Global Youth Forum - Speaker of the Year by Ayona Sengupta Form 10

This year, at Pathways Noida, several students from Secondary school participated in a Global Youth Forum competition, Speaker of the Year. We were nominated by our teachers for this opportunity during the previous school year. Over the summer vacations, we were sent numerous documents and links to help us prepare for the big event. Just before the first round, we attended a training session for the same.

The first round was conducted on the 6th of September. In this round, we were required to speak for one minute. As this year’s theme is nutrition, we were asked to relate our speeches to the big idea. We were also asked to gear our words towards solutions. The people organizing the competition brought in a media team to help us shoot our videos. The entire process was rather nerve-wracking but all of us got through it successfully.

Another part of the first round was the group discussion. This discussion was an informal discussion between all the participants from our school. We talked about different things such as the effects of alcohol, the rise in the amount of teenagers who smoke and the need for a balanced diet. The thing about the group discussion was that it had no form of moderation. Many a times we had to yell to make sure we were heard. Ironically, instead of shying away, most of us doubled the fervor with which we debated though we may have lost our train of thought somewhere along the line as I distinctly remember one girl talking about Maggi.

This competition was an extremely interesting event. It encouraged each and every one of us to speak and put forward our solutions. It taught me how to truly take into account other’s views and translate these ideas into my speeches.  It also taught me to be extremely quick on my feet as I recall forgetting more than half my speech and having to improvise most of the time. All in all, this competition was rather different in its nature and target group. I enjoyed it quite a bit and I do hope we get a chance to participate again next year.