A three-weekend live program on Zoom for Grades 6–8 and Grades 9–12. Six two-hour sessions, and every one of them ends in a performance. The stakes rise each weekend, and it finishes with a judged showcase in front of external judges and invited parents.
Say it clearly, say it like you.
Story structure, pace, presence and the discipline of saying one thing well in 90 seconds. Rehearsed in breakout trios, performed under spotlight to the full cohort.
A filmed baseline speech and a sharper, rebuilt version delivered 24 hours later.
Move a room, lead a team.
Persuasion campaigns, crisis simulations and rotating leadership roles. Breakout rooms become war rooms; the main room becomes a press conference.
A team project built and defended under time pressure, and one session as team captain.
Stakes are real now.
A polished talk or pitch delivered in the showcase session, with external judges asking live questions and invited parents in the room.
A showcase performance on film, a judge's feedback card and a written self-review.
Pick a track, then step through the three weekends.
Story Slam → Campaign HQ → TEDx Showcase
Voice
Influence
Stage
Students deconstruct great short talks for the story spine - hook, tension, turn, takeaway - then build a true personal story of their own. Day 2 is rehearsal in breakout trios against a simple peer rubric, then a live slam where the cohort votes by Zoom poll for the story that gripped them most.
Film where every student starts, then hand them the structure that fixes it.
· Skill demo (15 min): the mentor tells the same story twice - shapeless, then on the spine - and the cohort names the difference.
· The build (55 min): each student mines three true moments from their own life and drafts one onto the hook–tension–turn–takeaway spine in a breakout trio.
· The performance (35 min): the filmed baseline. Ninety seconds, camera on, standing, no notes on screen.
· Feedback circle (15 min): peer rubric scored on clarity, presence and one moment that landed, plus one facilitator note per student.
Rebuild the story with technique, then perform it for the whole cohort.
· Skill demo (15 min): pace, the deliberate pause, and finding the camera lens instead of your own face on screen.
· The build (55 min): rewrite the opening seven words, cut a third of the words, and rehearse twice in trios against the rubric.
· The performance (35 min): the slam itself - every student under spotlight, cohort votes by Zoom poll for the story that gripped them most.
· Feedback circle (15 min): stars and wishes on every performance, and each student names the one change they are carrying into Weekend 2.
The hook in the first seven words
Hook–tension–turn–takeaway story spine
Cutting a third of your words without losing the point
The deliberate pause instead of the filler word
Eye contact through the lens, not the screen
Giving feedback as stars and wishes
The filmed baseline story (kept for the before-and-after)
A rebuilt 90-second story performed to the cohort
A completed peer rubric from three classmates
One written facilitator note naming the next change
The student can say what their story is about in one sentence.
The rebuilt version is shorter, slower and lands its ending.
They performed standing, camera on, to the full cohort.
Twenty minutes between sessions: read the story aloud twice standing up, and cut ten more words.
Facilitators coach for structure before polish - is there one clear thing being said? - and quietly protect the quietest student's first performance inside a trio, never the full room.
Short skill demos, long build time, and a performance in every single session. No lectures, no worksheets, no passengers.
Performances per student, minimum
Films of every student: baseline and showcase
Maximum students per track, per cohort
Of sessions end in a performance
One technique, modelled live by the mentor. No lecture, no slide deck.
Students draft, rehearse and lead in breakout rooms. Mentors circulate as first readers.
Everyone delivers under spotlight, every session. No opting out, no passive audience.
Peer rubrics plus one facilitator note per student: stars, wishes and one change to carry forward.
Cameras on, always. Presence is the point.
Stand up to perform, even at home.
Phones in another room during sessions.
Two adults on every session: a facilitator who coaches and a producer who runs the room.
Every performance is spotlit - when you speak, the cohort watches only you.
Most programs send home a certificate. This one sends home evidence. Every student is filmed in their first session and again at the showcase, and the distance between those two films is the honest measure of the program.
The Weekend 1 baseline and the showcase performance, side by side.
Written feedback from an external judge, not only from us.
Each student's own written assessment of how far they came.
Shared with families after the finale, so the moment is kept.
Real leadership work from Onward students, built and defended in front of mentors and judges.
I. Oikonomou
Ioannis chose global scarcity and world hunger as his central theme and maintained it consistently across all program components. His speech work was informed by studying the oratory styles of JFK and Barack Obama, and he participated in both rounds of the Veldra vs Akhara water negotiation simulation. His standout deliverable is a passion project website (scarcityproject.netlify.app) built using Claude AI, with all prompts authored by him - going beyond the standard brief. He has expressed intent to develop this further into an app using platforms such as Base44 or Claude.
Claude AI · Netlify
T. Malouf
Tracy chose war and conflict as her focus, motivated by its direct impact on her own family - a personal and honest foundation for her work. In the UN-style negotiation simulation, she and her partner took on mediator roles, working to keep debate calm and neutral, which she reflects built her confidence and leadership skills. Her passion project continued to explore conflict through the lens of past events. The personal conviction running through her submission is a clear strength.
Presentation · Storytelling