Students, professor start rhetoric club

A new club on campus – the Rhetoric Club – aims to provide students with a place to practice their public speaking skills. An organizational meeting for the club was held this past Thursday.

Rhetoric major Kaytie Bird created the club in which all students are welcome whether or not they are involved in the rhetoric department.

Bird got the idea to start the club after she selected the major a year ago.

“When I joined there was no club or organization for me to meet people or grow as a public speaker,” Bird said.

She had hoped someone would come up with the idea for the club, but she realized that she would have to take matters into her own hands. Bird and assistant professor of rhetoric Dr. Mark Vail decided to start the club on their own.

“We want a place that would allow students to share ideas, practice speeches and presentations while receiving peer feedback, attend public lectures, etc,” Vail said.

Vail was excited about the club being “of the students, by the students, and for the students” so attendees can expect lots of practice with their rhetoric skills.

Bird said that they are still working on becoming a Registered Student Organization, but next year they hope to be a full-fledged club.

Junior rhetoric major junior Patricia Frederickson is helping Bird generate interest in the club by creating a Facebook group to help spread the word.

“I think the club is a good idea because we’ve never had one before and we are a small department. Campus representation would be nice,” Frederickson said.

Frederickson said she feels that it will be a good forum for students to practice speeches. She also mentioned that she wants the club to be somewhere where freshman in core classes can come and practice presentations and get feedback from more experienced upperclassmen.

Dr. Amy Burt, associate professor of rhetoric, said the club will be beneficial to students within the rhetoric major and those who are not.

“Like many other discipline-specific clubs on campus this one will give students a place to discuss graduate schools and hear from former majors in terms of what they are doing now,” Burt said.

This club will also be a place where freshman can ask questions about the classes they will have to take as a rhetoric major or minor.

Posted by Danielle Paluga on Apr 23 2010. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry