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JOIN US!: 11th ANNUAL RISING VOICES CENTERSTAGE ORATORY CENTERSTAGE 2025

Help Us Celebrate Our Rising Voices Centerstage! 🎤

📍 Location: Seattle Museum of Flight, Seattle       📅 Date: Saturday, June 14th

Rising Voices is more than just an annual public speaking showcase — it's a platform for youth to speak their truth, share their lived experiences, and demand to be heard. At the heart of the Speak With Purpose (SWP) curriculum are student-created Passion Pieces — powerful speeches that reflect the hopes, challenges, identities, and social issues our scholars care most deeply about.

With guidance from our dedicated Educator Innovators, students in our partner schools learn how to craft compelling speeches and deliver them with confidence, intention, and emotional authenticity. Through this process, young voices not only find their power — they learn to use it.

This year’s Rising Voices Centerstage Showcase will highlight finalists from each of our partnering schools as they take the stage to compete for Gold, Silver, and Bronze awards. But more importantly, it’s a celebration of youth leadership, self-expression, and the urgent need to amplify student voices in a world that too often asks them to stay quiet.

• Doors Open at 2:15
• Showcase begins at 3:00. 
• Event ends at 5:00. 

What is Speak With Purpose (SWP)?

Speak With Purpose (SWP) exists to create inclusive, dynamic learning spaces, in public school classrooms throughout King County, where young scholars are empowered to challenge dominant narratives and reclaim their voices. Through the art of public speaking, our students uplift their cultures, assert self-authored identities, and advocate for the communities they call home.

In a world where student voices — particularly those from historically marginalized communities — are often silenced or overlooked, SWP centers youth as truth-tellers, change-makers, and visionaries. We partner with educators to reimagine classroom learning by rooting instruction in student agency, collective care, and creative expression. Together, we nurture brilliance, imagination, and courageous leadership.

Our Focus:
• Public speaking integrated with performing arts, creative writing, and presentation skills
• Grades 4–8
• Student advocacy and self-empowerment
• Counter-storytelling and narrative justice
• Culturally specific and responsive learning