When changing the world collectively becomes too big a task, start smaller.Transform one person at a time. AmeriCorps VISTA, Outreach & Volunteer Coordinator Lauren Miranda stands as a testament to this and so much more.
When I signed up to volunteer for Saturday Academy, I wasn't sure what to expect or where I would fit in. Lauren welcomed me: my curiosity and my anxiousness with open arms. While she explained the different programs in Saturday Academy such as Classes & Camps, Girls Engage Technology, Apprenticeships in Science and Engineering (ASE) and Saturday Academy to You (SATU), her eyes beamed with pride. We browsed the course catalog in amazement, excited for the opportunities available to today’s youth and delighted to be a part of a program whose only mission is to enhance a child's imagination, never limiting it.
As a recent California State University: Long Beach graduate with a Bachelors in Communication Studies and previous Vice-President of Education with Speak Out Toastmasters, Lauren is well equipped to guide this generation and the next in speaking their truths. This fall, Lauren will be teaching a Public Speaking: A Social Justice Lens course for grades 9-12. In this course, students master techniques that improve impromptu speaking and creative storytelling. Students study the speeches of social justice advocates and learn the key components that help a story to move an audience.
Through this course, students become more confident in expressing their opinions, desires and issues that matter to them with empathy for the world’s current state and urgency to start fixing it. Lauren’s class provides a lesson in activism your student never forget. We applaud her for continuing a movement we so desperately need.