For many, speaking in front of a large crowd is one of the most terrifying things on Earth.
Standing alone behind a podium with just one’s words, a couple of notes and some passion is not something most people take to easily.
For seven students at Nottawasaga Pines Secondary School in Angus, they faced the fear head-on Friday afternoon and walked away better for it.
Participating in the school’s inaugural public speaking contest, the students had three to five minutes each to pitch their thoughts to an audience of about 200 fellow students.
“I was quite nervous, actually,” said Jessica Aldridge, a Grade 10 student who captured the junior division title for her talk on laughter. “You’ve just got to go for it.
“Do it and be proud of what you’re doing,” she added.
Aldridge hopes to become an English teacher some day — a profession that would certainly require someone to be comfortable in front of others.
Judging from the way she effortlessly and casually held the audience’s attention Friday, she’s made a good choice.
The senior division winner, Naba Hundekar, a Grade 11 student who talked about Palestine, also admitted to a case of the jitters while on stage.
“Your nerves are still there while you’re talking,” she said. “I practised a lot and did lots of video, but I was still nervous.”
She said she worked through the nerves because she had something to say.
“There’s an audience and they want to hear what you have to say, so you have to do it,” she said.
The students have been working on their speeches since mid-Februrary, said Jennifer McGrath, contest organizer and English curriculum lead at Nottawasaga Pines.
“I used to do this at my previous school,” she said. “It was so well received. Kids were excited to try. They were terrified but excited ... The most important thing was that the topics they come out with are important.”
When she joined Nottawasaga Pines, she introduced the contest there.
“When we made the original announcement, the kids were very excited,” she said.
The contest was open to all students,who were free to talk about any topic they wanted.
The only rules: Speeches had to be three to five minutes in length, be entirely original and be delivered without props or visuals.
The students embraced the latitude given for topic selection.
While Aldridge talked about the need for laughter and Hundekar provided her view of Palestine, other students embraced immigration (Rebecca Redondo), greed (Ryan Shelley), neurodiversity (Andrew Dinh), dystopia (Lyric Sikkin) and music (Parsa Zadhoush).
McGrath told the students to select a topic they cared about and to to be authentic and passionate about their topics.
“Passion will be something the audience will pick up on,” she said.
“They can spot inauthenticity, so it’s important to pick something that connects with them on a real level.”
