A New Voice On Campus

Announcing the Center for Public Speaking at Menlo College

By Neal Rubin, Professor in Residence

College students today receive fewer opportunities to speak in public than their predecessors: online communication has limited the ways we interact in person. The pandemic further deprived students of personal engagement, and our phones have encouraged us to communicate in just about every way imaginable—except directly. Yet employers regularly list excellent communication skills as a critical asset that all employees must possess.

Thanks to a generous five-year, $2.5 million grant from The John Pritzker Family Fund and its founder, Menlo alum John Pritzker ’76, help is on the way. Menlo’s new Center for Public Speaking will ensure that every Menlo student graduates with training in verbal communication.

The timing of Menlo’s focus on effective oral communication coincides with a proliferation of artificial intelligence programs capable of composing college essays in a matter of seconds. Because public speaking remains a skill that cannot be outsourced, it deserves greater emphasis in today’s curriculum. The Center for Public Speaking at Menlo, opening fall 2023, will enable us to expand that curriculum, provide more robust instruction, help overcome an understandable fear, and turn effective public speaking into a skill possessed by all Menlo graduates. The Pritzker Fund grant will enable the Center to hire additional faculty and tutors, build a small recording studio and offer electives such as mock trials and speech and debate teams. TEDxMenloCollege will become an annual event on campus, where students will collaborate with guest lecturers and leaders from Silicon Valley to organize conferences on topics of interest in the fields of technology, education, politics, the sciences and more.

I am thrilled that Menlo is making this investment because I know from firsthand experience that acquiring the skill of public speaking is not only important, it’s transformative. As an Assistant United States Attorney at the Department of Justice, I received in-depth training in oral advocacy from some of the country’s finest lawyers. Their instruction improved my performance and led directly to better outcomes for my clients. I routinely tell my students what I learned: the best speakers all possess a “giving mentality,” knowing that their job is to share some experience or expertise in a way that teaches and benefits the audience. Before I speak to groups of people, I typically say—out loud to myself—“you’re here to give.” This reflex relaxes me, knowing I’ve been asked to help others, which feels like a gift.

Young people entering the workforce typically get limited chances to make a good first impression. Armed with these new resources, and with the opportunity to hone and practice their skills, Menlo students will not only make a good impression, they will become leaders who shape the 21st-century workforce and their local communities.

The College Tradition of Strong Oral Communication

The new Center for Public Speaking will continue Menlo’s longtime emphasis on developing students’ oral communication skills. For the past several years, the Writing and Oral Communication Center (WOCC) has shown students and faculty powerful tools for conveying their ideas in public.

Last year’s valedictorian Rufus Pappy ’22 attests to this support: “I was nervous at first, but the Writing and Oral Communication Center helped me prepare for the (Commencement) speech in many ways. Lisa Villarreal and Erik Bakke gave me feedback, helped me practice my delivery, and offered tips on how to connect with my audience. I was able to confidently deliver a speech that was engaging on a personal level.”

“HavingaCenterforPublic Speakingisverybeneficialfor peoplewhostrugglewithkeeping theircomposureinlargecrowds. Ifeellikemygenerationhave plentyofexperiencewithonline communication,soI’mreallylooking forwardtoexpandingmypublic speakingskills.Thelargestgroup I’veeverspokeninfrontof is30people,soIlookforwardto thechallengeofspeakingin frontof300,maybeoneday even3,000.”