Presenters to the Whitman Undergraduate Conference will be more than prepared this year as they are mentored by writing fellows provided by the Written and Oral Communication Initiative, a new program created from a recent gift to the College. Peer mentors will also work with students to polish speeches before they present their research on April 6, 2010.

Classics professor Dana Burgess, one of the key organizers of the program, described the intended role of the peer mentors, or Oral Presentation Coaches, and said the experience they have makes them well-suited for the position.

“The Oral Presentation Coaches will help presenters understand how they are being received by an audience,” Burgess said. “The coaches have been selected by the nomination of members of the Whitman faculty who identified these individuals as well-suited to offer this type of support. Most of the coaches have done work in the departments of theater or rhetoric and film studies, both of which give curricular attention to oral presentation.”

Some of the mentors feel that their experience with speaking in front of audiences will help the speakers with the delivery of their presentations.

Junior theatre major Erin Terrall believes that his experience in acting will help the speakers.

“I’ll be spending time with the presenters individually and first helping them with the logistical aspects of their presentation,” Terrall said. “Later I’ll work with them on posture, body language, projection and delivery. I think this program will give presenting students a good opportunity to explore physical, vocal and presentation-based options that can make their final product stronger.”

Junior Nigel Ramoz-Leslie believes that his experience on the debate team will help him coach others on public speaking, and ultimately help speakers produce a more effective presentation.

“Most often, people have problems speaking with confidence or tend to spend lots of time using filler words like ‘um’ and ‘uh.’ The key is to create a method of practice where the overall speech is less interrupted by these issues so that the speaker can achieve a strong sense of credibility with the audience,” said Ramoz-Leslie.

A few mentors said that they learned so much in Professor of Forensics Jim Hanson’s Fundamentals of Public Address class that they feel well qualified to train others.

“I feel that I am leaps and bounds better at giving speeches and even speaking in general after taking the class. I plan to share with the WUC presenters some of the key (and easy) pointers we learned in class that improve speeches,” said junior Carson Burns.

Senior Claire Lueneberg pointed out that not only will the program help the presenters improve their speaking skills, but it will benefit the audience too.

“It’s really a win-win situation for everyone. The presentation is better, the presenter is hopefully more relaxed and the audience can better receive the information,” said Lueneberg. “What I really realized in Fundamentals of Public Address is that there is a huge difference between an effective presentation and a non-effective presentation. The span for quality is huge. The role of the mentors is to bring all of the presentations up to a higher quality. This can only serve to make the whole experience more useful for the presenters and more enjoyable and informative for the audience.”