Yasmin International School and Kohinoor Toast Masters Club in Riyadh posing for a group picture at a awards ceremony held in Riyadh recently. (Courtesy photo)About 25 secondary school students from Al-Yasmin International School Riyadh, have received certificates after attending a 45-day Youth Leadership Program (YLP) organized under the guidance of Riyadh-chapter Kohinoor Toast Masters (KTM) Club. Anoop, a student of Class nine won the ‘Best Big-3' award while the Best Speaker award went to Sulaiman Shah of Class 10. Jerrin from Class nine bagged the Best Table Speaker award while Timothy of Class 10 received the Best Evaluator award. Other students received YLP attendance certificates at a final day ceremony held at Al-Yasmin School from M.C. Sebastian, Principal and Dr. Firoz Mulla, Assistant Principal of the school; Ebrahim Sabjan, President, Kohinoor Toastmasters Club; Zia Ur Rahman; Syed Ashfaq, Vice President of Education at KTM and YLP coordinator. Teachers and parents attended the ceremony. Sebastian said that the school would continue to host the YLP program for senior class female students during the next academic year. Eight sessions of the YLP program were organized between Dec. 22, 2010 and Feb. 10, 2011. The awards ceremony was held on Feb. 10. About 25 senior secondary students (all boys) were selected as part of the YLP program. Ebrahim Sabjan, President of KTM said said that the program is aimed at developing communication skills and leadership quality among students to help them achieve competence in their future lives. Rahman said the formation of Gavel's Club within the school will help students hone their communication skills. Ashfaq, who was instrumental in training the students for eight sessions, said that the students showed lots of motivation, which was evidence from their high level of enthusiasm throughout the program. Toastmasters International is a non-profit educational organization that teaches communication and leadership skills through a worldwide network of clubs. It currently has more than 250,000 members in 12,500 clubs in 106 countries. Since it was founded in October 1924, Toastmasters International has helped more than four million men and women learn and communicate with poise and confidence. Toastmaster's movement is very active in the Kingdom with several clubs currently functioning in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam.
