Public Speaking

My friend Jessie from graduate school invited me to participate in a women's career panel.  I did this 2 years ago and had fun, so of course, I told her I would come back. 

Just like the previous time, Jessie asked us to fill out a profile so that the students would have a sense of who we were and what kind of questions they wanted to ask.  I left right after the staff meeting today and zipped over to the middle school. There was a student waiting at the front entrance for me.  "Hi, Ms. Tina?"  I was a little puzzled as to how she knew who I was and then I remembered that my profile had my picture on it and she had printed it out so she could identify the guests.  Another student led me to the classroom and whoa, lots of middle school girls!

We did an icebreaker "Move If..." to get things going.  Basically everyone gets in a circle with one person in the middle.  The person in the middle says "Move if (fill in the blank)"...you have black hair, you wear glasses, etc.  If the statement applies to you, you have to move to another place in the circle and if you're the last one to do that, you're the new middle person. 

After the icebreaker, we went back into the classroom and each person on the career panel got assigned a table and in small groups, the girls circulated and asked us questions.  "What was your high school experience like?"  "Did you get good grades?"  "What made you choose the job/major/college you went to?"  "How did you parents influence you?"

At the end, we were asked to give one tidbit of advice.  I channeled Ellen and said "Be kind to one another." 

On another note, totally unrelated to the school event, my coworker purchased 10 cards from me.  :D