Growing up, Jeffrey Koh '09 had public speaking problems. As a child he was "the shy kid" who listened more than he talked. Dragged into the debate team in middle school, he was repeatedly outmanoeuvered in debates. But once students from a local girls' school started teasing him about his performance in a debate, Koh decided his speech skills needed improvement and he worked to become a better public speaker.
"In high school we beat the girls' school," Koh said. "It was good retribution."
Experiences like Koh's have driven him and others to start Voxmasters, a student-run club sponsored by the Rockefeller Center to help students become more adept public speakers. Approximately 20 students, primarily freshmen, showed up for the first meeting Monday night in Haldeman, which featured free pizza.
"A lot of groups where public speaking is essential are selective," Koh said, referring to activities such as parliamentary debate. "This is a place where people can sit down and just speak."
Voxmasters aims to give students the chance to improve their public speaking abilities through two activities. One activity involves a "commander in chief" who chooses a topic at random that a student then must talk about for two minutes. The second activity involves a student presenting a five-minute prepared speech to the group. During both activities the presenter is critiqued and later given written feedback.
"It's a very important skill for anyone to have," Samuel Peck '10 said. "In life you have to interact with people, for the good jobs anyway."
Members of the club were caught unawares when they were told by the commander-in-chief to stand up and give improvised speeches on topics ranging from "What is the biggest obstacle you have had to overcome in your lifetime" to "Tell me about your favorite Friday night out at Dartmouth."
"I'm not much of a partygoer," one student said in response to the latter question. "Generally my Friday nights consist of me sitting around and reading Wikipedia."
Other speakers waxed philosophic.
"Most people will say that I didn't have a childhood," one student said, when asked to recall his favorite moment from his childhood. "It's not that I didn't have a childhood, it's that my childhood started later than most."
While some speeches trailed off into awkward silences, others seemed more comfortable speaking before the crowd and even elicited intentional laughter.
Jenny Ratner '08, who founded Voxmasters, said that she used TuckMasters, a speech club at the Tuck School of Business, as a template. The founder of that group, Bryan O'Neal Tu'08, attended Monday night's Voxmasters meeting and told the group that all speakers should be welcomed and respected -- both the talented and the less adroit.
"I hope you will take this as seriously as possible," O'Neal said. "I want you to create a positive environment so that people can get helpful feedback."
