Motivational speaker inspires North Star Montessori Academy students

MARQUETTE, Mich. (WLUC) - North Star Montessori Academy freshman Finnegan Hyska urges classmates to not be afraid of their self-image and try new things. Those were his takeaways from motivational speaker JC Pohl of Teen Truth.

The group travels to schools around the country giving students a chance to control the dialogue in their own classrooms.

“It just helped me realize it was not that scary to speak up about what’s wrong and about what your story is and being able to hide behind that mask, you don’t have to hide it’s not that scary,” Hyska said.

While the event was focused on the students, Pohl says he is trying to reach more than the natural leaders.

“What I love to do is have the conversation with kids that maybe aren’t your traditional leaders and get them to realize no actually you do have a voice, you do have something to offer, you do have something to say,” Pohl said.

Pohl was inspired to bring awareness to student topics following the Columbine High School shooting. Teen Truth travels all across the country and Canada bringing encouragement along the way.

“I just thought this was a really great opportunity to give our students a voice to talk about the social and emotional discrepancies and matters in this day and age,” Miranda Roose North Star Montessori Academy teacher said.

On Wednesday, students worked together to create their own action plan on how to improve their school.

“[Pohl] really stayed on the topic of being student based and I think that was very important,” Hyska said.

Now the students will start to unmask the issues and make a better environment for everyone.

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