Your story can change the world

Your Story Can Change the World is a dynamic keynote and participatory workshop that explores how personal storytelling can be a powerful force for connection, courage, and social change. In a world where many people feel overwhelmed or unsure how to make an impact, this session offers an empowering starting point: your own story. Through compelling examples and real-world applications, participants experience how personal narratives—when shared with clarity and intention—can challenge stigma, spark empathy, and mobilize communities.

Eva Tenuto, Executive Director of TMI Project, shares how telling her own story ignited a storytelling movement that has supported thousands of people in finding and using their voices. The program features a screening of the award-winning short film One Story at a Time: Celeste Lecesne. Celeste’s decision to share his story publicly became the impetus for founding The Trevor Project, which has helped save thousands of LGBTQ+ lives over the past 25 years. 

Lecesne will join Tenuto in a post-screening discussion to explore what becomes possible when personal truth enters public space and to highlight other storytellers who have used their lived experience and personal narrative to shift culture, open dialogue, and transform lives within their own communities.

The workshop portion is highly interactive and designed to unlock participants’ creative and civic power. Through guided exercises, participants identify the story they feel most compelled to tell, experiment with shaping it, and leave with new language and insight, discovering what only you can say and why it matters now.