School presentation agenda sample
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Overview
This article contains an agenda or outline of a presentation made at a voluntary, lunchtime school assembly in the fall of 2007 at a high school in Washington state. The assembly lasted about 30 minutes.
Keys to Success
- Publicity and getting interested students to show up in the first place
- If possible collect names and contact information of students before you leave. If that's not possible, give students a form they can fill out and return to request a catalog. That way, AFS will have their contact information. Many people believe it's better not to give full catalogs out unless they've been specifically requested, since we lose an opportunity to get students' mailing addresses that way.
- By request of the high school, this presentation was specifically focused on sending. But it's always good to mention the other side (in this case, hosting) and how that's an international experience, too.
Publicity before the presentation
The assembly was aimed at students interested in exchange programs. Multiple exchange providers were present. Publicity was organized by one of the high school's counselors, who asked language and social-studies teachers to encourage attendance. Members of the school's international club were also well represented.
The primary goal of the presentation from AFS's perspective was to encourage students to attend an AFS-specific Information Event that had been arranged to be held a few days later, during the evening, at the same school. The Information Event provided an opportunity to discuss AFS at greater length, with recent returnees present to tell their stories, and with candidates' parents present.
Agenda
Personal introduction
My name is xxx, and I'm a volunteer for AFS Intercultural Programs. (Describe connection to high school and community). When I was in high school, none of my family had lived abroad, but I was curious about what that might be like. AFS helped me spend a summer in xxx after my sophomore year of high school. I got so interested in life abroad, I signed up again to spend a year in yyy. Then in college, I [did such-and-such an exchange]. After graduating, my international career included.... (At each stage, show why the initial AFS experience opened up career opportunities that would not have otherwise been even considered).
Why go abroad?
- Career: in many careers, if you want to be at the top of your game, you have to do it at an international level. Certainly all of business is becoming international, and people who succeed in international business are the people who speak multiple languages.
- Language: How many people in the audience want to speak another language fluently? Immersion is the best way to learn, and the older you get, the harder it will be to learn
- Adventure and challenge: going through high school and then college can be challenging, but it's a bit predictable. If you want challenge, imagine what it would be like to spend a whole year in a different school, meeting a different set of friends, living with a different family. Now imagine doing that while speaking Russian or Arabic!
- Friendships: personally, my closest friends are the people who have shared challenging times with me. In exchanges, these are often third-country nationals: my closest friends during AFS orientations in xxx were from country yyyy.
Why NOT go abroad?
A good way to address this is to ask students to call out their concerns. Recognize that students will be unlikely to voice some common concerns (such as that they'll miss their friends), and it may be appropriate to identify these yourself. Be prepared to address some of the following:
- It will get you off the academic track towards getting in the best college (vs. college's enthusiastic welcome of exchange students, especially those that do something special with their experiences, such as learning a difficult or rare language)
- I can do it later when I'm in college (vs. increasing difficulty of learning language as the brain gets older, and tendency for college exchange students to hang out with other college exchange students)
- It's different than what my friends are doing: in high school, being different can be a problem, but pretty soon after you get out of high school, different starts being good.
- Miss out on high school activities and sports: maybe, if you're planning to become a professional athlete or performer and you have the best facilities or coaches in the world available to you here, that could be a great reason not to go. But for the rest of us, how much are you really losing out on? And many activities you can continue: if you play baseball here, you can still play baseball during a year in Japan. (Tell a personal story that underlines the point)
- I will lose touch with my friends: Yes, that's a real problem. So you may have to weigh the cost of losing some of your friends against the benefits. Or you can use other techniques to address it: just go abroad for a summer, or go abroad in a year between high school and college.
- It's tough to get credit at this high school for work done abroad. (Is it really? Describe examples of students who succeeded, if possible)
- I can't learn the language (Provide examples of people who have)
How to choose an exchange program provider
- Specific countries, if any -- but it's unlikely you have enough knowledge to pick the best country for you. It's a good idea to be open on where you'll go, and incidentally it's a good way to get scholarships.
- Experience
- Support network for small emergencies and big ones (how close will I be to support? How big is the support network in the host country? Who will pay if I'm hospitalized or need to be brought home quickly?)
- Are the host families paid? (explain why this is important)
Why come to Information Event?
- Hear the experiences of some other high school kids who recently returned
- I'm going to give advice on the best way to get scholarship money for AFS -- millions of dollars a year is available, including full-ride government-sponsored scholarships.
- Doesn't matter if you're not going to apply within the next year -- start thinking about it now
- Bring parents & get them thinking about it
