Speaking and Communicating Podcast

Hello everyone and welcome back to the Speaking and Communicating podcast. My name is Roberta and I'm back this week with another episode for this platform where we talk everything speaking, communication, interpersonal skills. Today we have a very special guest. Her name is Auguste Modiga. She is a South African.
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a very young 22 year old who's done some amazing things already. And I'll give her time to share those things with you when she finally has a chance to introduce herself. But August is a student at the Drexel University. She is studying economics, politics and philosophy. She once partnered with the United Nations for a project that was empowering youth.
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especially young girls in South Africa. And her greatest work and the greatest achievement is her mentorship program, where she mentors both young girls and boys on public speaking and communication skills and helping them to do that and work towards turning that into a career. So big shout out to help me welcome August Modiga.
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Hello, hello, hello, everyone. So August, welcome to our Speaking and Communicating podcast. I've said a few things about you. Please introduce yourself and tell us more than I've already done. Go ahead. Yeah, thank you, Roberta, for inviting me to your podcast. As has been mentioned, in addition to being a student at Drexel University, I also at the age of 16 founded a nonprofit in South Africa.
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that essentially worked on integrating opportunities to young girls who didn't have opportunities whether it was in their academics or their career to opportunities that were existent in the cities and that later got recognized by the United Nations and we work together on expanding the work that we've done. So the organization is six years in existence as of now and we have gone global we have
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partnerships in Libya, in Nigeria, in Ghana, and still counting. So I'm very proud and humbled by the support we've received and the impact we've made so far. That sounds amazing. So it's been around for six years already. Yes. Wow. That is amazing. And then tell us why did you choose to move to the United States for your tertiary studies?
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Yeah, absolutely. Well, it's been a dream of mine since I could remember in high school, when I was in public school, I just wanted to go and study in the US, but most prominently for the economic mobility provided. My goals have changed over time, but I think one thing that's been present is that I want to be able to make an impact that is intercontinental, that is global, whether it's in the world of politics.
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or finance, which is the route I'm taking currently. So, and I saw that the US was a good opportunity to pursue that. And once I put my foot down on having that goal set, all the help that I needed began to show up in addition to the work I've done. So I'm really, really grateful that that dream has eventually come true. But I most importantly hope that the other dreams that pertain to my career and academics.
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also come into fruition in their due time, of course. Wonderful. And as you say, as soon as you take action, as soon as you take that very first step, everything else just shows up. Absolutely, absolutely. Everything else just shows up. Now, but what I'm most interested about when it comes to today's episode, I know that you mentor young girls and boys on public speaking as a potential career for them. How did that start?
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Yeah, so my background is that from a very young age, I used to have a very strong stutter. But I didn't see, being an only child, you don't have the opportunity to compare yourself to anybody else. I didn't see that as a flaw up until I think I probably got to high school and had to speak in front of people. And I didn't see that as a problem until I got to high school and have friends who
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would maybe make funny faces and whatever. So I certainly went from being an extrovert and then retreated and really went back to just not talking to people because I didn't see it as a flow. I only began to see it as I integrated with other groups of people. And then when I was in the ninth grade, and I think of this person as, you know, heaven sent, my English teacher, she heard me reading a passage, I think in class, and she said,
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I want you to come with me and join me on this poetry competition. I want you to participate. And I thought at that time, it was the most bizarre thing. Why would you take a young girl with a huge stutter to go into doing anything that has to do with public speaking or poetry at that time? That is interesting. Yeah. Yeah. And I thought that's crazy. Why would you do that? Then she said, just trust me.
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She is heaven sent in so many ways. Ms. Matibe, I remember her till this date. We would stay after school, day after day, practicing, rehearsing, and then preparing for those competitions essentially. But I didn't know that she was essentially preparing me for the world of public speaking. So little things like engaging with the audience, your eye contact, knowing when to pause and why you need to pause, all these little techniques.
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that came with public speaking. She taught me through the means of poetry and I loved writing. So, you know, competition after competition, I won third place first, then my very last competition. Wow. And within, through the practice, I think she was my oral therapist. With each practice, my speech got better. You've lost the stuttering. Because I'm about to ask, when you were winning this competitions,
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How was stuttering still a problem? When I'm on stage, it seems to not come as much. It's when I'm thinking about what to say. And if you give me, if you put, if you put me on the spot right then, I will probably stutter because you know, I'm still forming my foot. But if it's rehearsed, if it's practiced, zero. So when you know exactly what to say, the stuttering goes away.
