Our Lady of Lourdes middle-schoolers embrace what today’s tech era has left behind: people skills

On this recent weekday morning, middle-schoolers at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School are gearing up for a competition – but not a math tournament or a spelling bee or a science fair. Instead, these sixth- and seventh-graders are preparing for a test of their people skills.

The “Amazing Shake” is a competition for talents that are oftentimes overlooked: being able to hold a conversation with a stranger, look them in the eye, shake their hand and shake off your nerves, and be confident in what you are saying.

But these skills are some of the most important for the adult world, said Our Lady of Lourdes second-grade teacher Melanie Reardon, especially as students get ready to go to high school and join new clubs or get their first job.

“We really want our kids to be able to talk to adults and be in a professional environment and know what they’re supposed to do,” she said. “Lots of kids are interviewing for high school these days and they have to go in and present themselves. When they’re going to college and they’re joining clubs, when they go for a job interview – we want them to be able to go into a unique situation and be able to handle themselves.”

This is the third year Reardon has helped Our Lady of Lourdes put on the Amazing Shake event, which was created at the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta, Georgia, a nonprofit middle school and educator professional development facility.

Sixth- and seventh-graders start the three-day competition with “The Gauntlet” round, during which they rotate through 15 stations ranging from small talk, dining etiquette, giving a news report, and making a sales pitch.

The top 20 students move on to the “Work Room” round, where they make conversation with 15 business professionals, and then the top 10 advance to the “Interview” round, where they go through a mock job interview. On the last day, the top three students move on to the final round: lunch at a restaurant with two business professionals.

Each student is judged on several criteria: poise, confidence, making eye contact, initiating a handshake, and thinking quickly under pressure. These social talents are somewhat of “forgotten skills” in the age of cell phones and technology, Reardon said, making it even more important that schools take the time to teach these skills to students.

“People talk about how kids these days, they’re always on their phones, they don’t really talk to people anymore. And when they go into jobs, they have trouble communicating with people,” she said. “So it’s trying to develop that aspect of them. Because if we don’t do it, it’s not going to happen. It has to happen in the schools, because it’s not going to happen anywhere else.”

'Sometimes your best is good'

On the first day of the competition, students prepare for several different tasks, each being judged by a business leader. At one station, students must put on a cooking show. At others, they have to choose a charity to donate to, conduct a news report, pitch an idea for a product, and play a quick game of cornhole while maintaining small talk.

Sixth-grader Harrison Dunaway said he felt a little nervous coming into the competition, but reminded himself that once he jumped into a conversation and got the ball rolling, he would be able to get into “the zone” and feel more comfortable.

“I kind of just started talking and then I felt more confident by myself, because I was making a bit of conversation,” he said. “I always start by asking what their name is first. And then once they ask a good question, you don’t hesitate and get right into it.”

Dunaway said his mom helps him feel more confident, and that during the competition, he made sure to go back to what his mom always said: “Just try your best.”

“She’s very supportive of me and she helps me with a lot of things, like getting my confidence up before I go to sports events. Before I did this, she was very encouraging,” he said. “My mom always says, ‘Try your best,’ so I was thinking during the whole thing that I should just try my best, because sometimes your best is bad but sometimes your best is good.”

Sixth-grader Coleman Ondo gets a lot of his confidence from playing sports, so he tried to approach the competition like he approached a basketball game or a football game – by having a positive mindset, which often can lead better results naturally.

“You always want to be confident. Like in basketball, if you go into a game and you’re like, ‘Oh, it seems like we’re going to lose,’ and you’re not confident, then you are going to lose if you don’t think you’re going to win,” he said. “And if you think you’re going to win, you have a better chance of winning.”

For some kids who are naturally quieter and more reserved, the thought of talking to a bunch of adults they do not know can be very intimidating, Reardon said. But in the adult world, poise and confidence can be just as important as academic knowledge and technical skills. And for many students, it just takes those few steps outside of their comfort zone to help them build those skills. 

“Some of the kids love this kind of thing and thrive in this kind of environment, and some of them don’t, which I think is good because we want some of those quieter kids to step out of their comfort zone,” Reardon said. “That’s the whole point – get out of your comfort zone, do some things that are a bit different. So then you can be in a situation that you’ve never been in before and you can still handle yourself well.”

After the competition, Dunaway hopes to continue to be confident and self-assured, jumping into new situations and meeting new people while not being too scared to make mistakes or not be perfect.

“I think confidence is important because it gives you that extra boost and you know that you can accomplish it,” he said. “Because sometimes when people don’t feel like they can accomplish it, they stutter and they don’t know what to do, and then they feel that they can’t do it. And even if you don’t really know the person, you should still have confidence, because maybe you could get to know them in the future.”

Liana Hardy is the Citizen’s Report for America Corps member and education reporter. Her position is dependent upon reader support; make a tax-deductible contribution to the Citizen through RFA here.