Care for Youth

Project #5: Persuasive Leader

Manual: AC - Persuasive Speaking
Mar 23, 2009

What youth issues are you aware of?

• Shootings
• Sexual abuse
• Drug abuse
• Depression: Suicide is the 3rd leading case of death in youths
• Gang violence: Statistics shows that one in 3 youth is involved in bullying

and many more . . .

In 2005 to 06, 78% of schools experienced one or more violent incidents of crime. Fellow Toastmasters, youths are the pillars of our future. But, how many of us have done something to address these?

[If hands up?] Fantastic …

How about the rest of us, including myself? It’s sad that we didn’t take action and I really feel guilty about it. If you are like me, looking for an opportunity change the life of a youth, here is a great opportunity to make that difference we are longing for. Yes, International Association for Human Values, known as IAHV, is organizing Yogathon this May at Baylands park in Sunnyvale.

Yogathon is a fund raising event to support the youths in bay area schools. Runners run together for marathons; musicians band together for benefit concerts; In Yogathon, yoga enthusiasts stretch out to support stress-free and violence-free schools for our youth. Funds raised through this event will be utilized to organize Youth Empowerment Seminar (YES) in schools.

YES is a fun and challenging seminar that provides youth with a comprehensive toolbox to manage their emotions and stress. This program broadens youth’s vision of the world and provides practical knowledge and skills needed to realize their highest potential. Independent research has also shown that the processes learned on YES reduce anger, violence and depression as well as improve focus, clarity of mind and concentration.

Let me share a true story of a person, whom I met couple of years back. His name is David. David was born in California, but for some reason migrated to a different place within U.S. during his early school days. After few years, he, along with his family, returned back to California to continue his high school. However, his old friends ignored him. In order to gain acceptance, he started taking drugs and got addicted to it. Despite being one of the bright kids, he failed miserably in the school. This drove his life in a wrong direction, until one of his family members introduced him to a YES-like program. After the program he completely stopped taking drugs and his vision about life changed.

Fortunately, David had a loving family and with their help he was able to get a meaningful life. Now, he is teaching YES programs in high schools. But, there are countless numbers of kids who are not lucky like David and don’t even have a caring friend or family. Folks, it is our duty to take some action to lit their soul. Yogathon is one such avenue where we can make the difference.

You may ask, what’s in it for me? First and foremost, serving others gives the greatest life satisfaction than anything else. Next, Yogathon is designed for all sorts of people from beginners to seasoned yogis. Beginner can learn Yoga through many free workshops and it keeps your body flexible, active, healthy and fit. Best thing I like about Yoga is, whether it is raining or shining, I can practice it within home without any equipment. On the other hand, Yogathon challenges a seasoned yogi to complete at least 54 rounds of “Sun Salutation” in one hour. Yogathon has other family & kids-friendly events as well. You can learn more about Yogathon at yogathan.iahv.org.

Now that you have learned that Yogathon not only helps youth, but also you, I encourage you to register today and take a pledge to raise funds from your family and friends to support youth. Personally, I have pledged to support 10 youths by raising one thousand dollars. Through generous donations of few of my friends and family, I have already raised 20% of it. So, for some reason, you are unable to register as a Yogathoner, I hope you can at least support the cause and help me to meet and exceed my fund raising goal. In that case, please use my full name “Sudhagar Chinnaswamy” under “Pledge for a Yogathoner” and donate generously. Lets strive hard and hope for a peaceful and stress-free tomorrow.

"Can we care for the youth?"

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Copy of this presentation can be found here.

Global Warming: What can you do?

Project #10: Inspire your Audience

Manual: Competent Communicator (CC)

Jan 11, 2008

“The heaviest rainfall in 100 years caused massive landslides and flooding that killed approximately 30,000 people.”

“Fires due to dry conditions and record-breaking heat consumed one-fifth of the island.”

“Temperatures rose to 120F (49C), resulting in the highest one-week death toll on record.”

These are just few samples of numerous calamities happening around us. Do you know what causes such disasters? Yes, Global Warming is the primary cause and we are in some way responsible for that. Fortunately, the solutions to prevent such disasters exist now. More importantly the prevention is in our hands. Fellow Toastmasters and dear guests, I am going to share three easy solutions to prevent or reduce Global Warming.

