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Toastmasters offers skills, training
By Irena Bejko
Collegian Freelancer
After only being established for about a year,
the Hillsdale College Toastmasters club is finishing up with
approximately 20 members, who are learning to develop their
ideas and public speaking skills.
Founded on Hillsdale's campus by senior James
Rowen, Toastmasters is a communication and leadership training
organization designed to help students speak, listen and evaluate
effectively.
This training helps students to develop their
ideas, learn how to offer and accept constructive criticism
more effectively, and provides leadership opportunities and
challenges.
"It puts the liberal arts ideal into
practice," President Ben Sikma said. "We learn to
critique speeches with grace and charm, we learn to receive
tactful criticism and apply it to our own presence behind the
podium."
Toastmasters' long history began in 1924 when
founder Ralph C. Smedley realized that a group of boys who visited
the YMCA, where he worked as director, needed training in communication.
He began a public speaking club to offer practice and public
speaking skills.
The group was named Toastmasters because the
activities resembled a banquet with toasts and after-dinner
speakers. By 1930 many chapters were forming around the country,
resulting in the formation of a national federation. Today Toastmasters
is in 80 countries worldwide.
Rowen's experience with Toastmasters began
when he was working up to the position of district lieutenant
governor as a member of a California chapter of the club.
"I started the Hillsdale College Toastmasters
because I felt that we get such a great education here at Hillsdale
that there should be more emphasis on teaching students how
to communicate effectively," Rowen said. "After all,
what good is the knowledge if we cannot convey it to others?"
Members meet once a week for about an hour
to present prepared speeches based on guidelines from the Toastmaster
manual. There are a total of 10 speeches that members must complete
to attain the Master Toastmaster distinction.
"After the prepared speeches, we have
a table topic session where we are given a prompt and 30 seconds
to think, then we give a two-minute speech about the prompt,"
Treasurer Tyler Horning said.
Every speaker is assigned an evaluator who
points out speech strengths and offers suggestions for improvement.
"Some people are really good right away,
others are slower, but everyone has dramatically improved,"
Sikma said.
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