About Academy Instructor Colby

Colbert Ye, nicknamed Colby, used to be very shy and quiet. Speaking in front of a group of people, or speaking to just one person, was difficult for him.
At age 10, he joined the Lone Star Gaveliers Gavel club, a youth speech club. Initially, he was reluctant to open up in public. But with more speeches, he became more and more comfortable speaking in front of a group, enabling him to earn his Advanced Gaverlier Bronze Award and win many speech contests in the Dallas Fort Worth area.
In 8th grade, he was selected to be an attorney on his school's Mock Trial team. It was the classic case of "kids who work hard achieve success." His team won 1st place at the County level competition and he took home the Best Overall Attorney award. After that, he worked at the Collin County teen court as a teen attorney and court intern during the summer.
In the summer of 2006, Colby planned and organized a Youth Leadership Program to train younger children on communication and presentation skills with the help of his fellow gavel club members. The feed back was so positive that it was continued every summer since then.
Colby stayed with the Lone Star Gaveliers Gavel Club for 6 years before moving from Texas. Early on, he took on many leadership positions in the club, from VP of Public Relations to VP of membership to President. In 2008, he was nominated to become the sole youth board member by the adult sponsors. Due to the club's growth and wide age range of the members (6 years old to 16 years old), the club was split into 2 groups at the end of 2008, "Awesome People" (elementary group) and "Future Leaders" (middle school and high school group). In 2009, the adult sponsor for Future Leader Group had to take a leave of absence from meetings due to family reasons. With the Board's approval, Colby took sponsorship of the club and became the 1st and only youth sponsor in the club's history. Under his sponsorship, the "Future Leaders" group grew from about 10 members to more than 30 by the time Colby left Texas to attend Phillips Exeter Academy in summer of 2010. 
In high school, Colby joined the debate team, immediately finding himself fascinated and quickly becoming one of the best debaters in Dallas area. In 10th grade, he advanced to the final round of the NFL (National Forensic League) national debate tournament, ranking him among the top 20 debaters in the entire nation.
Recently, Colby won the American Legion State Oratorical contest and will travel to Indianapolis to compete at the national level in April.
He would like to share his own experiences on public speaking with other youth. He believes that if he could be transformed from a shy boy to a passionate speaker, everyone can. He will show you, no matter how scary public speaking might be, that with proper training, you can become a competent speaker.