Special Guest and Inspirational Speaker at Beaumont District's "Leadership Day"
Diego thanks Beaumont High School, San Gorgonio Middle School, Mountain View Middle School, and Highland Academy for the great Leadership Day they shared!
"Leadership Day" was an opportunity for Beaumont High School to open its doors to the leadership classes of the local middle schools in its district and hold a day long conference. The purpose of the conference was for all the participants to get to know each other, listen to Diego's talk, and go through team building activities led by Diego, advisors, or high school leadership students.
As soon as all the schools arrived, Diego led an activity outside which allowed students from the different schools to interact with each other, break out of their shell, and make new friends.
"Diego was great, and very exciting to be around. He made me feel more comfortable about myself. Thank you for helping me make new friends"
Then, everyone went into the theater where the crowd chose the "Handshake Winners"!
It was then time for Diego to inspire the students through his story of perseverance and positive attitude. The students could easily relate with his anecdotes due to his background in student government. Diego tailored his talk specifically to this "Leadership Day" to satisfy the advisor's request to "inspire the student leaders to stand up and spread positivity and kindness. And that being a leader on their campus should be more than simply painting posters and putting on events." Throughout his talk, Diego highlighted the people that had a positive influence on him and motivated him to never give up. He then ended his talk by encouraging every student to have a positive influence on those around them and therefore spread a ripple effect of positivity.
"Diego's talk allowed me to become more understanding about failing. Failing isn't always a bad thing and can be used as a life lesson."
"My biggest take away from Diego's talk was what you get back for being positive. The more positive attitude you have, the more positive results you'll get."
"I believe Diego had all the traits to a good speech. He was loud, funny, and had crowd interaction."
After the talk, the students were split into groups and rotated through different stations. Diego led a station called "Ideal Leader" where he facilitated a structured activity that made the students work together and brainstorm different characteristics of an ideal leader. The 5 groups of 50 students each had the opportunity to compare their "Ideal Leader" to the others and have closure to their experience through a debrief.
"My favorite part was how we didn't even think about the gender of our leader till the end and it really made me think."
"I enjoyed the "Ideal Leader" activity because I was able to see how everyone can work together well. It showed me that being an ideal leader also means that you have to work with others well."
As the day came to a close and everyone enjoyed the delicious lunch Beaumont's culinary class prepared, some middle schoolers were educating Diego on what today's youth thinks is cool. Turns out that: "Other social media is for older people. You should use Instagram!"
"Thank you for the advice and the inspiration to take @DJRInspiration to Instagram!" -Diego
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