On March 3th, I attended the lecture of a woman called Sara in Provost Hall, who runs an organization called “One Bead.” Her company tries to educate children about leadership and problems like environmental issues, and I am gathering information about education as my research topic, so her talks were valuable resources for me.
In her company, she offers children in Boston leadership programs, such as thinking about their strengths that can be used in leadership, meeting local leaders, and presenting their ideas. Through these activities, children can grow and have confidence in themselves. After children meet some leaders, they find role models for their future. However, she also highlighted that creating safe spaces is important for children to be brave, which means it makes them think it is ok to share their thoughts. Thus, almost all children who completed the program have more self-confidence. In addition, I was curious about how she gets used to public speaking because she also still nervous about talking in front of a large audience, so I asked her. She responded that “Fake it till you make it,” and experiencing that many times are solutions. It means pretending that I am not nervous or behaving like a powerful person, and then I become such a strong person without realizing it.
Our group also asked two more questions. The one is the biggest problem about education in the US, and she answered it is not equal. Some schools pay teachers enough money and have good quality facilities, but others do not pay their teachers less salary and even do not have digitals. The other one is the difficulties for developing countries to receive education, and she said it depends on the areas and situation. In her experience in Kenya, they needed a fence in a school, but in other places like Boston, some schools do not provide worthy education materials for students, so she believes there are many tasks for each country.
After the core value activity, we thought about our own values what I really want to be a treasure. My answer was family, but I was curious about myself and my real strength.
Her organization also needs volunteers, so I recommend people who want to help children to grow up to take the opportunity, and I will also attend the volunteer work.
Reira Kataoka