As a college senior almost finished with her Health Communications degree at Grand Valley State University, Jenna Puisis will enter the workforce with confidence and advanced speaking skills thanks to her two years as a member of Toastmasters International.

Puisis joined the club, which focuses on leadership and public speaking, after a lifetime fear of standing in front of a crowd and opening her mouth.

“Being a health communications major, you have to do public speaking in order to be successful and do your job,” she said.

She took the leap and began attending the weekly meetings for the GVSU Downtown chapter of the organization, where she is now the vice president of marketing.

The Downtown club has welcomed many people who are new to public speaking, said Josh Gerlick, the vice president of membership and a GVSU adjunct professor.

“A new member goes through a sequence of 10 speeches that all have a theme of helping them with basic communications skills,” Gerlick said.

New speakers learn to organize speeches well, perform necessary research, use vocal variety and tackle more objectives laid out in their manuals.

Each time Puisis and other Toastmasters members give speeches, they receive two types of comments: “glo” points and “grow” points.

The chapter’s president, Elaine Benoit, said “glo” points are compliments and point out where a speech was successful. The “grow” points then add constructive criticism to show a speaker which areas need improvement.

“We never tell someone they did a bad job on a speech,” Puisis said. “We always applaud a speaker and tell them what they did right.”

Puisis said the welcoming environment at the Toastmasters Club made her feel more comfortable practicing her communication skills, and she sees a direct connection between the meetings and her personal and professional life. She said she recently aced an interview for an internship at a healthcare system thanks to being able to communicate more effectively and think on her feet.

“Jenna’s a great example of someone who … has really grown and developed some tremendous new speaking skills as a result of her involvement in Toastmasters,” Gerlick said.

The Toastmasters Club has a person at each meeting who counts “the little filler words” like “um,” “ah” and “you know” in speeches, and both Benoit and Puisis said they have started to notice how people talk since joining the Toastmasters.

“It definitely makes you catch yourself when you say those words outside of the meeting,” Puisis said. “It makes you think, ‘Oh, I’m so glad I’m in Toastmasters!’”

The GVSU Downtown chapter has a few undergraduate students, but there are more graduate students, faculty and staff. The general community is also welcome to join the club, so members have the chance to interact with and learn from local professionals.

The chapter meets Thursdays from 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. at the University Club.

“We start on time, we end on time and we’re not going to get someone carried away on their soapbox,” Benoit said.

To learn more about them, visit gvsudowntown.freetoasthost.info or www.toasmasters.org to see what the organization is doing on a larger scale.

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