Tag Archives: speech

Keynoting a NYC High School's National Honor Society Induction

All high school students, faculty, and parents of the inductees attended the NHS Induction Ceremony on Nov. 15th

She’s the First was invited to keynote the National Honor Society induction at NEST+m, New York’s premier K-12 public school on the Lower East Side (this is the type of school we wish could be accessible to girls all over the world!). Tammy Tibbetts, our President, was introduced by Kira West, a go-getting student and officer of the NHS, whom Tammy met when she spoke at the K!dult Youth Leadership Conference this summer.

Tammy, the first female keynote this NHS chapter ever had, spoke about the vision of She’s the First and our belief that social media can create social change. Below is a transcript of the speech. Let us know what you think, and if you were a member of your high school’s own National Honor Society!

As Kira mentioned, a year ago, I started a not-for-profit called She’s the First, which connects young donors to girls they can support in the developing world. We are a movement of young men and women using our creativity to give just a little, and turn it into a lot with our collective teamwork.

Tammy & Kira

Girls’ education became a strong passion of mine after I did some traveling and saw how a education program for abandoned children in Liberia, West Africa transformed their opportunities in life. I started to learn in my 20s that there are 600 million adolescent girls in the developing world, and a majority of them are not completing school. Yet, when a girl is educated, there are so many positive correlations: she’ll get a job, earn a salary, marry later, have less children, raise healthier children, and the health and wellness of the family and community will improve overall. Eradicating abuse and neglect of girls and women worldwide is being called the cause of our time.

But if you think I was voted Most Likely to Save the World in high school, think again. Yes, I had a very high GPA, and I was inducted into my own National Honor Society chapter at South Brunswick High School in suburban New Jersey. But when it was yearbook time senior year, classmates voted me Most Shy. I never said a word in class…if I couldn’t speak up about my thoughts on The Odyssey, how could I even think about being an advocate for others, especially those on the other side of the world? It never crossed my mind. I did community service, but in a very quiet, and almost a very routine way, for the college admissions process.

Back then, the thought of giving a speech would have had my stomach in double knots. No surprise, I was not popular at all. I didn’t even go to my high school prom…so it’s just a little ironic that several years later, I would become the prom web site editor of Seventeen magazine and launch its DonateMyDress.org campaign for girls who can’t afford prom dresses. I now often say, “If you rock the prom, you can rock the world,” based on my job…but really, that’s another way of saying, if you have the chance to go to school and make a difference there, then there is no limit to what you can achieve when you walk out these doors with your cap and gown. Continue reading →