Best Youth Motivational Speaker Inspires in Lena, Wisconsin
Jeff Yalden Delivers at Wisconsin Student Council Event in Lena, WI.
By Roger Yale for Jeff Yalden, Youth Motivational Speaker
By all accounts, the school district in the Village of Lena, Wisconsin is a small one – consisting of an elementary school, a combined middle and high school and an alternative school with a total population of just over 400 kids.
Lena itself is a very small community.
But administrators in many bigger districts with overcrowded and understaffed schools would perhaps see the incredible value in this.
The Lena Public School District’s website boasts that “we have low student to teacher ratios as well as the opportunity for individual attention that is attainable in a small district. Some students do not realize the advantage we, as Lena Wildcats, have.”
On Monday, February 13, top teen motivational speaker Jeff Yalden was on hand for a high school student council event for 47 students from 9 surrounding schools – speaking on topics from his toolbox such as personal leadership, leading by influence and the importance of believing in yourself.
Yalden was impressed with a student named Josh, who displayed excellent leadership traits and unselfishness right off the bat.
“We always talk about student leadership and your influence on people. Every school has students or a student we always see sitting alone. We always talk about – ‘hey, go introduce yourself to that person or go befriend that person. Invite them over to sit with your friends.’
Well I brought my nephew Gus to this conference – I just watched [Josh] get up out of his group friends and go introduce himself to Gus and to over to the students sitting alone – and invited them to sit with his group.”
To Yalden, that’s what leadership is – reaching out of your comfort zone and making sure that everybody is a part of the team.
“Leadership is about doing the right thing,” he said.
Lunch was then served by the school’s culinary class.
“They did a beautiful lunch. The food class did an incredible job of serving all of the kids and the advisors,” Yalden said.
After lunch, Jeff presented a leadership-building activity that he calls “The Longest Human Bridge,” where groups were challenged to connect with each other, with very little contact with the ground.
The point of this exercise was summed up by Yalden:
“I wanted them to understand the importance of communication and to think outside the box – to work together and to never give up,” he said.
Yalden, who has has addressed more than 4000 teen audiences in all 50 states, every province in Canada and 49 countries, said the challenge he encountered with the kids in Lena was that they were very quiet.
“We were north of Green Bay by about 30 minutes, and I don’t know if these kids were just shocked, but I have been noticing that a lot of young people today are just very quiet. But nonetheless, they were awesome.”
At the end of the day, Yalden spoke to the middle school and high school students from the Lena School District.
“It’s hard to make students and adults happy at the same time – but for an hour and ten minutes, we had an absolute blast,” he said. “Kids and teachers were laughing hysterically, and it was so much fun. We talked about believing in yourself, your attitude, your choices – doing the best you can, and goal setting.”
Yalden has long believed that a dream will always be a dream unless it is backed up by a plan of action, and he set about to teach these students that important difference.
“True leaders do not compare themselves to other people. Too many of you are willing to compromise your success for what you want right now,” he said.
Find out why Jeff Yalden is North America’s Number One Youth Motivational Speaker, go to www.jeffyalden.com.
Recently, Jeff was the keynote speaker for the Arizona State Student Council Conference too. Watch his video here:
To book Jeff now for your event, organization or school now, call 800-948-9289.
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