew, Ramdas Nayar, Chee Wah, Dominic, Yat Seow, LeAnn, Ivan, Thye Kim, Chiew Chin, Cynthia, Ei-Leen, Janice, Yoke Bee, Joanne, Jolene and Sunny. I volunteered basically because of my soft spot for children, teenagers and the very elderly, it had turned out everything I knew it would be. We had games, sing along and speech presentations. During all these times, I was amazed and developed a new round of respect for the people who had stuck out for this program. I could see many of them (Sunny, Yoke Bee, Cynthia & Chiew Chin) in their own quiet ways determine to contribute as much as possible. I could see it is no limelight they were looking for but they were there to complete something they had to do. For the children’s final presentation, I had assigned them a topic “What Bothers You?” Other than teaching them to speak effectively, the main mission of the exercise was to teach them to identify their problems, reflect on them, solve them reasonably and most importantly be vocal about their concerns, I’ve got to admit, I also had an ulterior motive for the chosen topic, which I had not brought up till now as I did not want to come across too controversial. Because the parents were asked to be present, I wanted the parents to listen, not hear, their children’s problems. Some of the presentations were pretty common but a whole lot of them were profound. A girl mentioned about the confusion she faced with her parents showering more attention to her handicapped sister. However, she will try to constantly remind herself that here sister requires the attention. She also added that even with her confusion she will always love her sister. (Later I was told that her mom cried listening to her speech.) That day, the children had not only showed they were capable of discussion but they taught me something, by having the courage to share their most inner thoughts in front of formidable figures like their parents and teachers, they had taught me to be “true”. As adults, we often speak from our heads not our hearts, This often comes our superficial because our heads would have censored what our hearts say. In the process of censorship, a lot of us lost our “true identity”. I couldn’t have felt more lost that day when I heard 50 children spoke straight from their hearts. If there is anything I learned from my young friends, it would be “THINK WITH MY HEAD BUT TOUCH BASE WITH MY HEART”. If I still recognise Delia Yip Mong Kei the day I leave this world, I have something to thank them for. As for Denish, I’ve got some unfinished business and a mission to accomplish. © 1998
Toastmasters International |
|||
