You may remember that it wasn’t so long ago that Tokyo featured a presentation by an 11-year-old — Kaden Cowan, whose presentation you can actually watch online — and now it’s Providence’s turn to feature a very young presenter, Shae Janiga. Here’s a report from organizer Stephanie Gerson.
She was fabulous: her name is Shae Janiga and she’s a 6th grader at Wyman School in Providence. She plays the piano, violin, and soccer, and Loves horseback riding. She also speaks fluent Slovak and Loves to travel. But most importantly, according to her, Shae is a great big sister to her 3 siblings. Her presentation was called “Global Soccer for All.” She started by talking about how soccer has enriched her own life, e.g. by giving her the opportunity to make new friends, travel, and gain more self-confidence. Then she zoomed out to what soccer can do for countries, e.g. enabling the people of countries that have geopolitically tense relations to get along, and respect each other, on the field. (May I remind you she is 11!) But, there’s one major problem. (And yes, she made us wait a whole 20 seconds on that ‘problem’ slide.) The problem being: that girls all over the world don’t play soccer. In fact, in many countries, especially countries where women have fewer rights than men, women are actively discouraged from soccer. So how to solve this problem? Well, what she plans to do is live next year with her cousins in Slovakia, and start a girls soccer team there! (The entire audience erupts in cheer.) It was moving, thoughtful, self-aware, and well-delivered. And of course afterward, I got a slew of parents asking me if their kids could present, and we have a 10-year-old lined up for February.
You can see more photos from PKN Providence Vol. 10 in this Flickr photoset.
One Comment
How terrific! . Not only does she have the poise and confidence to break the age barrier, but she is an advocate for a powerful idea and will create an opportunity to spread it. Congratulations to Shae!