On Mar. 23, members of the Toastmasters Club represented New College at the Area 53 contest. First-year Evan Hunter and thesis student Zulfiia Tursunova both gave prepared speeches for the International Speech Contest, in which Hunter placed first overall. The International Speech Contest is a prepared speech contest on a subject of the contestant’s choosing.

“In my opinion, the time limit of seven minutes and 30 seconds maximum is the biggest limitation,” Hunter said. “That’s what really dictates what you can or cannot do. What I will say is that typically this kind of speech for Toastmasters is usually done as a motivational speech and that’s not the route I took.”

The speech Hunter gave was centered around the way words lack meaning and the effect of this on the international political culture. Hunter explained that politicians use this mode of communication to talk around issues, which can be exhibited through the example of Brexit. This results in overlooking the target of the substantive issues or the causes of these problems.

When asked about the power of public speaking, Hunter said, “It gave me a way to step outside of myself and talk about an issue and not have to make everything personal. I can examine an issue and present a solution. It’s a way for people to effectively communicate using facts, without the pressure of having to worry about what others think about the individual themselves as there is more focus on the representation of their position or view.”

Information for this article was gathered from news.ncf.edu and toastmaster.org.