The Merrill Area Public Schools (MAPS) will welcome popular youth speaker Micah Jacobson to the district March 7, and local community members are invited to attend.
The event is part of the Merrill Great Speaker Forum, a 31-year-old program that brings in high-quality speakers to present to MAPS middle school and high school students on a yearly basis. Jacobson is an engaging speaker and the co-founder of The Boomerang Project, an organization that helps students transition to higher grade levels.
“We are very happy to welcome Micah Jacobson as this year’s Great Speaker Forum presenter, as he is a fun, active and entertaining speaker who gets his messages across in a unique way,” said Don Stevens, Interim Superintendent of MAPS. “This year, we invite all in the community to take part in this event and witness the value that outstanding guest speakers bring to our students.”
Jacobson and The Boomerang Project have created the internationally renowned student orientation and transition programs Link Crew and WEB, which impact more than two million students in North America each year, including Merrill students. As a speaker, Jacobson encourages students, teachers and administrators to reflect on their own sense of potential while challenging them to set and achieve ambitious goals. His presentations, full of humor and compelling stories, inspire people to look within themselves and strive for more than what they thought was ever possible.
Since 1978, the Merrill Great Speaker Forum has attracted numerous engaging speakers to the school district, focusing on subjects like self-esteem, self-worth, dignity of person, pride in self, goals and achievement, patriotism and coping with societal problems like drug abuse and teen pregnancy. The series is completely funded by donations from throughout the Merrill business community, with individual contributions ranging from $25 to $1,000.
“We continue to be very appreciative of the support the Great Speaker Forum has received from local businesses and community members,” said Stevens. “This is just another example of the Merrill community doing whatever it takes to make its local public schools great. The students of MAPS truly benefit from this level of support.”
This year’s Great Speaker Forum will take place Thursday, March 7 at Merrill High School at 8:30 a.m., with another presentation at Prairie River Middle School at 1 p.m.