Public Speaking is Scarier Than Death

Action Plans—they're all everyone in the Leadership Institute is thinking about. Hours have been spent formally writing and preparing our Action Plans. All of our time in class today was basically focused on finishing Action Plans and receiving tips for the presentations.

In the morning, we had the opportunity to bring our laptops and work on our Action Plan essays. I finished mine during this time. Now, all I have to worry about is my Action Plan presentation on Friday. I'm not that confident with public speaking, but the tips given in our public speaking workshop in the afternoon are helpful.

Walking to the VDub

To switch things up, I ate at the VDub with my cohort and our friends Lauren, Fern, Ishani and Sara instead of the Ratty today. We all agreed that we were missing food from home and the food here is starting to get sickening. Imagine eating here for four years. Fortunately, there are a lot of restaurants and foods down in Thayer Street. It definitely has a vibe similar to Berkeley.

We were sick of the Ratty

During the afternoon, we had a workshop on public speaking with Jennifer, who has been in Brown's Leadership Institute since 2004. An interesting fact she told us was that in a poll, people found public speaking to be the most feared thing, while fire is second and death is third. No matter how much practice one has, nerves always kick in. She told us some instances in which people burst crying or running away during speeches. Hopefully, that won't happen to any of us in two days. Jennifer told us about the importance of visual messages, vocal projection and the way it is presented. We even did some fun exercises involving tongue twisters to practice our articulation. There are a lot of do's and don'ts when talking in front of an audience. I definitely will be using all her wonderful tips during my presentation. Note to self: Have fun and enjoy it while it lasts.

Working on the Action Plan

After class, I went with my friends to the Information Center so we could work more on our Action Plans. What a surprise!

Lauren, Me, Fern

For dinner, I went to Kabob and Curry, an Indian restaurant, with my cohort and our friends Sara, Fern and Jennifer. It was my first time trying Indian food and I was really excited to try it. I got the Chicken Tikka Masala and the Mango Lychee. It tasted great. I love being able to try new foods besides American or Italian. 

Since the next two days will be really busy with Action Plans and packing up to go home, I went to a Summer at Brown Dance Party near the VDub with Komal, Camila, Sara, Sachi, Fern, Lauren and Ishani. We met some new people, such as Alex from Italy and Michael from Missouri. The latter is doing a poetry course and for some reason he thought I looked Native-American. Anyway, it was fun getting to bond with my friends over some popular music.

Tomorrow, we're practicing our Action Plan presentations, so this should be interesting. My goal is to have my presentation well planned out and to deliver it with confidence.