Communication Awards
The Communication Awards represent your progress as a Public Speaker.
Qualified Speaker
After completing the Basic Communication Path, you're awarded the Qualified Speaker award Certificate and Digital Badge.
Accomplished Speaker
After completing every Advanced Path of your choice, you're also awarded the Accomplished Speaker award Certificate and Digital Badge for that particular path. For example, if you complete the Humorous Speeches path, you are awarded an "Accomplished Humorous Speaker" certificate.
Accomplished Communicator
After completing any four (different) Advanced Paths of your choice and the Critical Thinking path, you'll be awarded the Accomplished Communicator award, which is the highest communication-related that Agora Speakers awards.
Digital Badges conform to the Open Badges standard (openbadges.org ), which is already being used by literally thousands of companies. Open Badges can be embedded in your professional profile (e.g., LinkedIn, Xing, and other social media), resumes, business cards, or other digital locations. The badge image contains metadata that provides more information about the badge and can be verified independently. For example, an employer can click on a badge to get more information about what it means and to check when and how the person showing it got it.
All Certificates carry a unique verification number that anyone can use to verify the authenticity of the certificate.
Optionally, you can order printed certificates to be mailed to you if you need them in physical form. Please note that this is a paid service, and depending on your location, it can take up to a month for a printed certificate to arrive.
How to get your certificate
Once you've completed the last project of a path, get in touch with your club VPE or President so that they can request a certificate for you.
Certificates are emitted by the country Ambassador at the request of the VPE or President of a club. If there's no country Ambassador, the VPE or President of the club should send a message to [email protected] providing the details of the member and each of the projects: title, date, and place where it was delivered.
Leadership Awards
Club Leader
The Club Leader award represents your first step into leadership, and specifically into the kind of leadership that we promote: servant leadership and leading by example: leaders who inspire others by way of their actions and not their words. The requirements are oriented to ensure that you develop the basic skills that all leaders have, especially in the areas of initiative, tolerance, attentive listening, ability to provide constructive feedback, and empathy, all of that while providing support for critical roles in the club.
To earn the Club Leader award, you need to:
Qualified Leader
The Qualified Leader award represents your initial steps into leadership outside of the club. They build on the skills you learned as a Club Leader and extend your reach with the ability to properly and persuasively communicate your vision and implement that vision by leading small projects in the real world.
To earn the Qualified Leader award, you need to:
- Earn the Club Leader award.
- Complete the Basic Educational Path.
- Complete the Critical Thinking and Leadership Advanced Paths.
Accomplished Leader
The Accomplished Leader award is the intermediate step in your leadership journey. The requirements are designed to make sure you're both a very well-rounded communicator who can use advanced techniques to persuade and inspire people and someone with hands-on experience in designing and managing projects successfully and delivering results.
To earn the Accomplished Leader badge, you need to:
- Earn the Qualified Leader badge
- Serve as a club officer individually for at least 6 months. "Individually" means that the role was not shared with more people. For example, if you were VP of Education, but there were two more VPEs in your club, this wouldn't qualify.
- Earn the Accomplished Communicator badge by completing the following additional Advanced Paths:
- Storytelling
- Persuasive Speeches
- Project Management
- Interpersonal Skills
If you already have an Accomplished Leader badge and are pursuing a second (or successive) one, then for the second Accomplished Communicator badge, you may select any four Advanced Paths of your choice.
Agora Torchbearer
The Agora Torchbearer award is the highest Leadership award that the Agora Foundation offers. It not only certifies your leadership skills but also that you embody and promote Agora´s ideals and vision of helping people around the world.
To earn the ultimate Agora badge, you need to:
- Earn the Accomplished Leader badge
- Found a new physical Agora club that is operational at the time of the badge award (Operational means meeting regularly with the minimum number of members and following all the Agora guidelines). The club must be at least 6 months old. You don't need to be an officer in that club.
- One of:
Spearhead a media appearance of Agora in your country. The appearance must explain who we are, what we do, our ideals and vision, and either a pointer to the website, wiki, or EMail. The appearance may take any form - an interview with you, a published article, a note on a project you've done, etc. The media where this appears must have a circulation or an audience of at least 5.000 people.
OR
Lead a Community Project that is important enough to get reported or mentioned in the local (or national) media. The report needs to include a reference to the project, what you accomplished, and mention the Agora Speakers International Foundation, our role, and what we do. You need to make sure that it's clear that this is your project as a leader, not a project of the Foundation. (Not only because the credit belongs to you, but also to make sure the Neutrality principle is not violated).
The media where this appears must have a circulation or an audience of at least 5.000 people.
Multiple Awards
You can earn an award multiple times by completing all the requirements for that award. For example, you may get the Qualified Speaker award twice if you complete twice the Basic Educational Path.
Achievement Awards
In addition to the awards for completing the educational paths, in Agora, you can obtain different Achievement Awards for specific milestones. There are four categories of awards:
- Operational Awards - Granted for milestones or exceptional performance in running a club, such as continuously operating the club for 1 year.
- Community Awards - Granted for achievements related to growing and strengthening the Agora community, such as founding a new club or hosting a Convention.
- Educational Awards - Granted for achieving specific educational milestones, such as the above educational titles.
- Social Awards - Granted for actions that positively impact your community, such as media outreach or successfully finishing a community project.
