Pathways is an exciting, flexible and interactive way to develop your skills and help others in your club develop theirs. It will help you learn communication and leadership skills that you need to succeed. It gives you:
- The opportunity to build up to 300 unique competencies
- 11 specialized learning paths to choose from
- Online content, so that you can learn anytime, anywhere
- Real-world, transferable skills
Here are the 11 paths that you can choose from:
We have an incentive in Toastmasters for all of our members.
On October 22, 2020, Toastmasters International sent out an email to members that included its appreciation to you in the form of a free path.
Any Toastmaster who renewed their membership for the October renewal period by December 31 will have automatically received a free Pathways path! To redeem your free path, visit your Toastmasters profile, click the “Choose A Path” button, and follow the normal path selection process. You must redeem your free path before March 31, 2021. This is a great way to motivate members to get going in the paths and help their clubs achieve their educational goals. This will have an impact on whether or not clubs will be eligible for the Distinguished Club program.
For more information about the free path, please see frequently asked questions.
Once the path has been selected, members may take as long as they want to work toward their personal objectives. Don’t wait! You are investing in yourself.
Pathways has worked for our members in District 13. They have worked up through the ranks to complete their paths. Some of our members have taken well to the new education program.
Shanda Kelsch is a member of the Elk County Toastmasters club. She placed second in the area 21 speech contest last February. If not for the pandemic, I feel she could have gone all the way to District with her speech. Recently, she completed her Level 4 in the Visionary Communication Path.
The Visionary Path was created to help build skills as a strategic communicator to launch a long-term personal or professional vision. The projects on this path focus on developing skills for sharing information with a team, planning communications and creating innovative solutions to problems while building skills in speech writing and delivery.
“While Levels 1 and 2 helped me understand myself better as a leader and a communicator, levels 3 and 4 have helped me to develop those skills further,” says Kelsch, current President of Elk County Toastmasters. “Level 3 taught me how to connect with people, inspire a team and how to network but Level 4 brought my education up to a whole new level by teaching me how to more effectively use online media, public relations strategies and managing projects with a team. It has been an interesting experience.”
Shanda will continue her education on the Visionary Communication Path over the next few weeks gaining knowledge in High Performance and Ethical Leadership and Leading in her own Volunteer Organization.
“My education with Toastmasters won’t end once I have completed my last few assignments. I plan to continue my education by enrolling in the Strategic Relationships Path so that I can further hone my skills as a leader in interpersonal and business communication and in running and building businesses and other organizations.”
Elk County Toastmasters meets at 6:30pm on the first and third Thursdays of each month online and in-person at St. Boniface School in Kersey.
Great work, Shanda, and keep working hard in your Toastmasters journey and in your other endeavors.
In the Presentation Mastery path, Cranberry High Noon President Tina Kramer has learned to moderate a panel discussion. That’s exactly what she did at December’s Toastmaster Leadership Training. Along with her team, Tina showed us tips and tricks on “How to Make Our Online Meetings Rock!”
Division B Director and Earlybirds member Jing Humphries is working in her third path, Strategic Relationships. She, along with Virda Perry, Terye Carney, and Tina, put their skills to the test for the breakout session on online meetings at TLI and both club officer training makeups.
For me, I’m just starting in my path. Right now, I’m in the dynamic leadership path. I’m told one of the paths includes writing a blog which I’m what I’m doing now. Over the last few years, I’ve taken it upon me to be more inspirational and I’ve done that with my #EmbracingJoy posts on Facebook. I’m also more passionate about my community and embracing my style. We’ll see where my paths take me. Even though I have my two paths, could I possibly take advantage of a free path by March 31?
That concludes this Pathways blog. For some, it’s a fresh start. For others, they may have mixed feelings. It all depends on how you go about it and how you can adapt to change. If you’re a longtime toastmaster, raised on the traditional education, you may have some growing pains and opinions on the new program. If you’re just getting started you may see how fun the new package is and teach a thing to our veterans.
Stylish 🍒 