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Shipp brings youth issues, energy to talk

By NED P. RAUCH, Staff Writer
Press Republican

LAKE PLACID — Josh Shipp knows how to work a crowd.

With his hair gelled into a mess and his energy humming, he cajoles his listeners into serious contemplation then rescues them with a joke.

By the end of an hour-and-a-half performance before a room full of educators, students and Youth Bureau officials from around the state Tuesday, he’s silenced his audience with an account of his troubled childhood, goaded them into hysterical laughter and trained them to recite his college roommate’s simple mantra, "Dude."

But he’s also left them with a few messages regarding teen behavior:

"If you don’t identify who you are, someone else will do it for you."

"You’re not a problem; you’re an opportunity."

"What you don’t talk out, you act out."

Shipp was the featured speaker on the second day of the Association of New York State Youth Bureaus’ annual conference, held this week in Lake Placid.

At 22, he might seem young to be making a living as a motivational speaker, but he’s anything but green.

Left at the hospital by his parents, he grew up in foster homes and with grandparents to whom he was not actually related. He was abused, became depressed, bounced in and out of schools and tried to kill himself more than a few times.

By his late teens, however, he had turned his life around, finding satisfaction through his involvement in a student leadership program.

At 17, he began a career in public speaking. Since then, he’s traveled the country, passing on what he’s learned to students and encouraging teachers and other adult mentors to guide kids toward positive growth.

"I was a mess; now I’m a message," he said from the stage.

Later, he said he felt compelled to deliver that message because kids here — and wherever else he speaks — are "dealing with a lot of stuff like me; they’re just in another state. The people at this conference have a tremendous amount of importance in young people’s lives and a lot of responsibility."

During his performance, Shipp emphasized the significance of adults’ roles, telling the crowd, "If it wasn’t for people like you, I’d either be dead or in jail."

He implored audience members to be kind to the kids in their classrooms and activity programs and not to label them. Recognize kids’ strengths and help them succeed in those areas, he said.

"Let your students know who they truly are.

"Help a teenager find a purpose."

With the conference room empty save for the wait staff preparing for lunch, Shipp, just a few years removed from his teens, said 9 out of 10 teenagers are "doing well," but they still need help.

"Today’s teens are very passionate, but I think passion without direction can be very dangerous. Teens are looking for direction. Whatever they do, they do with everything they have."

The problem, he explained, is when kids do not feel like they belong, when their strengths and interests are not nurtured, they can devote all that energy to negative ends.

"Take a look at your gifts, your core values, your experiences," he said. "You’ll find out who you are. I was a class clown. ‘How can we make that good? Well, let’s have him emcee a pep rally.’"

He did, and a once-suicidal orphan found a career.