Meet Grand Finalist, Khadija Dirir

We are delighted to share that this has been the biggest year ever for Jack Petchey’s Speak Out Challenge. Up to 30,000 students have been trained in over 500 schools across all of London and Essex.

Jack Petchey’s Speak Out Challenge provides year 10 students in state schools across London and Essex with public speaking and communication training to increase their confidence, sense of agency and drive to make a difference in society.

During the academic year, over 500 schools have received a free one-day public speaking workshops for their students. The student’s confidence in speaking to an audience, without notes, is measured at the beginning and at the end of the day. During 2022-2023 76% of students have increased their confidence to stand up and talk to a group of people. At the end of the day, every school nominates one student to go on to a Regional or Digital Final, where they compete again other school finalists and their speeches are judged based on content delivery, structure and positive impact by a panel of esteemed judges. After going on to win the semi-finals, our 15 inspirational, articulate, and impressive speakers are now ready to present their speech to you!

We will celebrate the achievements of these awe-inspiring young people in the heart of London’s West End at Cambridge Theatre on Monday 10th July and crown the 2023 “Speak Out” Champion!

In no particular order, meet 2023 Grand Finalist Khadija Dirir! 

Their speech ‘Change’ earned them and their school, Swanlea School, first place in their Tower Hamlets Regional Final. Khadija wants to inspire people to have a growth mind-set and to “embrace new things and new opportunities that come their way”.  

We asked Khadija, what three items or people would you choose to take to a desert island and why? 

A microphone, a karaoke machine, and a Christmas playlist – because I hate the heat, so I’ll drown it out with some Mariah Carey.

What is your favourite saying or quote and why?

“The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself.” Because fear is the only thing that limits us, and our growth-(e.g. the fear of challenge/risks.). This is my favourite saying, because it encourages us to confront our fears in order to fulfill our potential.

If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life what would it be and why?  

If I could eat one food for the rest of my life, it would undeniably be my grandma’s rendition of a traditional Somali pastry called “guurah.” It’s crispy on the outside and soft on the inside and is literally the best thing I’ve ever eaten. With each bite I am reminded of the love and care she pours into making it!

What three top tips on life would you give a Year Seven student? 

1. Be yourself. It’s important to stay true to who you are and find friends who accept and embrace that. 2. “Be the energy you want to attract”. Embody qualities you’d like to see in others. 3. Just relax. Don’t feel pressured to always be on top of everything academically, do new things and just enjoy yourself.

You could have made a speech anything in the world. Why did you speak about this one subject? 

I chose to speak about change because we can’t fundamentally do anything without changing first. For example, there are thousands of vital issues in the world, and while we bring awareness to others to combat this – the main goal is to change their mind around that issue, or change their actions in their daily life to fight that issue. I also chose change because it’s such a broad topic that happens every day but isn’t talked about much. For example, in school we’re encouraged to decide what we want to be when we grow up. And dreams are necessary to us, but it’s also necessary to have a growth mind-set about everything – and not to feel pressured about changing our minds. There are so many reasons why change is so important, and I’ve barley seen anyone talk about the significance of it- so I wanted to highlight that in my speech.

Why do you think it’s important for young people, like you, to share their stories?

I think it’s vital for young people to share their stories because countless of times their stories are unheard. We see numerous fantastic speeches from people fighting something, but never from a young person. Additionally, young people are the future of this world so it’s imperative their voices are always heard. Seeing a young person’s point of view really forces us to take affirmative action, because when it’s such a significant topic and a young person is being affected by it we really need to take responsibility for our actions. (An example of this is Greta Thunberg being a young person and a spearhead for fighting against climate change.)

If you could make one change in the world what would it be?

I don’t think I could really answer that question because there’s so many changes NEEDED to make, to the world. Typically I’d think world hunger, climate change or making a cure for cancer. Although creating change in all of those things would be incredible, there is so many things I could say but then argue with myself later about it. I think all of those important issues in the world are vital, but if I could change one thing it would be people’s mind-sets around all these issues and encourage affirmative action against them. Because if everyone collectively worked together, maybe we could combat these issues and create a better world.

How could this experience help you further any passions you have?

This experience would undeniably help me further my passion when playing sports. I’ve played loads of different sports since I was a kid and I think this experience could help me vocalise myself better when working in a team. I was the captain of my schools girls football and netball team, I think this experience could help me be able to talk to my teammates more coherently and concisely and give directions when leading the team into a game. When I was making my speech for the speak out competition I did hours of trials and errors with different speeches, and watched numerous amounts of past speeches and famous speeches e.g. Martin Luther King’s I have a dream speech. And what I realised is what all these incredible speakers did was understand their audience and try to inspire them. I think this experience could also allow me to do that because when my team is down after the opposition scores a goal, the best thing to do is try to regain their hope and inspire them to carry on playing their best. I think making a speech is really similar to speaking to my team when the going gets tough. So, I belie this experience could further my passion in playing sports and leading my team to victory.

And finally, how would you like people to think / act differently from hearing your story?

I hope people will listen to my speech and feel inspired to have a growth mind-set. And to embrace new things and new opportunities that come their way, rather than turn them down because of the fear of the unknown. I really hope people feel influenced to take my speech on board and hear their whisper of change, whether that be with small things that they usually wouldn’t do-or making a big decisions. I just hope people will act without fear holding them back.

Watch Khadija‘s winning speech: