Center News

Kyra, Senior Consultant

One of the best things about working at the Speaking Center is that not only do I get to help out so many students and faculty; but also from them I learn so much. Whether it is a CST 105 student watching their any Old Bag Speech, a business student practicing a marketing presentation, or even an Interlink Language Center student preparing their first speech, I gain knowledge and so much more every time I sit down for a consultation.

One of my favorite stories from Speaking Center has to be from my time working with Interlink students. Over the summer a conversation club was formed for the students.

Every week they would all gather and converse and practice English together. For the first conversation club I could tell that everyone was a little hesitant. We had taken beach balls with specific topics written on them to the event. The idea was that balls would prompt the students to either ask questions of another person or tell the group what they knew about a particular topic.

We broke off into small groups. Mine began by everyone introducing themselves in English, again you could tell that they were all shy and not quite sure what to expect. I explained the rules and purpose of the game and started out with a demonstration. Once I passed that beach ball though, everything changed!

My group got so into asking each other questions and explaining what they knew about certain things it was as if they forgot what they were there for. Some of the questions were related to holidays, cultures, and food, and because I had such a diverse group I was learning so much.

For me though that was not even the best part. What made me feel so good was that every member of the group was so active and eager to participate that the ball could not get passed fast enough.

They all wanted to hear what each other was saying and more importantly, help each other when struggling. Seeing that made me realize just how important and rewarding what I do really is.