Guest Speaker Presentations

Students are most often introduced to PLUS ME through our Guest Speakers PLUS ME program. Here, trained storytellers share the personal journeys that led them to and through college and their career path. Our speakers highlight the various struggles and accomplishments they experienced from middle school through college. These highly engaging tales of achievement and perseverance serve as examples from which students can draw when facing their own personal and academic obstacles.

 

Guest Speakers PLUS ME

Invite one of our trained storytellers to your site to share their resilient life journeys with your students. Each storyteller highlights the obstacles and successes they encountered throughout their middle school, high school, and college years. Our presentations are designed to motivate students by providing them with relatable role models they can connect with and learn from.

  • Target Audience: 6th – 12th grade

  • Time Frame: 30 – 60 minutes

 
 
 

Storytelling Workshops

In supportive and trusting environments, students engage in dialogues that result in them realizing they are not alone, gaining a stronger sense of self, and learning how to vulnerably share their life experiences with others. In Storytellers PLUS ME, students receive a My Story Matters Journal as they discover the elements of their story. At the end of our program, each student has the opportunity to stand before their class, share their story, and build stronger connections with their peers and teachers. This experience sets the stage for them to build their story that will turn into their college personal statement.

 

Storytellers PLUS ME

Our Storytellers PLUS ME program supports students with discovering the power of their own personal narratives. With the help of our customized PLUS ME journal, students reflect on the impact of their journey and are guided through the process of identifying the important characters, settings, events, and lessons in their lives. Every student concludes the workshop by sharing their experiences and connecting with their peers.

  • Target Audience: 7th - 12th Grade

  • Time Frame: Up to 5 (60-minute) sessions

 

Writing Workshops

Traditionally once students have completed our Storytellers program, they are invited to participate in our Writers PLUS ME program. Here we dig deeper into writing strategies from our My Story Matters Journals and help students turn their discovered narratives into powerful personal statements for college applications. Each student leaves with a completed journal filled with small moments from their lives that have shaped who they are and first drafts of their personal insight questions for the UC applications or essays for their common apps.

 

Writers PLUS ME

Students are supported as they take their developed stories and lay the groundwork to turn them into their college personal statements. Students dig deeper into our PLUS ME journals and leave with content that can be polished into their college essays.

  • Target Audience: 11th - 12th Graders

  • Time Frame: Up to 5 (60-minute) sessions

College Essay Workshops

In this workshop series, high school students learn how to approach Personal Insight Questions (PIQ) in preparation for UC college applications or the Common App. We use the introspective, story-building process to support students as they decide which PIQ/Common App prompts to answer, generate ideas on how to summarize their unique life experiences, and tools for clear writing.

  • Target Audience: 11th - 12th Graders

  • Time Frame: Up to 5 (60-minute) sessions

 
 
 

Wellness Workshops

This suite of workshops (Leaders PLUS ME and Achievers PLUS ME) focuses on the social and emotional experience of adolescence. In each series, we use story as a tool to encourage deep self-reflection and goal-setting. The group dynamic helps students gain confidence and support as they validate each other while sharing the insights they discovered throughout the experience.

 

Leaders PLUS ME

In this program, students identify their unique leadership skills through guided self-reflection. The goal is to support students as they define what positive leadership looks and feels like and how they can embody those qualities for their personal and academic success. The facilitator infuses storytelling into the workshop by sharing parts of their story that connect with the specific topic of each session.

  • Target Audience: 7th - 12th Grade

  • Time Frame: Up to 5 (60-minute) sessions

Achievers PLUS ME

This program encourages high school seniors to gain confidence and self-awareness for the next step in their lives. In groups, trained coaches help students work through insecurities and fears, navigate relationships and roadblocks, and develop a trusted network of support that helps them prepare for adulthood.

  • Target Audience: 12th Grade

  • Time Frame: Up to 5 (60-minute) sessions