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Yes, that is amazing. I wonder how many people listening are close to or know someone with that problem. And if it's something that could help them. Yeah, I think that's why your teacher picked you and in order for you to engage in this project. You know, I would have to ask her but if I would know something for sure it's that she really did love my writing ability. Okay, right.
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So she spent a lot of her time and her money and her reach. Yes, yes. Me out of a hundred and something other students. Wow. In petitions. So I. A real hero. Yeah. And little did I know that a year on from, cause she left the school after I finished being in the same grid where she taught me English. She went on to another job. So.
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immediately the next year, I thought, let's just start a nonprofit organization. In fact, at that time, it was just an event, because I used to go off on my own to seminars and conferences and attend with my school uniform, just because I really wanted to, you know, get ahead in terms of my career. That was my only thinking. Right. And then I went back to school, I'm like, my peer group is not exposed to any of these opportunities that I'm seeing at these conferences.
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I'm like, let's bring those opportunities to my high school at that time. Uh huh. Oh, I gathered a couple of friends and I, we hosted the first event. That's how it started as an event. And the connections I had made from attending those conferences, we were able to organize public speakers, people in different industries to come speak about their career to these students so that they can know that, you know, having been something like that exists. Yeah.
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Yeah, thank you so much, August. If you've just joined us on the Speaking and Communicating podcast, we have August Madika tonight and she's sharing with us her journey of being a public speaking mentor to young people. So that's how it started. Yes, after attending this conferences and seminars you brought that to your school. And so then take us through after
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these people have arrived and they've inspired you guys as high schoolers, what happened next? Yeah, so from that first event, which was huge, we had Umme Putimahangela, who is an investment bank. I know her, yes. Yes, I'm honored to have called her a mentor. She's the CEO of which company nowadays? Right now it's Sigma Capital, she moved from Ushanduga. I remember she moved from Ushanduga, yes.
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She is chief of Sigma Capital in South Africa. I remember, oh, I know her very well. Yes, carry on. She, another blessing that walked into my life and really showed me things I didn't know. She was really so welcoming and warm. I appreciate her till this date. She was one of our first experts who came into the event that we had planned.
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And I said to my team, and now we can make this bigger, we can cement this. And later on, it then became a nonprofit organization where it moved from just being a thing where we have events, but also where we had workshops where we were going to Pretoria. Pretoria was the most easily accessible area from Joburg at that time. So we'd go to Sochanguwe and all these other places at the townships to speak to students and have workshops on either computer skills, applying to...
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to colleges and universities in South Africa. And then intermittently we'll bring them to whatever event we're able to find at that time. You have spelling bees or another event, another like conference seminar-ish, but is catered for students as the audience. So we went to art galleries for students who wanted, who are interested in the arts. We went to, we met the Bangana Bangana coach at a certain time.
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Okay, just a disclaimer, Benyana Benyana is Africa's female football club. Yay. And they always win. I love them. All right. Kirian. They should pay the female soccer players because they're the ones winning. Definitely. They always bring home the wins. Of course. Yes. All right. So what we're talking about areas in South Africa where, especially Black townships, where some of the resources are still missing in terms of
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the schools, some of the resources they don't have in exposing children to potential other careers. Do you think that career guidance counselors in those schools, do you think they are aware as well of potential careers in this industry of speaking or they just usually push the, you know, the common ones like, oh, nursing, teaching, doctor, lawyer.
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That's a very good question. I would say to begin with, in these societies, you know, Model 3 schools, they don't have career guidance counselors. Yes, because we didn't have them in the township schools either. That's right. Yeah. We played that role actually thinking about that. We tried to be the career guidance counselors, because yes, you're right. My mom wanted me to be just be an accountant, you know, you're just forced to go to these.
