Youth Public Speaking Contest 2024- Saturday May 11th 2024
Each year Steps Together Foundation holds a public speaking contest for youth aged 12 - 18 years. The first overall prize is a $500 bursary and a trophy. We could not hold the Contest for past three years due to Covid-19. Now we are back.
In 2014, the founders of Steps Together Foundation established the Youth Leadership Society of BC ( YLSBC), a non-profit for the advancement of youth leadership through experiential education. In partnership with the Steps Together Foundation, YLSBC delivers programs such as the Youth Public Speaking Content and awards the bursaries.
Please visit Public Speaking page for more details.
Past Winners
2018-2019 school year
Overall Winner : Vivian Liang
Winners in the 16-18 years age group:
1st Place: May Fan
2nd Place: Nathan Senyard
3rd Place: Anjani Aggarwal
Winners in the 12-15 years age group:
1st Place: Vivian Liang
2nd Place: Angelina Yenng
3rd Place: Mohnish Peshin
We were honored to have awards presented by Mayor Richard Stewart, City of Coquitlam and Ron McKinnon, MP of Coquitlam-Port Coquitlam.
2017-2018 school year
Overall Winner: Vedanshikumari Vala
Winners in the 15-18 years age group:
1st Place: Vedanshikumari Vala
2nd Place : Isha Mehta
3rd Place : Himaja Mankala
Winners in the 12-14 years age group:
1st Place: May Fan
2nd Place : Troy Cheah
3rd Place : Grace Lee
2016-2017 school year
Overall Winner: Priya Jayakumar
Winners in the 12-14 years age group:
1st Place: Emily Su
2nd Place: Aryan Bamzai
3rd Place: Maaya Peshin and Raag Nair
Winners in the 15-17 years age group:
1st Place: Priya Jayakumar
2nd Place: Utsav Jani
3rd Place: Annapurna Narasimhan
2015-2016 school year
Overall Winner: Sadhri Kumar
Winners in the 12-14 years age group:
1st Place: Sidharth Ahuja
2nd Place: Isha Mehta
3rd Place: Eugene Zhang
Winners in the 14-17 years age group:
1st Place: Sadhri Kumar
2nd Place: Jennifer Low
3rd Place: Vyom Sang
2014 - 2015 school year
Overall Winner: Nickolas Provenzano
Winners in the 12-15 age group
1st Place: Cathay ( Yi Ren) Wang
2nd Place: Eugene Zhang
3rd Place: Aditya Goshalia and Timothy Wang
Winners in the 16-18 age group
1st Place: Nickolas Provenzano
2nd Place: Subrahmanyam Janaswamy
3rd Place: Shiva Narayan
2013 - 2014 school year
Overall Winner: Subbu Janaswamy
Winners in the 13-15 age group
1st Place: Subbu Janaswamy
2nd Place: Maya Mistry
3rd Place: Aditya Goshalia
Winners in the 16-18 age group
1st Place: Keisha Mistry
2nd Place: Nikita Menon
3rd Place: Anushka Nair
Public Speaking Coaching
Since 2015, public speaking coaching is undertaken by Youth Leadership Society of British Columbia (www.ylsbc.org), of which Safaya family is one of the founders.
2014 - 2015 school year
We successfully completed the 2014-2015 session with all participants reaching Gold competency. Some of these youth participated in their 2nd Public Speaking Contest and won awards in their age category.
2013 - 2014 school year
On May 12, 2014 the Steps Together Foundation completed a seven month long public speaking coaching classes. Some youth achieved gold level competency and the rest achieved silver level competency.
Youth Leadership Challenge - CANCELLED
UNFORTUNATELY DUE TO COVID-19 CONCERNS THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED.
Steps Together Foundation is a proud supporter of the Youth Leadership Challenge.
Youth Leadership Challenge (YLC) is a day-long competition for Grade 10-12 students in British Columbia. It consists of three core activities that focus on building leadership skills. Its goal is to help young leaders to understand how to utilize their leadership skills in practical, and real-world scenarios.
Thank you to our sponsors, volunteers and participants for making the 2019 Youth Leadership Challenge a resounding success. Click here to view our online event recap. To view our official press release, click here.
Registration is now open. Click on the link to learn more and apply.
Canadian Students Leadership Association
From 2015- 2016, Steps Together Foundation partnered with Canadian Students Leadership Association (CSLA) to grant scholarships and bursaries. The Canadian Student Leadership Award is the highest recognition CSLA gives to students for exemplary contributions in the area of Student.
In 2015 the scholarship was awarded to Ms. Reana Sazbo-Mansfield and in 2016 it was awarded to Ms. Megan Yakabuski.
Since 2016 the Leadership Award has been given away by Youth Leadership Society of BC (www.ylsbc.org), another non-profit founded by Mr. Safaya.
Currently, Mr.Ravinder Safaya serves as the Director for CSLA.
Youth Leadership Society
In 2016, Youth Leadership Society became its own non-profit. You can visit their website www.ylsbc.org to learn more about the programs they offer.
In 2015, five youth from YLC-101 2013 graduated to level 201. In collaboration with Youth Leadership Society of BC, they were presented their awards at a ceremony held on March 22, 2015. The graduates were Anushka Nair, Grihalakshmi Soundarapandian, Keerthana Kumar, Keisha Mistry, Nikita Menon
Thank you to following guest judges for their valuable time in evaluating the youth's leadership skills:
Marc England, Leadership Teacher
Michelle Rhodes, President, BC Association of Student Activity Advisors
Priti Gami Shah, President Drishti Consulting
Youth Leadership Camp
In 2015, seven youth participated in the 3rd Leadership camp offered in collaboration with Youth Leadership Society of BC. The camp was held on June 5-7th, 2015 and guest speakers included a local MLA, business professionals, and community outreach consultants. Youth learned about various facets of Youth Leadership and successfully completed a creative building and presentation assignment. All the youth progressed to level 201.
In 2014, fifteen youth participated in the second Youth Leadership Camp that was held from May 16 - 19, 2014. Among the guest speakers were a member of parliament, a city councillor, business professionals and community outreach consultants.