High school students, take the floor to unleash your potential
For its 5th year, the Eloquentia@HEC programme brought 77 high school students from all over France to the HEC campus from 10 to 16 July for its Summer Camp. It was a week of immersion, workshops on the fundamentals of eloquence and self-discovery, and the young people emerged transformed from the adventure. Six of them will be taking to the stage at La Cigale on September 28th 2023 for the Eloquentia national final.
Auteur/Author of this article: Frédéric Voirin
"I learned about team spirit, cohesion and, above all, self-confidence. Self-confidence is what Eloquentia@HEC is all about for me". It is with these words and a big smile of satisfaction that Yvan TCHANJKEMI, a high school senior at the Lycée La Vallée du Cailly in Rouen, sums up his experience of this eloquence competition, the preparation for which takes place on the HEC Paris campus during a week-long summer course.
Since 2018, the Mission Egalité des Chances (Equal opportunities' Department) of HEC Paris has been working with Eloquentia, the leading national public speaking competition for high school students, to give students the opportunity to practise defending their ideas through eloquence and develop their self-confidence so that they can assert themselves through their words, an essential skill if they are to succeed in their social and professional lives. The aim is also to remove the self-censorship that is a major barrier to success.
During the week when they live on campus, we also give them the opportunity to discover the world of a Grande école, its access routes and job opportunities through career guidance workshops and discussions with the school's teams about their study plans.
On the menu for this 2023 edition of Eloquentia@HEC, more than 30 hours of training in public speaking, with training in stage expression, classical rhetoric, slam, poetry, voice and breathing exercises, vocal technique and speech writing coaching. The programme is also built around fun and sporting activities on campus, as well as moments of sharing, relaxation and introspection.
"Self-confidence is what Eloquentia@HEC is all about".
How to learn public speaking?
77 students in Year 10, 11 and 12 from 56 high schools in mainland France and overseas took part in this 2023 edition. At the same time, 14 supervisors and 26 lecturers and teachers, as well as all the teams from Eloquentia, the Equal Opportunities Mission, logistics, the audiovisual service, the residences and the communications department at HEC Paris were mobilised to help these budding orators as best they could. In total, for 2023, around 130 people were involved!
This support is at the heart of the Eloquentia@HEC experience, as Elena Lenormand, a first-year student at the Lycée Nelson Mandela in Etampes, points out: "Being at HEC is a lot of fun and a lot of doubt at the same time. Just yesterday, in front of the other candidates, I was wondering if I really belonged here. And thanks to the Eloquentia and HEC teams, who prepare us with patience, kindness and meticulousness, I now realise how incredibly lucky we are to be taking part in this eloquence competition". Abdallah SEMIAI from the Lycée Epin in Vitry-sur-Seine has also learnt a lot from these preparations: "I loved the teaching methods used by the speakers during the Eloquentia@HEC workshops: from theory to practical application. I learnt that you have to dare to use your body, to embody your text with your body, which is something I didn't do before."
Very active workshops for Eloquentia@HEC
Learning about yourself...
So it's a week of intense coaching, with these high school students sometimes working late on our speeches, to learn how to deliver them properly. All this to learn how to express themselves well... and sometimes even surpass themselves!
And Elena LENORMAND has certainly experienced this surpassing of herself: "Eloquence is important because it allows you to stand out from the crowd but also, and above all, to interact more easily with others. Personally, it helped me overcome my shyness". The young woman told us that a few years ago, she didn't even dare ask for sauce to accompany her meal in a restaurant. Since discovering eloquence, this former shy girl has become almost unstoppable!
The same revelation happened to Erwan LE BIDAN, a secondary school student at La Salle Maison Blanche in Saint Paul de la Réunion: "Freeing our speech is above all freeing ourselves and showing people who we really are". Emma WURTZ REYRAUD, a student at the Lycée Jeanne d'Arc in Mulhouse, also found a new emotional balance in the experience: "I've learnt that you have to find a certain balance when you're speaking. Having body language but also the will to express yourself, that also comes down to emotions. It's very important when you're speaking that you manage to feel, through your gestures, what you're feeling inside and what you want to convey to the audience, to create that link with your audience through your words. The spoken word is not just a vocal cord that vibrates, a sound, but what you want to get across through it, and that's what's important!"
"Freeing our speech is above all freeing ourselves and showing people who we really are."
Young high school students learning about themselves
...But also a collective adventure of sharing...
