GOPIO Edison and Sayreville Toastmasters Club hosted a youth leadership program to enable young adults under the age of eighteen to develop leadership and public speaking skills and to spread awareness about Toastmasters International.
GOPIO Edison Lifetime Founding Member Chitranjan Sahay Belwariar took the initiative to organize the event which was widely publicized. Many parents encouraged their children to join this program as they gained confidence in the public speaking growth of their wards. Youngsters from many cities joined the session.
The program was planned for six weekly online Zoom sessions. Somesh Chablani, the Chair for Youth Leadership, gave valuable inputs and the initiative was well supported by Toastmasters Javeed Ghani, Smita Tokekar and Pallavi Verma. The training plan for every week had the roles prepared- speaker, evaluator, timer, listener and Table topic master. The students promptly signed into Zoom at 7 pm and quickly got on to their roles.
As Coordinator, Belwariar assumed the Toastmaster of the Day role and explained the format for each day which the students quickly understood and took turns each day for different roles.
The Final session concluded on April 27th, 2023 with every student giving positive feedback and one student saying, "I am going to add this to my college application." Another parent sent a thanks note to the club praising the initiative and requesting more such events. Chablani underlined the importance of the three 'C's-communication, collaboration and commitment. GOPIO Edison president Pallavi Verma explained in detail about GOPIO and its activities.
On Saturday, April 29th the certificate distribution was organized in hybrid mode at Sayreville Public Library. The library staff, Aziza Haque, Jennifer Larsen and Daniel Vetrano were very appreciative of the club activities. The appreciation certificates were virtually shared over Zoom and given to those who were present and later sent to each deserving student as digital certificates to their emails. Belwariar promised to bring more such events and thanked all who participated and supported Youth Leadership Program.
