August - September 2023
Public Speaking Club
In 2023, from August 9th to September 3rd, Yuyuan Huang, the co-founder of Creative Classroom, provided a free online summer speaking club for Asian-American students in grades 4 to 9. The club was practice-based, and club members were encouraged to improve their presentation skills through participation in activities and presentation drills. Experienced public speaking mentors from Brown University, the Winsor School, the Commonwealth School, and Sharon High School provided dedicated help and guidance for the students.
Students were divided into two sections: Group A on Sunday and Group B on Wednesday. Each section was held once a week for 2 hours each session from 7 pm to 9 pm. Both sections learned the same content. Students were invited to attend as many, or as few, sections as they were able to. Each lesson taught presentation skills such as body language, vocal variation, and character expression.
Public presentations were held every Friday night from 7 pm to 9 pm, giving students the opportunity to perform on stage and receive written and oral feedback from mentors. Active participation was encouraged, and parents were welcome to visit and support their children's presentations.
Thank you to everyone who participated in the Public Speaking Club this summer! We hope to see you all again!
About this Gold Award Project
Yuyuan Huang is a co-founder of Creative Classroom, the founder of the Public Speaking Club, and a Girl Scout of Sharon, Massachusetts. In Girl Scouts, the Gold Award is the highest award a Girl Scout can earn. It is achieved after completing an independent, sustainable service-learning project and managing a team of volunteers and community partners. The Public Speaking Club is the foundation of Yuyuan’s Gold Award project.
While working with Creative Classroom, Yuyuan noticed that students didn’t get a lot of time to practice public speaking during classes. Many of her students were also immigrants from Asian countries. She decided that for her Gold Award, she would start an initiative to encourage Asian immigrant students to pursue public speaking. This project became the Public Speaking Club. Team members Angelina Yu, Emma Liu, and Nasiba Alikulova have agreed to continue the project in the future, spreading the word to students at their own schools.
Yuyuan has reached students all over the United States through the Public Speaking Club. She hopes that her project will reach many more students in the future.