One on One: Interviewing 101 was The Virtual Voice’s way to finish the year off strong. The event was planned over many weeks and members from The Virtual Voice worked hard to organize, script, and present their valuable information. On the day of the event we taught interviewing and the power of deep questions, life-changing skills like leadership, media and communication, and time management. Then we did an interview with Allen Saakyan to show the techniques in practice. Check out the video later in the article! Finally, the student participants conducted their own interviews in breakout rooms.

During the breakout rooms each student paired in a One on One interview and was asked "Tell me about your favorite memory from this school year."

Here are their responses:

"I learned in this presentation that perspectives are everything. Anyone can do an interview, like Justin said, and like Abeed told the story of Dean Nelson, I believe that everyone should be able to tell their story and insight."

"Lilian is in Key Club and loves to attend live events. Her favorite memory in OCV is talking to international students in the Key Club. I also found out that she was at the same badminton class as me. We were sort of friends back then, and she was really good. She plans on continuing on playing when the lockdown is over, but is afraid of wearing masks all the time. She also loves to sew."

"This person had found a new best friend during the first quad and they had not met before, and they both share the hobby of painting, and they plan on meeting each other and give each other paintings when they meet up. They also like playing games together. The one game they like playing together is Minecraft."

"I found out that he wants to be a doctor. He has biology and non-biology related hobbies. His favourite memory was picking out courses. He comes from a doctor family and is currently in Pakistan for early summer break."

"Ethan is in grade 10 and he has been at the virtual school the whole year! He enjoys art and science. His favorite memory from this year was Quad 3 because he met his best friend at that time and he had science and phys ed, which were some of his favorite courses from this year. One of his biggest takeaways from this year is time management. He said that he learned time management from his mistakes and eventually developing his time management skills throughout the year."

Asking deep questions breaks through the surface level conversation and gets to a place of vulnerability, richness, emotion, and our shared humanity. It was these types of questions we have to ask every conversation, for what reason is there to have anything else? One on One: Interviewing 101 taught students that asking deep questions will let the other person show their true self. Shatter through the facades, social norms, and make each conversation a moment to remember!