Utilizing the Miss CEO Leadership Toolkit for TEDxDublinHighSchool
by Trishala Jain, 2019–2020 Miss CEO High School Ambassador and student at Dublin High School
“TED is an organization that grants people the opportunity to discuss their ideas with a global audience,” I describe to my Vice Principal, persuading him to approve Dublin High School’s first-ever TEDx event. “As a school, we need to be promoting organizations such as TED and bring their platform to our students. TEDxDublinHighSchool is an endeavor we need to start now so future students will be able to continue the tradition.”
To see how this journey started, let’s rewind to September of 2017.
At the start of my sophomore year at Dublin High School, I attended Miss CEO’s acclaimed Fall Leadership Bootcamp at Stanford without the slightest idea that I would leave with a vision that would invigorate me for the next couple of years.
In a nutshell, the Fall Leadership Bootcamp introduces students to design thinking, ideation, SMART goals, and pitching, to name a few. During the camp, every single one of us was encouraged to think about a problem we see in our community and use the Miss CEO leadership toolkit to solve it. As I thought about a problem that I could address in my community, my school came to mind and the feelings of my peers flooded back to me.
“I don’t know why the school doesn’t listen to our ideas on how we can improve the campus.”
“I wish there was a way we could talk about our opinions without anyone disregarding us for being too young.”
Leaving the bootcamp, I knew exactly what I was passionate about: empowering the youth in my community and giving them an effective platform to voice their opinion. I created a SMART goal tailored to my idea and began working on it immediately. Applying for a license from the TED organization, requesting a grant from my city to support the costs of the event, and recruiting a team of peers to help with various aspects of the project were a few of the undertakings I was responsible for, and the Miss CEO toolkit helped me in every step of the way. The effective communication workshop supported me while I was pitching my idea to the Dublin City Council and Youth Advisory Committee, and ultimately helped me receive hundreds of dollars in funding to help with booking a venue and arranging for videography. The activities oriented around SMART goals helped me while I was making a schedule and setting deadlines for the team to follow, ensuring that we were staying on track. And we can’t forget the lessons on networking, which encouraged me to reach out to small businesses around me to seek community supporters.
Dublin High School’s first-ever TEDx event, with expressed interest from over 300 students, school administration, and the city council, was set to take place in early April, but due to concerns revolving around COVID-19, our event has been postponed to late September.
Miss CEO empowered me in a way that no other program could have. Yes, they gave me many of the skills I continue to use to this day, but more importantly, they instilled a sense of pride and confidence in me — that I could help my community and work towards helping my peers. The Miss CEO toolkit equipped me to solve the problems around me and was the start of my journey to becoming the leader I am today.