91探花

“I’ve taught public speaking or some version of it for about 15 years, and I get so tired of hearing speeches that don’t feel real,” Associate Instructor of Communications and Media Studies Abby Arnold-Patti said.  

In her PCOM 101 (Speech and Communication) course, Arnold-Patti departs from the traditional structure of communications classes in way that makes the instruction more personal. The general education course is designed to help students improve their interpersonal communication, group communication, and public speaking skills. While there are many ways students can develop these skills, Arnold-Patti felt that students would benefit more and be more engaged if they were able choose a topic they were passionate about and then actually do something to make a difference.  

“I wanted to make it real for them. I thought about experiential learning because we are in a place worth experiencing, so let’s not sit here and talk hypotheticals, let’s go out and do it,” Arnold-Patti said. “They read a lot about group communication, leadership, teamwork, conflict, and interpersonal communication, but this made them really put those skills to use in an applied way.” 

To help her students internalize the importance of quality communication, Arnold-Patti created a final project that would take students out of the classroom and into the community. The project consists of three phases spanning the semester. First, students identified a social issue that they care strongly about and delivered an informative speech to their peers. In the second phase, students used the same topic to deliver a persuasive speech advocating for a particular strategy to address the issue at hand. Finally, each student voted for the topics they felt most moved by and were divided into groups to carry out the strategies outlined in the persuasive speeches. 

Several students, like sophomore Wildlife Biology major Anna Crippen, went into the class thinking they already knew everything there was to know about communicating.  

“At first, I chose this class because I thought it would be an easier class since I consider myself a pretty good public speaker. But after day one, I could tell this would actually be a positive challenge that I would enjoy,” Crippen said.  

Crippen joined a group that volunteered at the Avery Humane Society. She was persuaded by the project originator’s passion for the topic and the opportunity to give back in a fun way. The group visited the Humane Society several times to help clean the facilities and care for the animals waiting for adoption. Throughout the semester, Crippen developed a greater appreciation for the importance of communicating clearly and learned more about herself in the process.  

“Overall, I would say my reflection of my communication habits and what I want to change about them has become easier to understand,” she said. “My biggest takeaway would definitely be understanding both mine and others' communication habits. It really has been a wonderful new skill I learned solely thanks to this class.” 

Another student, Business Administration major Josh Foley, was a junior who had put off the general education course until later in his college career. Like Crippen, he was confident in his own communication skills, especially because he had already given many class presentations. However, through this class, he was able to expand those skills and get practice talking to different groups of people.  

“It is arguably more important to be a good communicator than to have the best ideas,” Foley said. “To achieve any personal or professional goals you must be able to project your thoughts and ideas in a manner that allows the majority of people to understand. This class further emphasizes this idea and puts you in positions to test yourself and your ability to communicate with your peers as well as groups of people who are older and younger than you.” 

Foley presented on the topic of proper nutrition for cyclists, a deeply personal subject since he feels like it wasn’t until he joined the Lees-91探花 cycling team that he learned how important it is to fuel the body while competing and training. His goal was to help younger cyclists develop this knowledge early on in their racing career.  

Foley’s passion for the topic inspired the class to choose cycling nutrition as one of the final projects. With the help of his group members, Foley reached out to two companies for product donations they then used to create snack kits for the High Country Pioneers cycling team. The group handed out the snack kits to the youth cyclists and gave a presentation about proper nutrition as well as the benefits of joining a collegiate cycling team.  

The final project is just the culmination of an entire semester’s worth of work, Foley pointed out. For months, students participated in Communication Labs and speaking assignments, and practiced their communication skills by crafting speeches and then presenting to different groups.  

“By speaking to different groups over and over again you begin to build confidence in yourself and your speaking abilities. However, it is a skill that you have to keep sharp through repetition. This course allows you to practice, and practice makes progress,” Foley said.  

Public speaking is a common phobia, with about experiencing some degree of fear when addressing a group. Sophomore Pre-Veterinary Medicine major Kacie Bustillo is one student who said the class helped her feel less afraid when talking in front of other people. In addition to giving prepared speeches and working on the final project, students started each class period by answering a specific question. This activity eased the class into speaking publicly and had the added benefit of helping the class bond and get to know each other better, which was important when it came to cooperating on a specific project.  

“PCOM is the only class where I felt like I knew everyone, and it made presenting later in the semester easier,” Bustillo said.  

Another student, sophomore Wildlife Biology major Dylan Myers, was also nervous about presenting in front of a group. Talking about his initial reaction to the class, he said, “I knew I needed it as I am not a good public speaker, so I was excited to learn how to be better at it and be confident.” 

Despite his public speaking fears, Myers’ passion for his proposed project—trail maintenance at South Campus—inspired his classmates to join his group. Organizing the project and leading his peers posed their own challenges, but Myers was able to stretch himself and work on skills that will be necessary for his future. 

“My biggest takeaways were that communication is one of the biggest parts of getting to success, and the better you do it the more successful you are,” Myers said. “I will incorporate what I learned into being able to communicate with the public effectively when I do wildlife research and be more confident and comfortable leading.” 

The final step of the project was for each of the groups to put together a video that summarized their experience using their communication skills to achieve their project goals. This allowed each group to take Arnold-Patti and their peers along with them as they navigated the world. Arnold-Patti said that adding this final component not only gave the students another avenue through which to practice their communication skills—virtually, to an audience that is not present—but it also made the projects more rhetorically forceful.  

This is her motivation behind integrating experiential learning into her classroom to start with. Effective communication is a necessary skill regardless of profession, level of education, or station in life, and oftentimes it is overlooked rather than emphasized due to humans’ innate ability to communicate with each other on a basic level. By positioning students in the “real world,” Arnold-Patti hopes to push back against this idea of communication skills as unimportant and demonstrate the impact that effectively utilizing these skills can have on not only students’ academic and professional pursuits, but also on their life more generally. 

“I often tell them the first day, ‘this class will help you with your job, but this class is not about your job. This class is about your life,’” Arnold-Patti said. “In the class we cover things that very directly apply to careers some days, like how to work on a functional team and how to give a public presentation, but we also cover a lot of things that are very important to one’s personal life. We talk about familial relationships and romantic relationships, how to listen well, and handle conflicts in our lives.” 

In the end, the topics covered in the groups’ projects were as wide-ranging as their interests. One group  put together gift bags and uplifting notes to boost mental health across campus. Another group designed and created a water filter they used in the Elk River. Bustillo’s group visited Hospitality House, a homelessness resource center in Boone, North Carolina, and served a meal to clients.  

Community involvement and experiential learning are both central to a Lees-91探花 education, but above all, Arnold-Patti hopes that by getting out in the real world, interacting with other people, and practicing their communication skills in an experiential environment, students leave the course with a renewed understanding of the importance of quality communication and a greater ability to express themselves, navigate difficult conversations, and mediate conflicts. 

“It’s not uncommon for people to come into the class and think, ‘I already know all of this.’ Experiential learning is a way to push beyond what might seem simplistic in a textbook. People are complicated and messy, and you can’t account for that in a test, or even in the process of writing an essay,” Arnold-Patti said. “This will stay with them forever. They might not remember my name, they might not remember what class it was, but when they’re 40 they will remember that weird communications class where they had to build a water filter or volunteer for the Humane Society, and will probably remember some of the stress that came from a final exam that was all wrapped up with these other people.”