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them professions or other professions that are perceived to make the most money. That's right. Yeah, that's where the students passions are. And many of them do end up doing those professions just because they don't know that there is an alternative that they're able to make just as much money, you know, if they are able to have those accesses, those contact points, really, it's about networking. And the lack of exposure for them, as you say,
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career guidance counselors. Because if nobody teaches you that one, you can actually pursue something you love and you can make a wonderful living out of it. I agree. They think the only options available to you are the common ones and which one makes the most money so I can pay off my student loans, et cetera. So that's usually what they are exposed to, yeah. 100%. And I started seeing later on that our demographic that.
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would get the most positive results on. We're not A students because obviously the A students went to UCT or UJ because they got the funding to go there, right? But other students who are not performing well, they didn't have alternatives, you know, and usually the other more creative or more entrepreneurial than the typical A students.
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potential brighter futures, that's right. UCT meaning the University of Cape Town and UJ meaning the University of Johannesburg. A lot more South African landmarks today that we're talking about with August on our podcast, but more so we're gonna draw a lot of parallels on how in any country around the world, we can inspire youth to pursue careers in public speaking. So once you've brought the students,
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in at the school? What are some of the responses you get? What were, so over these years, what have you seen happening? Yeah, so from that very first event right up to the spelling bees and the art gallery visits and so forth, one common denominator from, you know, the feedback and the responses are from parents more than any. The parents reach out and say, I didn't know, I was worried.
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about my child, what is she going to do after finishing, which is the finally of high school. Right. Grateful because they either have contacts that could possibly help them. They see that there are very many companies that are willing to provide the funding for students who have passions in a specific area, whether that's in banking or finance. So the parents were most grateful because I think that's the biggest headache for people who live in under.
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developed places and impoverished townships is that they don't have the funds to pursue these things more than anything. And to go to avenues where they could potentially find more information about them so that they can see. Yeah, I think, like I said, it's lack of exposure more than anything, the lack of resources for them to even come to know that those avenues exist. So in the parents coming to you,
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Did you then, so when parents come to you, are the children on the same page as well? Let me ask that first. It depends, and it's parent to parent, and I think I've said this in one of my Facebook posts. Sometimes it's the parents alone, other times the students. Sometimes the students have talked to their parents saying, this is amazing. I'm- I pursue this. Mm-hmm. And the parents echo that same notion. So it-
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It's been all over the place. Right. Do you have any students that have graduated high school who are on this program? Yes, 100%. We have, I think, right now a tracking of 23 that we are able to count. That's amazing. Yeah. We helped you with your registering for your applications to universities in South Africa. 23 so far on record. I'm hoping that there's more out there, but these are the records that we have.
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We have students that go to the University of Pretoria, University of Western Cape. Most of them are in South Africa. So those are the records, I can say for sure. Otherwise, if somebody else maybe attended and applied on their own, that's another thing, yeah. The impact is impact. As long as they have someone out there holding their hands because every one of these children have the potential to be anything they want to be. And it's just as smart as the next kid.
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But the lack of exposure and resources where they went to school could be the differentiating factor. And it actually is the differentiating factor. Yeah. So you're changing these kids' lives. How does that feel? I feel like the work is incomplete. I don't feel anywhere near complete. The work is very much incomplete. Look at the statistics in South Africa, from gender-based violence rate to...
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where how much school is costing in South Africa. There's a lot of things that keep me worried. So the work is incomplete and the journey to feeling satisfied is very far I think, is very far away. But thanks that we have someone like you who are looking out for these children. If anybody is sitting and listening to this podcast, by the way we are on the Speaking and Communicating podcast talking to August Modicha who has a program for youth
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on pursuing their careers, especially in public speaking. If anyone is sitting here listening and they want to know if there's anything they can do in helping hold another South African kids hand, expose them, help them with resources that they don't have, is there anything, any practical steps they can take to make any contribution in whatever way, shape or form?
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100 percent. I think so. And many people think, oh, if somebody is asking me, how can I help? It's like, oh, I don't have the money or I don't have the means. And it's I promise you, it's never about the money. My mom is a nurse at a public hospital. So you can imagine what my financial means were growing up. So it's always about using the resources and being able to put
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at these business conferences, reaching out to people, speaking to people who look like they could be in a position to help me, and let them know what it is exactly that I want. That's the issue that people have. They'll have the opportunity to meet somebody that could potentially help them, and then have no clue what they want to do, what they're allowed. It's like, okay, you want to go to college, you don't know what you want to study. I want to see if you have a plan, and whether or not you're going to follow through with the plan. That's what they're looking to do more than anything.
