Megan McGlover: At 13, She Has a Dream

After church services each week, when she was just 3 years old, Megan McGlover would climb onto her parents’ bathroom counter and stand in front of the mirror so she could recite that morning’s sermon.

Today, the 13-year-old stands at podiums throughout the state delivering speeches and reciting poems and letters by famous black Americans.

“I’ve learned about all these people throughout my life, and I’ve remembered the important things that they’ve said,” Megan said. “This way I share the words with everybody.”

The eighth-grader from Yorba Linda began speaking publicly at churches, group meetings and colleges at age 6 and now gives more than 20 recitations a year, most of them around the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday in January and Black History Month.

From Maya Angelou’s poem “Ain’t I a Woman” to the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s speech “I Am Somebody,” Megan and her mother, Wanda McGlover, work together to find speeches that complement her youthful but polished style.

“I saw early on her ability to read and really remember the information well enough to recite it back,” said Wanda McGlover, a business manager in Yorba Linda. “I capitalized on that by using her interest to teach her about the history of black people in this country. It’s important to me that she knows her roots and understands her background. Too many of your young kids are letting that information pass them by.”

The McGlover home is a showcase of African sculptures, paintings and literature. And any references to black history in newspapers or books are clipped for Megan. To prepare for each speech, Megan begins rehearsing two and three times a day a few days before the event. She says she rarely gets nervous.

“I can handle big crowds; it’s the little groups that bother me,” Megan said, emphasizing her words with her hands. “When it’s just a few people or I am speaking before my class at school, which is a small crowd, I get a little nervous because then you are looking directly at people. But overall I just say a prayer and begin the speech.”

Although perfecting her public-speaking skills takes time, there are incentives. Church and college groups pay Megan a fee for speaking, and the Black United Students of California pays her travel and hotel costs for its annual banquet each year in Bakersfield.

“It really varies from event to event what she receives in pay,” Wanda McGlover said. “And with the money she makes, I make sure she pays for her school supplies, saves some and buys a little something for herself.”

Megan says she hopes to use her public speaking skills by becoming the nation’s first black woman President.

“I want to go to college and then medical school because I think that will help me be more sensitive to others’ needs,” Megan said. “But from there, I really want to make things change, and I can by becoming President.”