“Why I Presented on Dr. Lilian Ajayi Ore,” Ben Solasky
By Ben Solasky
Every year at my high school, each student in the junior class is required to present a short speech in front of a room full of students in order to fulfill certain criteria in English. This year, the topic each of our speeches needed to be written about was activism. Either a specific activist or activist group needed to be researched and selected as the overarching subject in order to fit the requirement.
For mine, I chose no other than the amazing Dr. Lilian Ajayi Ore and GC4W!
I originally learned of Dr. Lilian and the group through her Interactive Marketing Campaigns course at NYU back in March of 2022. I had the pleasure of learning from her vast knowledge in the business world in addition to the contributions GC4W was making in so many women’s lives.
I knew I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to be a part of the group that was making such a positive impact in the world, so I joined the team as an intern content producer shortly after my first day in the class!
After seeing for myself all the hard work that the GC4W family put into the platform, I knew it would only be appropriate to do my speech on the person who piqued my interest in the first place!
Delivering the speech
And so it was decided! Over the following weeks, I worked hard on drafting the speech, building my presentation visual, interviewing Dr. Lilian, and rehearsing the finalized version. In the end, a well-polished speech was ready for presenting!
Long story short, the final presentation went perfectly! My audience was captivated by the speech and I earned a shiny “A” to prove it!
If it wasn’t for Dr. Lilian and her wise words in our interview, my presentation wouldn’t have carried nearly the weight that it did. I am forever grateful to Dr. Lilian and the GC4W team for their willingness to take a chance on me and I hope that this speech can act as a token of my appreciation.
Attached below is the full speech in addition to the visual I used alongside it.
