Week 3 : Summer Internship Programme

Leaving our imprints on the sand; through our social action projects and public speaking...

‘As we have and are being impacted, so shall we impact”. This statement pretty much sums up our week 3!

The week started on a strong note with a session dubbed “Develop, Pitch and Implement your own Community Project” with Winifred Opoku . Evidently as the title of the session suggests, interns are at the start of working on their community impact project. To guide the process, Ms. Winnie gave the interns some leading principles that should inform their thought and decision-making process. In doing projects, you must make sure your work is impactful and sustainable. This, she mentioned, is to maximize the impact of the project and to ensure that real positive change is seen in the targeted area or community. She mentioned that impact and sustainability come from creating frameworks, which are systems you put in place to easily communicate your work, track your growth and to make it easy for others to get on board. Interns were asked to decide which problems they want to solve but most importantly, specify how. The SMART goal setting approach which is specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timebound should be applied to each goal. Interns were also taken through the design lifecycle to guide them through the various steps of seeing a project come to life. The remainder of this session was practical with interns grouping and bringing their thoughts together for an assured inspiring and impactful project.?

The week ended on a very strong note with a session on public speaking by one of the most elite public speakers in Ghana, Paa Kwesi Folson .

The powerhouse of words started by engaging the interns, first by giving them a brief history about himself and how he found purpose in public speaking. He moved on to finding out what they feared most about speaking in public. Responses ranged from the fear of making mistakes to simply being uncomfortable in front of people. Mr. Folson assured all that by the end of the session, much of the lingering questions, anxieties and fears will be settled and truly, they were!

In his breakdown of the evolution and beginning of public speaking, the speaker mentioned that public speaking and the study of it began some 2500 years ago. Aristotle is largely known as the father of public speaking yet he studied from Plato, Plato from Socrates and Socrates from a female known as Aspasia. The guest speaker was quick to express his excitement about Aspasia being a female and made it a point to encourage all not to feel left out when it comes to public speaking. Females were great, are great and continue to be great at public speaking.

Paa Kwesi mentioned fear, to be one of the main reasons people shy away from public speaking. He mentioned that the concept of fear is not entirely negative. Fear should be a propeller to do the things you otherwise fear. Interns were encouraged not to place the spotlight on themselves when it comes to public speaking but to place it on the impact of the action. Impact over performance, should be a guiding light that should essentially numb the butterflies to a large extent.

Self Esteem was the next area of interest that was touched on. It plays a huge role in speaking publicly. Working on your self esteem will help your speaking abilities. He emphasized that over esteem is not the way either.

'If you control your mentality with intentionality, you’re able to create your reality.'

He asked that interns take inventory of their strengths and weaknesses, have a strong sense of self-acceptance, be confident and employ the VMA method, visualization, meditation and affirmation. To conclude the discussions, Mr. Folson took interns through the means of crafting a message for a public speaking engagement by means of a three sided rhetorical triangle; the speaker, the message and the audience. The speaker should be adequately prepared for every engagement. The message should make sense and the audience, you must be able to connect with on an emotional level. Instruct your thoughts, memorize, utilize your own style and not forgetting, practice makes perfect Reminding all that the world is in need of them, he encouraged all to be part of the solution and not the problem.

Week 3 of the Summer Internship Programme has been nothing short of exciting as have the previous weeks. Interns are readying with the beginnings of their Social Impact Project and?while that level of impact awaits its manifestation, they are bristling with energy to make impact through their words and through public speaking.

Article written by Edna Dorgbefu - Content Writer Intern?