Best motivational speech topics for College and High School Students: Below topics will guide you to execute the next memorable motivational speech aimed at learners in high schools or colleges.

How to Start Write a Great Motivational Speech for high school students

1. Quote
   Opening with a relevant quote can help set the tone for the rest of your speech. For example, one that I often use to open a presentation dealing with public speaking:
   “It usually takes me more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.” – Mark Twain
2. “What If” Scenario
   Immediately drawing your audience into your speech works wonders. Asking a “what if” question invites the audience to follow your thought process.
   “What if we were all blunt? How different would our everyday lives be? What would happen if we said what was on our minds, all day every day?”
3. “Imagine” Scenario
   A similar method, but more relevant for sensational examples.  It puts your audience members directly into the presentation by allowing each member to visualize an extraordinary scenario.
   “Imagine jumping out of a skydiving plane and discovering your parachute doesn’t work. What memories would flash before you? Now imagine the parachute opened. How differently would you act when you landed?”
4. Question
   Ask a rhetorical or literal question. When someone is posed with a question, whether an answer is called for or not, that person intuitively answers.
   “Who wouldn’t want to live on an exotic island?”
5. Silence
   A pause, whether two seconds or 10 seconds, allows your audience to sit and quiet down.  Most audiences expect a speaker to begin immediately. An extra pause brings all the attention right where you should want it – on you.
6. Statistic
   Use a surprising, powerful, personalized statistic that will resonate with the audience to get your message across right away. It has the potential to trigger the audiences’ emotional appeal.
   “Look to your left. Now look to your right.  One of your seatmates will  ___________.”
   “In this room, over 90 percent of us are going to _________.”
7. Powerful Statement/Phrase
   A statement or phrase can catch the audience’s attention by keeping them guessing as to what you’re about to say next. Implementing the silence technique afterwards also adds to the effect.
   “We can not win.  We can’t win…”
   (Pause)
   “… That’s what every newspaper in the country is saying.”

List of Best motivational speech topics for College and High School Students

1. Being a Winner is Great

2. Team Building Activities

3. The Future Awaits

4. Saving the World

5. Being a Better Role Model to our Children

6. Dear Dad, Please Listen to Me

7. Controlling your Tongue

8. Patience

9. Positive Thinking

10. Meditation as a tool

11. Discipline Techniques

12. Being Better Parents/Improving Parenting Skills

13. Understanding Kids During their Teenage.

14. Breaking Habits

15. Charity

16. Goal Setting

17. Effective Leadership

18. Being Confident

19. Inspirational Quotes

20. Effective ways of Communication

More General Topics

1) Girls can ask boys out.

2) There is such thing as friendship between girls and boys.

3) Woman‟s place is at work.

4) Men need protection from feminists‟ attacks.

5) Men shouldn‟t open doors to women.

6) Women should retain their birth names after marriage.

7) Research on male pregnancy should be encouraged.

8) Women in combat weaken armed forces.

9) It is OK for men to cry.

10) Gender roles aren‟t gender requirements.

Speech Topics: Gender Roles

11) Surrogacy should be legalized.

12) Same sex couples should be able to marry.

13) All countries should abandon nuclear weapon.

14) Companies using animal testing should pay higher taxes.

15) Only victims of accidents can use plastic surgery.

16) Professional actors shouldn‟t be allowed to play poker.

17) Leather and fur clothes should be outlawed.

18) Teens should have access to birth control pills.

19) Politics and church should be separate.

20) News writers should never distort the truth to astonish audiences.

21) Empathy should be taught at school.

22) Humor is the best way to resolve conflicts.

23) Social life is more important than academics.

24) Parents should become their kids‟ best friends.

25) Smoking doesn‟t help make acquaintances.

26) Internet kills communication.

27) Codependency is the key to a happy family life.

28) The first impression of a person is always right.

29) Effective listening is more important than talking.

30) Conflicts are necessary for healthy relationships.

31) Teachers‟ pet syndrome is bad for student‟s self-esteem.

32) Students should add their professors on Facebook.

33) Fraternities and sororities are a waste of time.

34) All students should live in the dorm.

35) Sitting at lectures should be optional.

36) Going in for sports should be mandatory.

37) Homework does more harm than good.

38) Junk food should be banned from campus.

39) Extra-curricular activities increase students‟ career prospects.

40) Peer pressure is good for self-development.

41) All is fair in love, war and business.

42) Companies can refuse to hire candidates who smoke.

43) Team building exercises improve employees‟ productivity.

44) Brainstorming helps boost company‟s performance.

45) Companies shouldn‟t copy competitors‟ strategies.

46) Leaving a company to work for a competitor is unethical.

47) Customers‟ critique is the best way to improvement.

48) Inclusive corporate culture increases employees‟ motivation.

49) Dress code is unnecessary for office employees.

50) Diagonal communication is critical for companys performance. 

51) Outsourcing IT departments is ineffective.

52) Innovations should be used carefully.

53) Small towns with local businesses shouldn‟t let big corporations (IKEA) in.

54) Governments shouldn‟t give bailouts to bankrupt businesses.

55) All businesses should have pages on social networks.

56) MBA degree doesn‟t guarantee business success.

57) All businesses should go green.

58) SOPA and PIPA can‟t stop online piracy.

59) Poor leadership is the main cause of business bankruptcy.

60) Energy drinks are a promising business niche.

61) China is a new economic superpower.

62) English should remain an international language for business.

63) Outsourcing call centers to India cuts costs but reduces the quality of services.

64) The European debt crisis can affect US small businesses.

65) All countries should use the same currency.

66) The European crisis shows that globalization is a bad idea.

67) The International Monetary Fund (IMF) shouldn‟t give loans to economically challenged countries.

68) The Poverty Reduction and Growth program from IMF and World Bank is ineffective.

69) The immediate debt cancellation for the poorest countries is unjust.

70) Britain won’t leave the eurozone.

Topics on Nursing

1. Placebo treatments should be used in medicine.

2. Nurses shouldn‟t be allowed to end lives of suffering patients.

3. Governments should encourage more men to become nurses.

4. Spouses shouldn‟t have the right to remove the feeding tubes (Terry Shiavo case).

5. More funding should be devoted to the prevention and treatment of Hepatitis C.

6. Elderly people should be allowed to have cardiac surgeries if they want to after they are informed on the potential risks.

7. Religion vs. medicine: Jehovah‟s Witnesses can‟t be induced to undergo treatment.

8. Vacuuming is critical for eliminating asthma triggers.

9. Proper pain management should be made available to everyone.

10. Understaffed hospitals can‟t be blamed for the lower quality of care.

Sources:

7 Memorable Ways to Open a Speech or Presentation