 What is Pathways Education program that has been created by Toastmasters and it has been around for the last five years. My name is Kajitan Barreto. I am a Distinguished Toastmaster and I have done couple of these programs. There are currently 11 parts and I have already completed five of them and that is one of the reason that I have managed to get the title Distinguished Toastmaster as have many others who are in the audience here today. What is this Pathways Education program and how does it help you to become an effective communicator? I joined Toastmasters five years ago because I was scared of public speaking. Not scared in the sense that you might think I was a general manager at the time. I used to give presentations to the board, annual plans, budgets. I would go to the customers and I would give them presentations of our products very confidently. But if I was in a social setting where I had not prepared myself and somebody asks me can you raise a toast or can you say a few words and that is the time we all freeze because we don't know what to say. That is one aspect of Toastmasters, the ability to speak. And then the second part which is equally important is the ability to build leadership skills. If you look at both of this leadership and communication, this is what makes us effective. First of all, Pathways is a very interactive and flexible education system. That means you can do it at your own pace. Programmers design for two objectives, the communication and leadership. And this will help you to grow both personally and professionally and achieve success in whatever you do. Unlike some programs where you can go online and you can learn and you can maybe even get certifications. We are talking about skills that need to be demonstrated. So when you talk about public speaking, you can learn by watching videos. You can learn by reading about what is communication, how to give a speech. But the proof is in the pudding that you actually stand in front of an audience. In this case, in front of a virtual audience and give your speech. Pathways is where you go and you study for your project. For example, how to give a icebreaker, you watch some videos, you answer some questions. You learn about the structure of the speech and then comes the practical part where your club helps you to, first of all, repair the speech. This is done by you sitting with your mentor that would have been assigned to you by your club and then you go and you deliver. And once you deliver, you will get immediate feedback from your club, from your evaluators who evaluate your speech. So this is all the practical part. And once you do that, you go back to pathways in the pathway system and you reflect upon it. Did you improve? This is all self-reflection. You start the whole cycle for the next speech and you keep repeating it again and again. You have the choice of selecting different parts and they all depend upon your needs. Why did you join Toastmasters? Not everyone has the same objectives. So some of us joined Toastmasters because we are interested in leadership building skills. Some of us joined Toastmasters because we want to network with others. All of these are different objectives and based on these objectives, you could select one of these parts. And these parts help you develop this core competencies of public speaking, interpersonal communication, strategic relationships, leadership skills, management and confidence. And under that, there is a whole range of sub skills around 300 competencies like active listening, emotional intelligence. So these are real skills that are valuable in today's organizations. How to work with others, how to build a team, how to interact with a team. All of these are projects that are part of pathways that you learn. And more importantly, you practice it then you build upon any path that you select. It will be divided into five levels and each level is given a title. Level one is called mastering fundamentals. Level two is called learning your style. Three is increasing knowledge for his building skills and level five is demonstrating expertise. And each level will have certain projects that you will be asked to deliver. And then you can start with another path if you so wish and continue your journey in Toastmasters.