Vehicle Solution

First, vehicle solution. Transportation accounts for over 30% of CO2 emissions in US. We all know that technology exists today to build fuel-efficient cars to get 40miles or more per gallon. But, do we know that increasing the average fuel mileage from 24 to 40miles is equivalent to taking 44 million cars off the road? Yes, 44 million. Lets see what ‘we’ can do:

a) When you buy your next vehicle, look for one with best fuel economy in its class.

b) When you have more than one car, use the fuel efficient one whenever possible.

c) Better yet, join a carpool or take mass transit.

These actions not only slow down the global warming, but also save you thousands of dollars over the life of the vehicle.

Energy Solution

Second, energy solution. Like better technology for transportation, the technology to build energy efficient appliances exists at least for past two decades. For instance, energy efficient standards for household appliances kept 53 million tons of heat-trapping gases out of air each year. Here are simple things we can do:

a) When it comes time to replace appliance, look for energy star compliant appliance.

b) Unplug the appliances, especially freezer, when they are not needed. Use water efficiently, because water purification requires energy.

c) Light bulbs matter – Replace regular lights with energy efficient compact fluorescent lights.

Forest Solution

Lastly, forest solution. Besides numerous other benefits, forests play a critical role in climate change: they store carbon, the main ingredient of CO2. Tropical deforestation now accounts for about 20 percent of all human caused CO2 emissions each year.

a) When you shop for furniture, purchase FSC certified timber or wood products. Certification assures that products are made of wood/timber from well-managed forests i.e., forests with min impacts to biodiversity.

b) Save paper whenever and wherever possible. For past 4 months, I have started using handkerchiefs and cloth towels, instead of paper towels. In retrospect, it feels good. If at all you must use paper towels, use only one or limited quantity at a time. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

c) If you want to go an extra-mile, plant trees in your backyard and public areas.

Conclusion

This globe/atmosphere has always provided us with essential resources for our life: the light, the air we breathe, the water we drink, and many more. But, it has never demanded anything in return. Shouldn’t we be grateful and at least conserve those resources? It is our duty to leave this world a better place to live for our descendants. I definitely do not want to hear “Dad! Why did you do this to us?” from my children. Do you?

Fellow Toastmasters and dear guests, treat global warming as your high priority personal problem. The cost of inaction is unacceptably high and we could see severe disasters in our lifetime. We must act now! Solutions are countless, but the three easy solutions mentioned above should help you get started.

“You Shall Reap What you Sow.”

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Copy of this presentation can be found here.

Are you ready?

Project #9: Persuade with Power

Manual: Competent Communicator (CC)

Dec 14, 2007

National Earthquake Information Center reports that on average 50 earthquakes occur every day across the globe. We live in one of the high earthquake risk regions of the world. But, how many of you are prepared for an earthquake? Fellow toastmasters and dear guests, here are 3 simple steps to prepare yourself and your family for an earthquake.

First, know and prepare your environment. Heavy objects are prone to cause more damage during earthquake. Place the heavy objects in the lower shelves and latch the cabinet doors. Secure tall items such as bookshelves to the wall. If the object is taller than its width, secure them. That’s the thumb rule. Locate safe places in your home. When earthquake strikes, you could be in a shower and you cannot run out of your home safe. So, locate safe place in each room. Remember, Kitchen and garage are risky. Locate the exits and alternative exits such as emergency windows at home and workplace. Earthquakes can cause severe damage to utility lines and it may not be safe to use them after the disaster. Locate the shut-off valves for water, gas and electricity and learn how to use them.

Second, prepare and maintain an earthquake survival kit. The important supplies that you need to maintain are: dry foods that have long shelf life, water – at least 3 to 5 gallons per person, flash lights with extra batteries, medications, walking shoes, sleeping bags, toiletries and cash. Don’t forget your pets; maintain emergency supplies for them. Do you know that there are devices to detect and alert an earthquake few seconds before they occur? However, we do not have a device yet to predict the earthquake with certainty. Earthquake could strike us any time and at any place. So, if at all you travel, keep an emergency kit ready in your vehicle. Further, you could be stranded for long time. Make sure you have enough supplies to meet your needs for at least 72 hours.

