Hello, my name is Myranda. I’m a senior at Cuba High School and I’ve been on the Evolvement New Mexico Leadership Team (ENMLT) for two years. I would say that the Evolvement Leadership Team has changed my life. Since I joined last year, I’ve become very confident with my public speaking and social skills. The Evolvement staff create a very comfortable environment with many opportunities to not only meet new people but to work and be friends with them, especially while at the Leadership Team Summit. The Evolvement staff host a lot of fun activities that are meant to push us out of our comfort zone to show us that it’s ok to be nervous but that we can overcome those feelings. They give us a ton of tips and tricks on how to present to a group without feeling like we’re going to fail. They build up your confidence by making sure you know what you’re going to talk about and make sure you’re taking deep breaths when you do start to feel anxious. Before Summit, I was unable to overcome the nervousness even when just presenting to my class. Now, I truly do feel confident enough to speak in front of school boards and even legislators. 

Some things that I’ve done to gain these skills are: event challenges where we engage with the public, and networking events where we meet with official members of our community. Not only do we do these events to get us comfortable speaking in front of people we don’t know, but we also do fun activities with the other members of the leadership team that let us build strong friendships. The skills we gain through these activities and experiences are going to help us in our future careers. We’ll be able to put these skills on our resumes, college applications, and will know how to make friends with new people. I think gaining skills at the Evolvement Leadership Team Summit has been very beneficial to my future and has been so much fun. That’s the really great thing about Summit, you get to gain all of these really great skills but in very fun ways!