Hundreds of students packed the gym as they listened to motivational speaker Patrick George. He visited Granite Hills on April 4.

Guest speaker helps motivate students
Ebony Bailey | 4/7/08 | News

Last Friday students were motivated by guest speaker Patrick George. George has conducted over 1,000 motivational presentations across the nation.

About 1000 Granite Hill's freshmen, sophomores, and juniors were able to hear this motivational story in the gym. George said that he was pleased by the behavior of the Granite students.

"To have people, quiet, following along, you can't ask for much more than that," he said. "It was good; I was pleased."

During his presentation he "made it rain," sang "lean on me" with all of the students, told the students about some of his life stories, such as his younger sister helping him out with some of his college money when he had none because she said he used to help her out with money when she had none. He emphasized that one person can make a difference.

George began motivational speaking in 1991, one year after he graduated high school. He said he paid for his college by motivational speaking. Although he began motivational speaking in 1991, he gave his first speeches at the age of five when he visited his grandmother's church in Douglas, Alabama. 

In high school he was involved with many activities, such as student council, Future Business Leaders of America, and JROTC. He was awarded the Silver Knight Award from the "Miami Herald" for his volunteer work in speech, working with elementary and middle students in leadership and drop out prevention programs.

He said he remembers some of the motivational speakers he got to listen to in high school and other places, and that was his inspiration.

"I remember going to conferences and being like 'yeah I wanna do that,'" he said.

He said he enjoys being a motivational speaker. He believes that he sometimes set the ground work for people who want to improve their lives. He wants to be able to address all types of people.

"You got kids who aren't excited about anything besides going home at the end of the day, so I want to be the speaker who can address those kids as well," he said. ”Some, kids all they needed was someone to look them into the eyes and say I believe you can do it."

He said that earlier last week, when he was in Missouri, a parent walked up to him and said that because of his motivational speech, their daughter wants to run for state president. He said helping out just one person is great.

“So I think out of all these kids did I reach every last one of them? No, that’s silly of me to think that,” he said. “But I do think there are some kids that have had a change of thought, change of heart.  

But since he travels so much, sometimes he doesn't get to see if he had changed a person or not.

“I won’t ever get to see the transition, because I’ll be back in Atlanta [the next day],” he said.

To get more information about George, visit http://patrick-george.com