Third, prepare for emergency communication with your family members. Remember, there is no precursor for an earthquake. So, it is likely that you are isolated from your family members when a major earthquake strikes your place. When a disaster occurs, numerous phones go off hook at the same time causing severe damage to the telephone switching systems. Hence, the switches are programmed to shut itself down in case of overload to prevent the damage. The good news is that long distance lines do not go down from too many calls. Even if it goes down, it will be brought back to service much earlier than local lines. So, arrange an out of state friend or relative as your emergency contact. Here is a sample emergency card. Prepare such emergency cards for each family member. Next, if you have family members who cannot speak English, prepare emergency information cards in English indicating identification, address and special needs.

Until couple of months back, living in bay area for more than 7 years with no earth tremor, I always thought I would never have to prepare myself for an earthquake. Let me share a short story. It was October 30th. Kids were eagerly waiting for the next day, Halloween. My wife and I were in our living room watching TV. Our daughter, 18 months old, was playing with her dolls. My friend has gone for shopping with his family for their daughter’s first birthday. It was 4 minutes past 8pm. Then all of a sudden, we heard a loud noise upstairs. It was as if people were throwing huge stones on our roof. Swiftly the whole building started shaking. Flower vases and photo frames fell down. It was an earthquake, medium one, with a magnitude of 5.4. As soon as we realized, we picked our daughter and ran out of our home. Fortunately, it was a minor jolt and there was no damage. However, that served as a wakeup call for me. So, fellow toastmasters and dear guests Earthquakes are real and can occur anytime. By following simple steps outlined above, you could minimize the damage and, more importantly, save lives.

Before it is too late, ACT NOW.

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Copy of this presentation can be found here.

Leader in You

Project #5: Your Body Speaks

Manual: Competent Communicator (CC)

May 04, 2007

Good evening fellow TMs and Guests. If you are asked to think about your childhood, what could you recollect? If you watch activities of children, what could you infer? - Curious and humble, always hungry and thirsty for knowledge, with an incredibly vivid imagination. As children we were natural leaders - we knew exactly what we wanted, were persistent and determined in getting what we wanted and had the ability to inspire, influence, and motivate others to accomplish our mission. So why is this so difficult to do as adults? What happened? We have been deprogrammed along the way.

This speech offers five easy steps to awaken the leader in you and rekindle the passion of greatness. These steps are based on Sharif Khan’s research in human development and leadership area for over 10 years.

First, Leadership starts with humility. To be a highly successful leader, you must first humble yourself like a little child and be willing to serve others. Nobody wants to follow someone who is arrogant. Whom do you want to follow: Hitler or Gandhiji? When you are humble, you become genuinely interested in people because you want to learn from them. And because you want to learn and grow, you will be a far more effective listener, which is the #1 leadership communication tool. When people sense you are genuinely interested in them, and listening to them, they will naturally be interested in you and listen to what you have to say.

Second, Follow Your Bliss. Regardless of how busy you are, always take time to do what you love doing. When you are pursuing your passions, people around you cannot help but feel impassioned by your presence. This will make you a charismatic leader. Whatever it is that you enjoy doing, be it writing, acting, painting, drawing, photography, reading, dancing, set aside time every week, to pursue these activities. Believe me, you’ll find the time. If you were to video tape yourself for a day, you would be shocked to see how much time goes to waste!

Third, Honor Your Word. This is my favorite one. Every time you break your word, you lose power. Successful leaders keep their word and their promises. You can accumulate all the toys and riches in the world, but you only have one reputation in life. How many times have you said you’re going to exercise or eat better and not followed through? We’ve all fallen into the trap of saying we’re going to do something and then finding every possible excuse not to do it. Have you noticed that the next time you make a similar promise to yourself it’s tainted with doubt? You don’t completely trust that you’re going to do what you say. Honoring word pays huge dividends in everyone's life. Your word is gold. Honor it.

Next, Be Yourself. Read about great leaders and use your research on great leaders as models or reference points to work from, but never copy or imitate them like a parrot. Everyone has vastly different leadership styles. History books are filled with leaders who are soft-spoken, introverted, and quiet, all the way to the other extreme of being outspoken, extroverted, and loud, and everything in between. A quiet and simple Gandhi or a soft-spoken peanut farmer named Jimmy Carter, who became president of the United States and won a Nobel Peace Prize, have been just as effective world leaders as a loud and flamboyant Churchill, or the tough leadership style employed by The Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher. Be yourself, your best self, always competing against yourself and bettering yourself, and you will become a first rate version of YOUSELF instead of a second rate version of somebody else.

