Speaking Center News
"Blazing New Trails": The Speaking Center Presents at NACC
In April, the Agnes Scott Speaking Center attended the National Association of Communication Centers (NACC) annual conference in Colorado Springs. During the trip we attended a variety of presentations and panels exploring topics ranging from reducing speech anxiety in first year students to reexamining Aristotelian rhetoric.
"This was an awesome opportunity to fly to Colorado and learn from other students," said Hannah Alley, '09. "I was especially inspired by Butler University's presentation on developing a code of ethics to guide their communication center. Thanks to that presentation, we are now crafting one of our own for Agnes Scott."
Hannah, Ashley, Erin, Jasmine, and Alice
Though we enjoyed hearing other students' perspectives, our primary motive for attending the conference was to share some of our own ideas with other speaking centers. Ashley Mengwasser, Jasmine Terry and Erin Linsenmeyer presented a paper detailing how Speaking Centers can inspire passion in their tutees. Their argument asserted that Speaking Center tutors can begin to help students take a passionate approach by first determining their relationship with the topic they present.
"I thought the conference was really interesting. It was great to see how other centers responded to the importance of passion in the tutoring session. At a very basic level, we inspire students to find their voice" said Jasmine Terry, '09.
Hannah Alley, Jasmine Terry and I also led a 60-minute workshop on the Speaking Center's Partner's Program, which allows students to meet weekly with a tutor for an hour-long session to improve in their chosen area of public speaking.
"The Partner's Program is one of my favorite services that the Center offers. One conference is often not enough if a student wants help with accent elimination or speech anxiety. We have really seen our partners develop into better speakers, so it was great to encourage other communication centers to develop a similar program," Alley said.
We love sharing our ideas with others and learning from other centers, but our favorite part of the conference was bonding with one another.
"Although, we had two separate topics to divulge, we had a joint mission in Colorado to represent Agnes Scott," said Ashley Mengwasser, '09. "It was so cool to attend one another's presentations. I loved spending time with everyone in beautiful Colorado, particularly because it strengthened our team dynamic."
Ashley makes a valid point. All five tutors shared a cause, a section on the airplane, and two beds, which, as you might imagine, brought us together in more intimate ways.
After attending the Conference in Colorado, the Speaking Center is looking forward to returning to NACC in 2009, this time in Philadelphia, and is already planning new papers and presentations.
Alice Ferron is a junior at Agnes Scott College and a tutor at the Speaking Center.