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So if you have a clear vision of what it is you want, then make the conscious effort to put yourself out there. Go out there. It's not gonna come to you. 100%. I've had many messages saying, oh, I also wanna study abroad, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, cool, what do you wanna do? And they're like, oh, I don't know. I'm still thinking about it. What do you suggest? And I'm like- Oh, no, it's not my life. You never suggest, and that's, I can imagine how-
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irritating that could be for somebody who has a very tight schedule, for somebody to take out their time to listen to you and you don't have a clear vision. So once you have a vision of what it is, what you want to do, and be specific, which university do you want to go to? Why is the university you want to go to? What do you plan to do after you graduate? If you have those things clarified for you in your mind, then, you know, do what you have to do and then release and hope that the universe, you know, comes for you in your favor.
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Is this the kind of information they can Google or find on YouTube or more often than not? Yes. All the things we did. There are no excuses. You're saying this. There's no excuses, but also I don't want to come off as maybe elitist and it's like, oh, no, no. Yeah. But there is, there is a way to find this information. There is a way for you to, uh, find it from whatever it is that you want to pursue. There is.
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the due resources available. They are resources that enable you to do your due diligence. The rest I will openly and happily. What about if somebody like me wants to mentor one of the girls or something? Yeah. So for us, it's because we had a platform or we had events that intrigued different demographics of people. So it's really, it's not systematic as you hope it is. It's really
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is interested in being mentored, they put themselves up. And usually one day's mentorship, there's always like an ultimate goal. Do you wanna go to university? Are you looking to be an entrepreneur and set up your business? So then you're able to connect you to the right kind of mentors that can help you. But other than that, I think I'm a mentor in the sense of a personal sense where you're looking for professional or personal development, you know, things scheduling, things like timing. We're always- Without skills, yeah.
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Those are things that we're always able to help at any given time. In fact, you don't even have to schedule anything for that. There's also the career path mentorship program that we have, which I think is more beneficial in many ways because you only get to put the personal skills in practice when you're in- When you start pursuing your career, that's right. If you're waiting, like, I can only tell you, read a book. You know, there's nothing else I can tell you on a personal mentorship scale. But if you have a plan, you can put it in your path.
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and I can intermittently join in then talk about all the little soft skills, as you mentioned. Because you do the work, we are there to just help you along, help direct you, guide you along. All right. So that's amazing. Tahor, thank you so much. Before we close, we want to know where to find you on social media so that if anybody wants to know how they can mentor, how they can be mentored, where can they find you?
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Yeah, so I think right now my most active social media site is Instagram. And you can find me at misspresident.sa. So it's, is it M S or M I S S? It's M S N S P R E S I D E N T S A. Correct. Okay. So that's your Instagram.
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MSPRE, S-I-D-E, NTSA, Ms. President SA. That's the way on Instagram you can find August and she can share with you what it is that you can do with regards to mentorship. Is that the only social media platform? Yeah, that's the only social media platform I would say you would find me on, but if you're looking for something professional or you're interested in the organization, anything more
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I would say send me an email and it's again, MsPresidentSA at gmail.com. MsPresidentSA for South Africa at gmail.com. That is her email address. But obviously somebody can message you on Instagram, right? And ask the same, the exact same questions.
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All right. So today we have learned about Augusta, our South African trailblazer who worked with the United Nations on a youth project. She is currently and she's been doing it actually for six years. She's currently mentoring young girls, especially in pursuing their careers, especially in public speaking and exposing them to other potential careers that they may not have known they existed before.
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which is exactly what they need, especially in some of the areas in South Africa where those resources don't exist. August, thank you very much for spending your time with us. We really appreciate you. Just remember on Instagram, Miss Ms. President S.A. All one word S.A. standing for South Africa. That's where you find on Instagram. And if you prefer to email her because you're not on Instagram, it's misspresidentsa.gmail.com.
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MSPRESIDENTSA at gmail.com. Thank you very much August for joining us on our podcast. We really appreciate you. Thank you so much for your time. I appreciate being here. Stay tuned for our next episode.