Look who’s joining us in Atlanta! You’ll be inspired by our lineup of speakers from the world of sports, music and youth-led advocacy and philanthropy. The Key Club Interntional convention is your chance to get ideas and inspiration that will help you grow as a member and a leader.
Rania Zuri is an advocate for early childhood literacy and founder of The LiTEArary Society, the world’s largest youth-led nonprofit organization working to end book deserts for disadvantaged preschool children. Her nonprofit organization has received funding from Scholastic, Pilot Pens, Hershey’s, Barnes & Noble and Starbucks.
She is the youngest CEO on the 2024 Forbes 30 under 30 list and was named by Forbes as one of its “Six Teens Making the World a Better Place” in 2022. For her work in early childhood literacy, Zuri has been featured in numerous national and international media outlets.
Zuri is the youngest author of a U.S. Senate resolution in history. This resolution established the nation’s first National Early Childhood Literacy Awareness Day, to be celebrated each year in October. She is a U.S. Presidential Scholar, a Coca-Cola Scholar, a recipient of The Diana Award and winner of The Barron Prize. She was honored at the White House as a “Girl Leading Change” by First Lady Jill Biden in celebration of International Day of the Girl in 2023. She currently serves as a United Nations Global Goals Ambassador for UN Sustainable Development Goal #4.
This incoming engineering and education major at Stanford University will motivate you to take your service commitment to new heights. Don’t miss her presentation, “Inspiring Young People to Make a Difference in their Communities,” during the 2024 Key Club International Convention’s Closing Session.
Based in Nashville, Tennessee, U.S., W.B. Sims and his award-winning band (unofficially called the “Crawdaddies”) are known for their high-energy, fun-loving performances. Oh, and Sims also happens to be a past Key Club International president! A member from the Alabama District, he served as president during the 2017-18 year.
Although officially a country artist whose original songs include “Have I Met You Before” and “Ghost in the Room,” Sims covers everything from George Strait to T-Pain — with banjo riffs thrown in. Sims and the Crawdaddies have played a wide variety of events, including the 2022 TicketSmarter Bowl for ESPN, and have opened for Grammy award-winning artists. Sims’s songwriting has amassed over 1 million views and more than 15,000 followers on TikTok.
Three-time Paralympian Evan Austin competed on the U.S. swim team at the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Paralympic Games and as team captain at the 2020 Tokyo Games, where he won a gold and a bronze medal. He hopes to compete in his fourth Paralympics in Paris this July.
As with any world-class athlete, Austin’s journey to the podiums and beyond required years of dedication, training and overcoming challenges. He was born with familial spastic paraparesis, an inherited genetic neurological disorder that impacts the function and control of his legs and feet. To improve his quality of life, he has undergone numerous surgeries, rigorous physical therapy sessions and demanding rehabilitation efforts.
At 10, he fell in love with the sport of swimming, where both the successes and failures he experienced enabled him to grow as an athlete and a person. In addition to his athletic triumphs, he earned a bachelor’s degree in recreation and sport management from Indiana State University, and today he serves as a volunteer assistant on the coaching staff for the Purdue University swimming and diving team.
During Opening Session at the 2024 Key Club International Convention, Austin will share how you can overcome the roadblocks and deterrents on your life’s journey and achieve your own personal victories.