Our Academic Program

Public Speaking, Confidence & Leadership for Middle Schoolers

Developed by Harvard and Yale-trained experts, our proprietary content and teaching techniques are grounded in decades of success across the globe. The curriculum has three components:

Our Curriculum is Broken Into Three Key Componets:

I.Public Speaking for Influence & Impact - How to develop the voice of a confident leader.

Public speaking includes critial writing skills - creative and original thinking for persuasion and self expression. All culminating in a formal presentation, competition and awards program.

II. Admissions Counseling - Want to get in? Elite boarding school and college admissions strategies.

We are proud to offer a highly sought-after course in admissions counseling. This course is taught by Kenneth Cain, a Harvard Law grad and long time Harvard alumni admissions interviewer and Brendan Cahill, a history teacher at Choate Rosemary Hall, tow of the most elite academic institutions in the world..

III. High Performance - Learn how elite athletes and military leaders succeed.

This class is for students who want to learn how to focus on performance and productive output at the most elite levels, with guest lectures from successful entrepreneurs, writers and athletes.

All of our academic programs include intensive immersion in Spoken English with an emphasis on accent reduction.

Here is a sample academic curriculum from our Public Speaking for Leadership component. We guarantee students will see noticeable improvement in communications skills and confidence immediately.

I. Intro to Public Speaking & Participatory Skills Training

  • Goal: To introduce how creative self-expression skills lead to success. Begin practice drills and skill development.

  • Goal: To introduce and drill the “Top Ten Speaking Skills”™ - generating confidence for spontaneity and creativity in effective self expression.

    • Speak Up

    • Slow Down

    • Project. Your. Voice.

    • Chin & Eyes Up (for eye contact)

    • Shoulders Back

    • Feet Apart

    • Hands Off (face and hair)

    • Power of the Pause

    • Breathe More!

    • End Confidently

  • Through exercises and drills, advance using the TOP 10 Speaking Skills™ with close coaching and critique. Students will see immediate improvement as they learn basic skills.

  • Goal: To continue to improve confidence in self-expression through harder and harder, introspective “why?” prompts, with individual and group critiques.

II. Storytelling – How to Use Familiar Storytelling Skills

  • Goal: To understand Middle School-appropriate storytelling techniques for use in public speaking and communication. We then learn the 7 Fundamental Story-Telling Techniques:

    1. Physical setting, time and place

    2. Character development

    3. Take us on “Journey”

    4. Stakes

    5. Story Arc

    6. Voice & Point of View

    7. Show-Don’t-Tell: using all senses

  • Goal: To integrate confident, creative expression with spontaneous, engaging delivery.

  • Goal: To bring students to a more advanced public speaking skill level, incorporating The Power of the Pause™ (Slow down! Speak up!) so they are ready to begin preparing for their final work-product assignment: a three-minute “TED-style” Talk.

III. TED-Style Talk

  • Goal: To conduct a dress rehearsal for final critiques of students’ TED-style Talk presentations.

    Dress rehearsal! Each student will rehearse their full TED-style Talk and the class will engage in a group critique.

  • Goal: To accomplish a skilled, public presentation of a coherent, fully rehearsed and developed three-minute speech on an approved subject of the student's choice, using effective story-telling techniques.

Meet our Instructors

Learn more about our exceptional instructors and world-class advisory board.

Curious about what a typical day at Pathways looks like?

Our daily schedule is designed to blend learning, creativity, and personal growth, offering students a well-rounded experience that nurtures their potential. From engaging workshops that develop essential skills to exciting elective activities, each day is packed with opportunities to explore new interests and build lasting connections.