Master the Stage: Program Graduation

Written by Dmitrii Cucer

For the past six weeks, America House Chisinau has held the personal development program “Master the Stage”.

“Master the Stage” was a program hosted by America House’s Communication Coordinator Valeria Botnari, and special guest Gelu Bălan, both Toastmasters International members and winners of local and international public speaking and evaluation contests.

The program included 5 on-site training sessions. The sessions were held on Saturdays, from June 19 – July 23, and aimed to involve youth in learning and practicing diverse public speaking techniques to help fight the fear of speaking in public and make them more confident in front of an audience.

Mastering public speaking skills by enrolling in the program can help anyone become a successful public speaker and improve their presentation skills, help communicate effectively at your school, university, workplace, and in interviews, and overcome the fear of public speaking.

At the graduation session, each participant made and presented a prepared speech on a chosen topic as their final work, and as a reward, they received a certificate of participation. During the session, teenagers showed incredible presentations based on captivating and very important topics such as School Bullying, Feminism, Caffeine Addiction, Finding Motivation, and Reaching Goals. The audience was stunned by the amount of useful information offered by the participants. Not to mention their well-structured thoughts and acting skills that kept the audience in their seats.

The participants took the program as personal growth. Moreover, some of them were so inspired by that experience, that they shared their testimonials:

“I had an amazing experience in the program. The trainers were true professionals. Through their example, they taught us the most valuable lessons. I think that the program was useful because I got to practice and improve my public speaking skills. Also, I got to meet amazing people that had the same ambitions and mentality as myself.” – Bianca

“This program strengthened my knowledge about public speaking. Obviously, I learned new things/methods and I am very grateful for this new experience” – Delia

 “The most important tip I’ve received is that nobody knows what was written in your script except you. This is a common freight that you’ll forget something on stage. As Valeria said: “This is your speech. You chose the material, you wrote about it so you know it. There’s nothing bad in rephrasing or forgetting some details because the main idea won’t change” – Efim

By the end of the graduation session, participants got their certificates and shared their final words with the team. Most of them remained extremely grateful to Valeria and Gelu and motivated the audience to apply and participate in other America House Programs.