Senior Roscoe Ramirez laughes during an impromptu speech at the Toastmasters meeting on Thursday.

Nancy Miller gives a speech about her life as a student during the Toastmasters meeting Thursday night.

The Perfect Toast

Campus club gives students opportunity to build public speaking skills

By: Vanessa Johnson

Posted: 3/21/08

A new leadership club at Sacramento State might help allay the fears of anyone who has ever been afraid of public speaking.

Toastmasters Leadership Club, an international club, focuses on getting members comfortable with public speaking. Though there are other affiliated clubs in Sacramento, the Sac State chapter formed at Sac State in spring 2007.

The club is not only open to students, but to anyone who dreads to speak in public.

Vice President of Public Relations Heather Heise said that Toastmasters helped her begin to master the art of public speaking.

"I was interested because when I was a student at Sac State, I was terrified of public speaking. When you are up there you have all the energy focused on you and that can be overwhelming," Heise said.

The club has meetings every Thursday night in the Union. Each meeting, members speak on a topic they choose and then are evaluated by other members.

Sophomore Diego Garcia, a Toastmasters Club member, transferred from South America and wanted to learn how to polish his speaking skills.

"(Toastmasters) has given me a lot of practice with expanding my vocab and the counsel from other members helps a lot," Garcia said.

Tracy Harrison, a club mentor and member, said that Toastmasters Leadership Club helped her perform better at work.

"I went from thinking I had nothing of interest to say to speaking to a group of 300 with utter confidence," Harrison said.

Vanessa Johnson can be reached at vjohnson@statehornet.com.