This story is a part of the “My Favorite Class” series. With 100+ majors and countless areas of faculty expertise across campus, dip into one of these classes to fulfill your Rowan University course requirements.
Meet Jordyn Dauter, a junior Dance & Elementary Education double major and a member of the John H Martinson Honors College, from Pennsylvanis. Jordyn is here to share her first-person perspective on her favorite class here at Rowan, Honors Public Speaking.
Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12:30 pm – 1:45 pm in Whitney Center room 202 held 15 weeks of some of the most valuable lessons I have learned in college.
Honors Public Speaking (CMS 04205), taught by Professor Patricia Coughlan, is one of the eight general education classes required by Rowan students. As a member of the Martinson Honors College, I decided that I was going to take Honors Public Speaking to fulfill two of my requirements for graduation.
In this section of Public Speaking, the majority of our work centered around the idea of “sustainability.” Over the course of the semester, we were assigned four speeches, where the requirements got progressively harder as time went by. Speech one was presented on week three of the course, titled, “I would rather do anything else than…” We all had to think of something we disliked and blow it out of proportion for our 2 to 3 minute speech. This was our ‘benchmark speech,’ to see where our progress was starting. So, I decided on “I would rather do anything else than drink a cup of coffee.” I wanted to take a simple idea of something I disliked, make it super dramatic, and have it tie together in a meaningful way. For this speech, we were allowed to hold a piece of paper and reference as many times as we needed. After each speech, Professor Coughlan provided extensive feedback so we could make improvements for our following speech. One correction that I remember focusing a lot on was my stance, and not swaying back in forth. Professor Coughlan taught us to keep our feet planted and take meaningful steps that would enhance the gestures of our speech.
Our next speech was about how something in our lives changed us, so my speech “Learning From Antagonism” came to be. This speech was about how sibling rivalry strengthened my relationship with my younger brother and made me a better person. This speech is where we began to integrate visual elements into our speeches to enhance the quality of the information that we were presenting. This was also when the use of notecards became introduced. Professor Coughlan taught us how to efficiently utilize the space on the notecards to include the most important details of the points we were trying to get across to our audience.
Speech three is where sustainability became a pivotal part of our course learnings. In our next 5-7 minute speech, we had to create an informational speech about sustainability, along with a visual element to compliment the speech. As a Dance & Elementary Education major, it only felt right to give a speech on sustainability within the performing arts. I focused mainly on how Rowan University has made their College of Performing Arts MainStage season sustainable. Through that, I discussed the use of props, costumes, and lighting through sustainable technology. From there, I connected it to the seventeen sustainable development goals, established by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
Lastly was our final speech, an 8-10 minute persuasive speech on why we should improve sustainability in a certain aspect of our lives. This speech also required a visual element, and the use of notecards had to be kept to a minimum, with the goal of making eye contact with our prospective audience. Being a dancer and having a younger brother that plays soccer, I decided to focus on how we can strive to make the sports industry more sustainable. My final speech “Teamwork” started out with the following quote from famous NBA player Michael Jordan. “Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.” This was to captivate the audience’s attention and get them engaged right away. From there, I defined the terms sustainability and sports, then led into a description of the top ten worst sports from a sustainability perspective. Then, I discussed sustainability from an environmental, mental health, and sports fans lens, with the goal of persuading my audience to help make sports more sustainable for all involved.
Over the course of Honors Public Speaking, not only did I learn a lot about presenting information to an audience, but my confidence in speaking to a crowd grew as well. Since we were given personalized feedback, I felt like I was able to make positive improvements that directly benefitted me as a student. Professor Coughlan was a great resource throughout the semester, and I owe all of this growth to her. I absolutely recommend Honors Public Speaking as a great way to complete a Rowan Core requirement, and an Honors requirement for Martinson Honors Students.
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Written by: Jordyn Dauter, junior double major in dance & elementary education