Finally, be a giver. Leaders are givers. By giving, you activate a universal law as sound as gravity: life gives to the giver, and takes from the taker. The more you give, the more you get. If you want more love, respect, support, and compassion, give love, give respect, give support, and give compassion. Be a mentor to others. Give back to your community. As a leader, the only way to get what you want is by helping enough people get what they want first. I would like to repeat Sir Winston Churchill’s words here: “We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.”

In sum, developing the Leader in you requires a process of unlearning by self-remembering and self-honoring. Being an effective leader again will require you to be brave and unlock the door to your inner attic, where your childhood dreams lie. Remember!!! Be humble, follow your bliss, be yourself, be a giver, and honor your word always.

Arise, Awake!

Project #3: Get to the Point
Manual: Competent Communicator (CC)
Dec 15, 2006

Good evening President, Fellow Toastmasters and Guests. For quite some time I was looking for a theme for my 3rd speech and when I browsed through the TM’s manual last Sunday, I decided on inspiration theme. I am sure that almost all of us have some goals in life. So my question for you today is “How many of you are working towards achieving those goals?”

Well, this speech is an attempt to fire up few cells in your body to work towards your goals. As soon as I decided this theme, two things came to my mind: First one is Steve Job’s commencement address at Stanford University. It is one of the excellent inspirational speeches I have ever heard. Second one is a forwarded email titled “10 Things you can do today to jump start success.”

To begin with, Jobs’ speech is about 3 stories of his life: Connecting the dots, Love & loss and death. I would like to share my personal story and some excerpts that like from his speech.

Ever since college days, I dreamt to do higher studies, but soon after I completed my undergrad I joined Wipro Technologies as a Software Engineer. A year passed by and the academic spirit was still lingering in my thoughts and by mid 99, I decided to do Masters in Science. My GRE and TOEFL scores were decent enough to get into an US university. But the Creator had a different equation for me. The day I took GRE exam, my Dad had a heart attack and Doctor told that his coronary artery has 90% blockage. A week later he underwent an open-heart surgery and being the only son and I was indecisive as whether to do higher studies. But my Mom came to me and said, “Dad asked you not to get distracted with the recent happenings and do what you like to do.” She also reminded me about my friend who had plans to pursue his career abroad. That rang a bell and I took a job in US and trust that it would work OK.

Jobs mentioned that one can only connect the dots of one’s life when looking backward, not looking forward, and so “you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever.” In retrospect, given the recession and dot COM burst during 2001, my trust worked out pretty well for me. Thankfully my Dad is in good health and I am doing MBA at SCU.

In his second story, Job shared his failure at Apple, where he was fired from the company he has created. Two snips I liked from his 2nd story are: “Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith.” Next, “the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.”

When I heard this, I recalled Winston Churchill’s golden words: "Success is never final. Failure is never fatal. It is courage that counts."

Jobs’ 3rd story was even more inspiring and the message was: “Your time is limited; so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.”

I would like to mention a fantastic quote by Walt Disney here: "All our dreams can come true - if we have the courage to pursue them."

Next, I am going to share few things that you can do today to achieve your goals:

First, Read or listen to something that motivates you every day. Don’t let a single day go by without providing yourself external motivation.

Second, Make goals and re-write them every day. The hardest part of making big goals is starting. Break down the task into milestones that you can reach in few years.

Third, only sleep as much as you need to. Sleep is obviously important, but don’t use the most important hour of the daydreaming. If you go to bed at 12 and wake up at 8, begin to wake up at 6:30 and go to bed at 11. Chances are there is an extra time each day that you could use to do things that make you more happy and successful.

Next, Focus on what you can do. Stop assigning blame and don’t look for excuses. Do not try to change others, make a decision and then take action.

To conclude, if you can do only one of the above-mentioned things, then my recommendation would be “Read or listen to something that motivates you every day”. Also, I would like to remind you of Robert Frost’s poem: “The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep.
And miles to go before I sleep.
And miles to go before I sleep” and a quote from Swami Vivekananda “Arise, Awake and stop not till your goal is reached!”

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Copy of this presentation can be found here.