In 2002, Greg Boggus became concerned with his interviewingskills after interviewing for several jobs. He saw a need for otherstudents and himself to master the communication skills needed fora successful interview. With fellow students Finny Benny and KrisLowe, Boggus established and brought a chapter of Toastmasters, aninternational organization involved in enhancing the leadership andcommunication skills of students needed in the business world, tothe Cox School of Business.
On Tuesday night at the Fincher Building in Cox, SMUToastmasters kicked off its second semester with a meeting entitled”Sky is the Limit” to give SMU students a chance tobecome a member of their organization. “The purpose of thismeeting is to give new students a chance to improve their speakingskills, skills which are essential to all careers,” said JohnCastaneda, a junior finance major and member of SMUToastmasters,
At the meeting, the “Icebreaker” speech was given bythe SMU basketball head coach Jimmy Tubbs. Traditionally, the”Icebreaker” allows a speaker to introduce themselvesto the audience and is the first speech in the Toastmasterprogram.
Coach Tubbs appeared calm and collected and quickly grabbed theroom’s attention of the audience by using humor. Pacingaround the room, Tubbs engaged the audience by asking personalquestions of various students. He also gave advice to the studentsin the audience by saying, “Whatever you decide to do inlife, be committed to it.”
The next speaker of the evening was Erica Toledo who gave the”Table Topic” speech, designed to improve impromptuspeaking skills by announcing the topic to the speaker only minutesbefore the speech is given. Toledo spoke about her favorite part ofsummer, being able to relax and take time for herself as sheenjoyed a break from law school.
Though there are Toastmasters chapters at other colleges in theU.S., SMU Toastmasters is unique in that it has started the SpeakerSeries. The Series provides members with a chance to compete fortwo different scholarships by delivering messages to corporateleaders. SMU Toastmasters’ corporate sponsors, JP Morgan andQuest, provide a $5000 scholarship to the best speaker and a $2500scholarship to the most improved speaker.
The student leaders are all proud of the Speaker Series programbecause it provides students with an incentive to polish speakingskills while providing a medium that enables students to displaytheir talents in front of local corporations. “We arecurrently working with other Toastmasters chapters to expand theSpeaking Series program as an International program,” saidDanielle Senn, president of SMU Toastmasters.
Students interested in Toastmasters can visit theorganization’s Web site at www.smutoastmasters.org.
