EYAB Projects

There are skills that once you learn stay with you forever. When I started working for HEY I felt that I was a good speaker, but I did need more guidance and experience to get better. HEY has helped me become a better speaker because they have taught me ways to become a more confident speaker and have challenged me to practice the new skills I had learned. At first when HEY told me that the EYAB would be talking in the breakfast I was terrified because I had never talked to such a big audience. I was scared that I would do a mistake and make a fool of myself and HEY. My team helped me control my fear by letting me practice what I was going to say and gave me advice on how I could make my speech better. Having my team there to support me gave me the confidence that I could do it and that it would be fine. After the event they told me how well I had done, they said after you get more experience you will get better. Besides going to trainings that HEY gave my team on speaking or doing trainings, the moral support that my HEY team provides helps me believe in myself.

             The wonderful thing is that these skills have not only helped me at HEY, but also in my personal life.  A great example was the press conference in San Francisco State where I was the MC. My friend is running for student at large in our student government and wanted me to MC and introduces him to the press. At first I was confused why out all of his friends he picked me. After asking him he said because he knew how a great speaker I was. He mentioned that he had seen me be a speaker for HEY and that people had told him how good I have done in the breakfast and in the ILSP graduation. Because of HEY I have been able to not only grow as a person, but also I am seen as a great speaker, which makes me more confident.

 Although I was nervous because I was not expecting my friend to pick me to be his MC, I accepted because I felt that I could do it. I used all the trainings and skills I had learned from HEY to be able to make this another successful story. When I was introducing my friend I got a bit nervous and blackout, but I remembered that one of my team members at HEY told me that people do not mind your nervous, actually is a good thing because then you remind them that you are a human being. I pulled myself back together and told the audience that I was nervous and everyone laughed with me and continued paying attention to me and helped me give a big round applause to my friend. The fact that I have done speeches before and I was successful gave me the security that I could do this event and that it was okay to be nervous once in a while.  Without HEY I probably would have gotten stuck in the speech and would have given up because I was not sure how to react. I am still working in getting better at public speaking, but I know that as long I have friends like HEY by my side I will get better.