Page 34 - Keralite Magazine _2020

KERALITE  APRIL 20 20 35
skills during the formation of the Kerala Club’s practice on how the KCYLF government would rigid; we had fun. There were entertaining exercises
first-ever, Youth Leadership Forum. I used the work. The third session was about impromptu that we all had to take part in. Also, for every class
presentational skills from the Toastmasters Youth speaking. For those of you who don’t know, we had a president, vice president, secretary, and a
Leadership Program to ensure that my ideas were impromptu is when you are given a topic on the sergeant at arms. Every position had certain
heard when creating specific aspects of the forum. spot and you have to elaborate on that for two responsibilities - from starting the meeting, to
I learned how to maintain my audience’s attention minutes. This not only helped us get better at timing, and banging the little gavel we got. Each
when giving a speech by using hand gestures, coming up with a speech on the spot, but also class had a di erent topic - gestures, voice,
vocabulary, etc. Now you may be wondering how
movement, and viewer interaction. All in all, the made us really focus on not using crunch words. exactly the YLF is di erent from a regular speech
Toastmaster Youth Leadership Program has Session 5 was about listening. We did an activity class. We had these exercises called Table Topics,
assisted me tremendously when communicating similar to the game, Telephone. We had Mr. Durling and it was basically impromptu speaking. We would
with people, giving speeches, and presenting ideas. tell one person a story who then passed it on to the go up, get a topic, and would have to talk about
next person. At the end, the last person could not that topic for a couple of minutes. All in all, these
correctly retell Mr. Durling’s story. This activity was sessions really helped me grow as a public speaker
one of the many things we did at Toastmasters that and I’m thankful for that.
helped us evolve our speech skills. Now thanks to
this wonderful program, I am more cautious with Now that you all are aware of what the YLF is, we
can talk about what it could possibly do. YLF aims
the use of words like “um” and “like,” and have to be beneficial to the society and make a positive
Joshua Kelanthara overall better speaking skills.
impact by organizing fundraisers, charity events,
volunteering, etc. Through these programs we strive
to acquire skills such as time management, task
prioritization, crisis management, being a better
team player and becoming a better listener.
Possessing these skills will make us better leaders
The KCYLF was launched by Arun Uncle in the Kevin Mathews and will mold our character to create an even better
summer of 2019. What started as a quick future.
ten-minute video in July has now evolved into the
future of the Kerala Club youth. Prior to the In conclusion, I would like to leave you all with a
Toastmasters Youth Leadership Program, the youth quote by Bill Gates: “As we look ahead into the next
didn’t have much of an idea of what our future roles century, leaders will be those who empower
others.”
were in the KCYLF. However, having gone through
My journey basically started back in the summer of
the 8-week program, we now know our roles. Before 2019 when Arun Uncle came up to me and a couple
I get into that, I'd like to list out what we have done of friends and told us we needed to make a video.
so far. We learned about di erent speech School had just ended, and I had gone to that picnic
mechanics such as pauses, hand gestures, moving with the mindset of getting no work done. Next
around the stage, and changing the tone of one's thing I knew, we were recording a video for some
voice. sort of youth leadership thing. Fast forward a Mihika Shibu
couple of months and we are having our first
We also learned how to avoid crunch words
The Toastmasters Youth Leadership Program meeting for the YLF. I was pleasantly surprised that
to improve our speech skills and normal
even though it was a speech class, it wasn’t like the
comprises of a number of workshops that help the conversations. In the first session, we learned about usual, boring classes I had taken before. Since it was
youth develop skills needed to optimize communication chairmanship. We assigned positions like president, with a bunch of my friends, the environment was
skills. I’ve been able to learn so much from doing secretary, and sergeant at arms to one another. This fun and pleasant. Everyone there was really
these eight, small, two-hour sessions. Whether it be helped us learn how to organize a government encouraging, and it was easy to tell that every
how to present myself or how to break up a speech body and work together as a group to accomplish a single person genuinely wanted to help us learn
into multiple parts, I’ve been able to utilize these goal. The chairmanship class also gave us good more. The sessions were not completely strict and