GODDARD – Light-hearted and self-deprecating, the “Amazing” Tei Street begins telling an already entertained auditorium full of student council representatives and advisors from more than 40 Kansas high schools and middle schools about her teenage skydiving experience, and one can’t help but wonder where she’s heading with this.
 
Street injects humor into nearly every detail of the story, from a friend’s monetary offer to accept the challenge to her conflict with the skydiving instructor’s directive to “tuck and roll” upon landing.

 
Street, an Ohio native, even hints at the origin of her nickname – a voice inside her head she can trace back to age 5 that gave her confidence to try demanding feats.
 
Like skydiving.
 
“I still believe I saw my heart come up out of my mouth,” Street tells the students after retracing other hilarious details of her airplane-to-ground journey, which netted her $150. “I faced my fears that day.”
 
It’s that point that helps Street, a motivational speaker who has worked with youth groups and others across the country to develop leadership skills for more than two decades, connect with her audience. Street addressed students and advisors Monday at Eisenhower High School, the fifth of eight regional STUCO fall conferences conducted by the Kansas State High School Activities Association.
 
Street’s two-week tour of regional conferences took her to Olathe East, Columbus, Campus and Silver Lake high schools the first week. After the Eisenhower stop, she headed west for half-day seminars in Dodge City and Plainville. The final conference is scheduled for Thursday at Wilson High School.
 
Street’s message to the student leaders is consistent, supportive and uplifting.
 
“How many of you been told, ‘You guys are the future?’” Street asked students to a large showing of raised hands. “Any time people say you guys are the future, I give them the side-eye because they don’t really understand you’re not just the future, you’re the present. There’s nothing magical or biblical about 15 or 18 or 21. You can be great today. You are already great today.”
 
The high-energy, fast-talking Street used herself to illustrate a point on moving from motion to action. As she waved her arms and swayed left and right, she pointed to her feet, which remained stationary on the stage.
 
“This is my comfort zone,” Street said. “This is my place of being grounded. But if you want to change your lives, you’ve got to come out of your comfort zone.
 
“If you want to change your schools as STUCO leaders, real leaders serve all kids. I dog-double dare you to go back to your schools and serve the special (education) kids that nobody is paying any attention to. I dog-double dare you to reach out to those kids who are sitting by themselves. That’s what real leadership looks like.”
 
Street conducted a workshop session Monday in which more than a dozen high school and middle school students took the stage and spoke for 30 straight seconds on random topics provided by their peers in the crowd. The exercise revealed many of the unwanted tendencies in public speaking, but Street met each with constructive feedback and suggestions for being more at ease.
 
“I believe this is my calling,” Street said during a break between sessions. “When I get in front of kids, no matter how I’m feeling, all the sudden my body feels better and my spirit feels better. That awakening just sort of happens.
 
“One of the things I really want kids to get is that they’re already amazing. That their very existence makes them amazing. Now they can polish themselves up. A shoe is a shoe. You can add a different lace to it, but the shoe is still there. I want them to know that when they came to the earth, they were already created with purpose.”