Published in the Jan. 8, 2014 issue of Morgan Hill Life
Speech contest helps participants gain confidence, leadership skills
By Marty Cheek
The members of the Morgan Hill branch of the American Association of University Women want to encourage girls to think of themselves as the future leaders of the business and political world. To engage local young people to see the potential of women in leadership positions, the AAUW is holding a speech contest open to all high school students in the Morgan Hill Unified School District on the topic “Women at the Top – Why Not?”
Photo by Susan Brazelton
Sierra Benitez and Kiara Lyle at the robotics workshop at Canada College. The two girls assembled and programed robots, then raced them down a circuitous course.
“There’s several reasons why students should participate,” said Margaret McCann, the contest’s chairperson. “One of them is just to kind of push themselves to take leadership roles, to think about what leaders are. These students are now growing up to take their place in the world, and hopefully they will look at role models, people whom they think did well.”
The public is welcome to attend the contest which will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday Jan. 15 at the Villa Mira Monte’s Morgan Hill House. A reception starts at 6:30 p.m. where refreshments will be served.
The contest is part of a state-wide competition put on for the last eight years by the California AAUW as part of its Speech Trek program. This is the first year that the Morgan Hill AAUW branch is participating in the competition.
A video of the winner of the Morgan Hill contest will be submitted to jurors on the state level who will view other winners from throughout the state’s 140 AAUW branches. The jurors will select three finalists to compete at the AAUW state convention in April for the first-place prize of $1,500.
Getting experience giving a prepared talk in a public venue gives young people great benefits in helping them overcome one of the most common human fears, McCann said.
“The idea of getting up and speaking in front of the public is scary, and for a young woman to do that, it shows a lot of gumption,” she said. “It also looks great on their resume, and it puts them a little on top of other people who are not willing to do that.”
About 14 percent of private and government organizations are led by women, according to the AAUW website.
Engaging discussion on finding ways to increase that number in the coming decades is an important element of the theme for this year’s Speech Trek contest, McCann said.
“We believe that unless women step up to take leadership roles, women will never have the same power and opportunities as men do,” she said. “And therefore one of our goals is to push leadership opportunities, especially in math and science.”
The speech contest is geared toward opening the discussion about why so few women are in leading job roles at top organizations, said Morgan Hill AAUW member Gretchen Merrick.
“There have definitely been improvements in the number of women who are in powerful positions, but so far as the percentage goes it’s pretty low,” she said. “And that’s true with CEO and other positions. Why aren’t more women in powerful positions including politics?”
In addition to organizing the Speech Trek contest, the state-wide AAUW puts on an annual Tech Trek program at Stanford University where girls in middle school attend a science and math camp to encourage them to consider going into science and technology careers, she said.
The Morgan Hill AAUW also has a group called GEMS which stands for Girls Engaged in Math and Science. “It’s a club for teenage girls that the AAUW assists with,” Merrick said.
To pay for the various AAUW programs and scholarships, the Morgan Hill branch every spring puts on it popular Wild Flower Run. This year’s run, which includes 2K, 5K, and 10K races, is scheduled for Sunday April 13.
The Morgan Hill AAUW branch has more than 150 members who participate in a variety of programs.
“What’s nice about our branch is that not only do we award local scholarships for senior girls and community college winners and fund some of our programs, we also have an amazing number of interest groups,” Merrick said. “Whatever your interest might be, we have a group for it such as book clubs and writing clubs. It’s a lot of fun and fellowship. We make friends and get out into the community.”
