The comfortable and intellectually stimulating atmosphere of Toastmasters encourages students to grow in their public speaking abilities.
Most rewarding for president Rajpreet Heir, a senior, is watching the students progress in their speaking because, as she says, "Everyone always has something they can improve on."
As an international non-profit educational organization, Toastmasters teaches public speaking through a worldwide network of meeting locations. Since 1924, Toastmasters International has helped people of all backgrounds become more confident in front of an audience, using meeting times to help people improve their communication and leadership skills.
"You can be involved as little or as much as you want in this club. You can do a prepared speech, tell a joke, be a timer or be called up to do impromptu speaking," said Heir, who also founded Toastmasters at DePauw. "The meetings are fun to watch because the students run them."
Toastmasters provides a friendly atmosphere for students to practice speaking in front of people.
"Toastmasters is a good opportunity to work on my speaking skills in a new kind of environment different from in a classroom," said senior Allison Taylor. "There are creative people in a friendly, supportive environment."
The club gathers twice a month for about an hour for a structured meeting containing four parts. The meetings open with a thought of the day that can be a song or a poem — something fun to get the meeting going.
Next, a joke master gets everyone laughing.Toastmasters can help students interested in comedy by teaching them how to tell jokes properly in order to get others to laugh at them. It takes the right hand gestures and stage presence to do so, skills that some students are unaware of.
Someone called a table topic master then creates a list of questions or topics and asks people to speak about them for a minute or two. This part of the meeting is the heart of the club. Topics can range from questions like "What would you do if pirates captured you in Somalia?" to "Describe your scariest moment in life?" Each meeting there is a new topic master who creates his or her own range of questions.
These table topics always give members a good laugh. Junior Max Bush said the club "ends up being hilarious."
After the table topic master finishes, there are evaluators that critique how the meeting went. There is a grammarian who tracks how many times people use filler words such as "um," "and," "so" and "like," someone to judge how well a person spoke and an evaluator who discusses the success of the entire meeting.
Public speaking takes a lot of practice just like any sport. In this club, the motto is "practice makes permanent." The evaluators are present to help members improve and to give their critiques in a friendly and positive way and their speaking exercises are helping students improve their classroom skills as well.
"This club transfers academically to make you a better writer and speaker in the classroom," said senior Stephen Shinault.
But public speaking does not just include getting up in front of a class to give a speech. It also includes speaking in a job interview or with a friend over lunch. For students, these public speaking skills extend from giving presentations in the classroom to the real world.
"This is a place to learn real life skills that will apply in our lives after college," Taylor said.
"I thought starting this club was a good idea. We're college students at a higher academic level and need to learn how to speak in public," said junior Marycarmen Lopez.
Freshmen and seniors alike participate in the club, and it encourages others in the community to become involved, whether it is for one meeting or a regular routine.
First-timer Lois Aryee, a junior, came to her first meeting last week and said she enjoyed her experience.
"A friend brought me," Aryee said. "It was very funny and informative."
The club has a low time commitment because it only meets once or twice a month, yet still provides a great way to meet new people and improve speaking skills. If you want to practice how to tell a joke, learn how to speak off the cuff, or learn how to give a well-spoken presentation, Toastmasters gives you the lectern to stand behind and an audience to hear you out.