Meet Boston College's Toastmasters
Faculty and staff looking for an opportunity to improve their public speaking, communication, and leadership skills by way of a personal and professional development journey can do so through Boston College’s chapter of Toastmasters International.
A toastmaster is generally defined as a person who presides at social events, introducing speakers and making other formal announcements. Members of Toastmasters International—which is celebrating its centennial—prepare and present a toast or a speech, typically anywhere from five to seven minutes long.
Boston College Toastmasters President Jeffrey DeVaughn describes the club as a supportive, safe, and encouraging environment that not only strengthens leadership skills but fosters self-confidence.
“One day that presentation is going to pop up on your calendar, or you might want to talk to somebody about something and don’t know how to go about it,” said DeVaughn, associate director of athletics for major giving. “We have the group for that right here on campus.”
Toastmasters International, which numbers more than 14,000 clubs in 150 countries, has changed a handful of lives within the BC community since the chapter was chartered in 2018.
Wei Qiu, senior scientific computational consultant for Informational Technology Services and an immigrant from China, regards her professional and personal development journey through Toastmasters as one of the most “beautiful memories” of her life.
“I’d never in my life talked for more than seven or eight minutes, especially in English. I still remember the day when I first stood there. I forgot everything I wrote. Someone told me, ‘You’re okay, you’re going to be okay,’ and then I turned back and began to talk. Now I teach classes and I do lectures for graduate students.”
New members of Toastmasters prepare a speech called the “Ice Breaker,” a four- to six-minute-long address which is a self-introduction to the group. Qiu enjoys this exercise particularly for the insight it offers into her peers’ lives. “I really like doing the Ice Breaker talks because you get to learn people’s backgrounds. I shared my story and experience of immigrating to the United States and how I never knew I would be American. I love hearing those personal stories.”
Another club favorite is “table topics,” an impromptu speaking activity that challenges members to react to rapid-fire questions in one- to two-minute responses. “It’s a high-energy activity that is really fun because you’re trying to capture the floor and capture the audience within a brief time span,” said DeVaughn.
Members are encouraged to cycle through the club roles as they work toward becoming a meeting toastmaster: “Timer,” who tracks the time of the meeting; “Grammarian,” who introduces a word for the day which members must try to incorporate into their speeches; “Evaluator,” who times speeches and analyzes behaviors such as body language; “Ah-Counter,” who counts filler sounds such as “ah”s, “um”s, “like”s, “but”s, and “so”s; and “General Evaluator,” who facilitates the end of the meeting.
Depending on where a group member is on his or her pathway, a toastmaster can present any topic they are passionate about for up to 20 minutes. Lavette Scott-Smith, vice president of media relations and former club president, recently presented a 20-minute toastmaster speech she called “The Dark Side of the Music Industry,” where she explored the idea that musical artists “are not really allowed to be who they are due to pressures to conform” to the ever-changing images and concepts of the industry.
“The deeper you get into the Toastmasters path, the speech time increases because it becomes more of a project and test of all the knowledge you’ve gained and all that you’ve learned since the very beginning,” said Scott-Smith, a training and events specialist for Information Technology Services.
The BC Toastmasters meet in room 119 of the 2150 St. Thomas More Apartments on the first and third Thursday of every month from noon to 1 p.m. A “love your speech”-themed open house will be held on February 6 for those interested in joining or learning more about the group. For more information, visit the website oror email bc-toastmasters-ggroup@bc.edu.