Fulbright smkVOICE Conference

Hello family & friends,

We, the Fulbright English Teaching Assistants of Malaysia, need your help!

The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government. Our roles as English Teaching Assistants are to integrate into local schools, participate in cultural exchange with students, strengthen English language proficiency, and foster courage, confidence, and leadership. To accomplish these goals, we want to hold a National Public Speaking Conference for our students in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The title of the conference will be smkVOICE: Expand Your Horizon.

smkVOICE will create a safe space for the sharing of ideas, stories, research projects, and visions through short yet powerful speeches. The purpose of our project is to empower our students with the sense that they have ideas worth sharing, showcase their English language speaking abilities, and inspire social change in the speakers’ and listeners’ local communities. Our conference will bring together students from the states of Terengganu, Kelantan, Pahang, Sabah, Sarawak, Perak, Kedah, Perlis, and Selangor in one place to celebrate community engagement and communal progress that can affect the current and next generation of Malaysia. 

Conference: smkVOICE (Vision, Opportunity, Initiative, Creativity, Exchange)
Dates: August 28, 2018 – August 31, 2018
Venue: Brickfields Asia College, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Our Mission: Empower our students -- smkVOICE is a platform that empowers our students to openly and confidently share their stories, ideas, and visions. We passionately believe in the power of voices to bring forth change, and firmly believe storytelling and public speaking skills are necessary for the advancement of our students’ goals. The components that make up the acronym, VOICE, are elements that we consider to be significant in affecting change and growth in our students’ lives.
       Vision: To brighten visions, nationally share visions, and support visions to become reality.
       Opportunity: To provide our students opportunities in working toward their visions.
       Initiative: To encourage initiative in voicing novel and original opinions, thoughts, and ideas.
       Creativity: To fashion an environment where creativity is nurtured and celebrated.
       Exchange: To engage in an exchange of ideas and cultures, through the exchange of life-stories.
Theme 2018: Expand Your Horizon -- The more people we meet, the more ideas we encounter, the more challenges we face, the more our horizons of being, understanding, and significance widen, in which our aspirations and hopes become less self-centered and expand outward to appreciating and serving our neighbors, communities, nation, and the world.

From our experiences thus far, we believe that smkVOICE will be beneficial to our communities and beyond. The following is a list of cultural needs that we have witnessed in our placements and how we expect smkVOICE to respond to such needs:

Cultural Needs:
1.     Underestimation of students’ abilities and ideas from parents, teachers, and community members.

2.     Absence of free and pure critical thinking about society and Malaysia’s place in the world.

3.     Lack of self-confidence and public speaking skills.

4.     Narrow horizon.

5.     Insufficient understanding of university life.

6.     Lack of resources or access to university life.

smkVOICE's Responses: 
1.     Work with our students weekly in drawing out creative, unique ideas, preparing speeches, practicing public speaking, and building confidence. Showcase our students’ year-long efforts to 200+ people.

2.     Provide students the opportunity to speak on topics often dismissed by cultural norms. Expose students to people and ideas outside of their bubble. Listen to speeches that analyze and think critically about Malaysian society.

3.     Weekly speaking workshops leading up to the conference.

4.     Meet people from all over Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur. Engage in cultural exchange (urban and rural, United States and Malaysia).

5.     Take a tour of Brickfields Asia College. Mingle with university students and professors. Attend small-group sessions led by university students to learn about coursework and future careers.

6.     Supply access to BAC’s resources, students, and faculty. Arrange various informational stations from university application workshops to non-profit opportunities.

Our vision is a large one: a 3-day, national conference that involves travel, lodging, food, expensive equipment for 200 people. Our total fundraising goal is 8,750 USD. In order to ensure that finance is not a limiting factor for our students, we need all the help we can get!

10 USD covers all of the meals for 1 student for the entire conference.
40 USD sponsors 1 student’s housing expenses.
50 USD sponsors transportation back and forth for 1 student on Peninsular Malaysia.
100 USD sponsors transportation back and forth for 1 student from Borneo Malaysia.
500 USD sponsors all the water and snacks for 40 volunteers and 160 students coming to speak and participate at smkVOICE.
1000 USD covers all the production costs (videography, lighting, and sound for the conference).

If you give more than 1000 USD and would like a corporate sponsorship recognition, we can arrange for you to be on the official program, banner, and title slides.
If you give between 500 - 1000 USD and would like corporate sponsorship recognition, we can arrange for you to go on the brochure.

Thank you for reading our story. On behalf of Fulbright Malaysia and the U.S. Embassy and in partnership with the Ministry of Education, MACEE, and the U.S. Department of State, we, the Fulbright English Teaching Assistants of Malaysia, humbly invite you all to join us in this exciting journey and support a cause we passionately and deeply care for. Please help us share our story with your families and friends.

With much love and gratitude,

Samuel Lee, Nathan Mathai, Laura Kastner, Allison Larmann, Mason Pazhwak, Yumna Khalid, Victoria Blumenfeld, Ana Skomal, Jared Peterson, Pashoua Vang, Hannah Touchton, Stefanie Bartlett, Scott Bechler, Raeann Boero, Ellie Halfacre, Jenna Scarbrough, Niki Patel, and all of our students!

*For more information on our conference, please continue reading. 
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During the past few months, we have been piloting public speaking workshops in which we screen relevant speeches, teach the canons of rhetoric and rhetorical devices, write and edit speeches, and ultimately, cultivate the confidence and skills to publicly share ideas. Though early in our programs, we have seen dramatic improvements, with most of the students exhibiting much enthusiasm and poise and realizing the power and beauty of voicing their opinions and ideas. We are now aiming to launch our national camp to showcase the year-long efforts of our students.

The following is a brief schema of our smkVOICE conference:

August 28, 2018: Students from the states of Terengganu, Pahang, Kelantan, Sabah, Sarawak, Perak, Kedah, Perlis, and the city of Kuala Lumpur will arrive at Brickfields Asia College in Kuala Lumpur. We will hold an Opening Ceremony filled with relationship-building, lively discussion, and cultural exchange.

August 29, 2018: The students will receive a tour of Brickfields Asia College, meet and participate in Q&A sessions with university students and professors, and attend small-group seminars with university students. We hope to give the students a tangible taste of the life of a university student and to inspire them to think about their plans for the future. To end the day, we will have students, who were not chosen to speak on the day of the Conference, give their talks. We do not want the efforts of our students to go unnoticed!

August 30, 2018: This will be the official day of the Public Speaking Conference. This day is what the students, teachers, and English Teaching Assistants have been working towards. The day highlights our overarching goal of cultural exchange, mutual understanding, and exhibiting the power of public speaking. In between talks, we will have art performances from students, whether it be music, dance, or painting, to not only further drive the point of self-expression and the importance of sharing but to also further appreciation for the arts beyond oration. Additionally, we will have informational and interactive stations posted across the convention space to provide resources for students, keep students engaged, and fashion the event into a fully immersive experience.  

The following are potential talks that have already developed in discussion with students:

- What does systemic poverty look like in a kampung (village)? How can the youth fix that?
- If you were the Prime Minister, what policies would you focus on and create?
- What does social equality mean to you?
- What is the least effective part of Malaysia’s education system? How can we change it?
- What is a positive change that you hope to see in society in the next 10 years?

August 31, 2018: The students, teachers, and ETAs will celebrate Independence Day in Kuala Lumpur. The students will have the rare opportunity to explore the country’s largest city and participate in various celebrations and activities.

If you would like further information and details about our conference and its finances, please reach out to us at [email redacted].