Calvin Terrell impacts the student body

Calvin+Terrell+impacts+the+student+body

This Wednesday and Thursday, Oct 8 and 9, public speaker Calvin Terrell visited Niles North for the second year in a row.

Terrell has become a welcome guest of Niles North. With his past experience, he has grown to become a savvy public speaker and his skills in handling important topics, and handling awkward pauses in the audience caused by the hard-hitting topics have greatly improved.

His presentations might be a little unorthodox, but they are meant to wake the audience up and make them think. As I sat down for the presentation, one of the first things I heard was: “Not to alarm anyone, but we areĀ this close to another civil war.” Calvin said, holding his two fingers extremely close to each other and up in the air. An extremely effective way to grab attention from the audience and keep them on the edge of their seats.

Starting off with an easy task, the audience had to stand up and just say a truth. It could be a personal truth, a public truth, whatever the audience desired. “We are not moving on until 5 of you stand up and say a truth,” Calvin said, putting the mic on a table.

An awkward silence followed, not a lot of individuals are comfortable with standing up in front a large number of their peers and exclaiming a personal truth. “Leaders begin, followers follow, who will be the first one to break the ice?” Calvin asked, eyeing the audience. As the first person rose up and phrased their truth, a plethora of students followed after, becoming comfortable with an example of another peer opening up and not being ridiculed.

After an effective ice breaker, we started with the more serious topics like race and gender. Calvin believed in respecting everything around him. He profusely talked about how we are taking the stolen land of the indigenous people for granted. As a feeling of being accused lingered in the air, the audience grew more uncomfortable.

Calvin started to raise his voice in order to, simultaneously grab our attention, and make us realize some important points of life. “You become real humble when you meet children who have been warriors since they have been seven. You become real humble when you meet kids who can assemble a military rifle in the dark in less than three minutes. We have it easy here, and we take it for granted.” Calvin said as the audience became cognizant of the fact that what he is saying is true.

When asked what the most impacting conversation was while he was here, Calvin said “The most memorable conversation that I had was what people can say to other people that look like them in order to make a change. What can white people say to white people, black people to black people, what can Assyrians say to other Assyrians in order for us all to start the healing.”

I agree with Calvin, that particular topic stood out most to me. It is a very profound way of thinking, and the most efficient way in order to start healing.

Niles North is very happy to have Calvin Terrell, and we look forward to his return in the future.