In between all these workshops, the young students have free time on the HEC Paris campus, which creates some wonderful memories. Mayssa AMLAL, a student in her first year at the Lycée Condorcet in Limay, is one of the students who was most charmed by her stay on our campus: "I knew HEC as a great school and the best business school in France, but I never expected the campus to be so big! What's more, not everyone gets the chance to study there, so it's a great opportunity for me. I'm really pleased that there are so many of us in our group, almost 80 people, because it gives us the chance to meet lots of great people!"
Speaking of great encounters, one HEC Paris student was delighted to take part in this adventure in his own way. Jules Sitruk, a student on the Grande Ecole programme at HEC Paris and already ranked by Forbes magazine as one of the 30 personalities under 30 to actively follow, was delighted to play a novel role in the Eloquentia@HEC Summer Camp 2023. The Marseilles native, who founded the Protis Club to help young people in Marseille prepare for their entrance exams to France's top grandes écoles and universities, was able to orchestrate a football match on the HEC Paris pitch for these young high school students and give them a few tips along the way. He has nothing but praise for this eloquence competition: "The high quality of the training enabled all the young people to make remarkable progress, and the wonderful moments of sharing made this Eloquentia@HEC Summer Camp an unforgettable human adventure".
...And a semi-final to remember!
On the evening of Saturday 15 July, the Blondeau amphitheatre was buzzing with excitement. The 77 high school students from the Eloquentia@HEC summer camp, along with their families, teachers and HEC staff, gathered to listen attentively to the speeches of the 12 participants selected for the semi-final.
Over the course of the evening, the male and female candidates competed in a courteous manner on a wide range of subjects, including "Are smiles becoming rare?", "Are we being listened to?" and "Is the pen stronger than the sword?"
Derniers conseils entre jeunes avant la demi-finale Eloquentia@HEC
The jury for this 2023 edition, which assessed the speeches, was made up of Alicia IZARD, Managing Director of Eloquentia, François TARDY, director, trainer and expert in stage expression for Eloquentia, and Marie DOLET, Director of Communications and Marketing at the HEC Paris Foundation. These 3 people had the difficult task of selecting 6 semi-finalists. In the end, it was Charlotte MINEO, Jaassia TAPE, Abdallah SEMIAI, Ruben DIOT-REBOURG, Fayma YOUSSOUF and Emma WURTZ-REYRAUD who won over the hearts of the 2023 jury with their respective subjects: "Is it our fault?", "Is the pen stronger than the sword?", "Is the path marked out in advance?", "Are the silent complicit?" and "Are smiles becoming rare?"
Watch the replay of Emma Wurtz-Reyraud's speech here:
As several members of the jury pointed out, the standard of the performances was very high. Valérie Leroy, who is in charge of the equal opportunities mission, had this to say: "The 6 semi-finalists who spoke on Saturday evening had a truly exceptional level of eloquence". The speakers expressed themselves without notes, with great authenticity and sincerity, and the audience was treated to some great moments of eloquence.
"Get out there and be yourself, because when you speak with sincerity, you reach a lot more people!"
HEC's delegate for Equal Opportunities, Hélène Bermond, also confessed her emotion at the quality of the performances seen throughout the Summer Camp: "We've been working with high school students for over 15 years to help them gain self-confidence and develop their potential. Creating this competition in partnership with Eloquentia was an obvious choice for us. What a week! Eloquentia@HEC is a fantastic talent spotlight, but at the same time it's a unique experience in living together. You have all grown from this experience."
"Eloquentia@HEC is a fantastic talent revelator and at the same time it's a unique experience of living together"
Congratulations to the 6 semi-finalists selected and to all the participants in this Eloquentia@HEC summer camp 2023 for their hard work and determination. Thank you to the HEC Paris Foundation, BRED and the Michelin Corporate Foundation, whose support has made this wonderful project possible.
A big thank you also to all the people who trained and accompanied the Eloquentia@HEC students and to the HEC Paris Equal Opportunities team, whose commitment makes all the actions carried out for greater social equity possible.
See you on Thursday 28 September 2023 in the superb Italian-style theatre of La Cigale in Paris: you can support your favourite candidates at the Eloquentia French national Grande finale and discover the best high school speaker in France!
For more information on Equal Opportunities at HEC Paris
Take a look back at the Eloquentia@HEC 2022 Grande Finale
For big fans of public speaking: Watch the 2023 finale of the HEC Paris Students' Eloquence Contest