Surpassing fears of death and disease, glossophobia -- the fear of public speaking -- ranks top on phobia charts.
Biology professor Greg Guild explains that the reason for such a fear is that "you can either be helpful or kill your audience" with word choice and delivery.
Recognizing the lack of speech training at Penn, a group of students on the Student Committee on Undergraduate Education realized in the late 1990s that in order for students to succeed beyond the boundaries of the University, it is essential that they develop their speaking capabilities.
The students "approached the deans and writing department [with the hope of developing a program] to work on students' speaking capabilities," Communication Within the Curriculum Associate Director Bruce Lenthall says.
Initially labeled "Speaking Across the University," the program was later renamed "CWiC" in order to distinguish it from the Writing Across the University program, according to Ralph Rosen, a professor of Classical Studies and faculty director of CWiC.
Since its development, CWiC has proven to be a unique program in which student advisers -- rather than faculty members -- assist other students with their speaking skills. This students-teaching-students method has truly been the reason for CWiC's success, Lenthall says.
"The fact that we use undergrads to do advising opens all sorts of possibilities. First, it makes it possible ... since professors can't possibly meet with all their students. Second, it helps students think like advisers and learn to answer questions like 'How do I listen?' 'What am I listening for?' and 'How do I understand what makes a good argument?'" Lenthall says.
Currently, there are 10 student advisers in the program, and CWiC foresees having over two dozen advisers by next semester.
College senior Patricia Maloney is one of CWiC's active participants and says that she has enjoyed her experience as an adviser.
"I feel like I use the skills that I've developed with CWiC every day," she says. "One of the most important things that CWiC has taught me is that words have a very definite and easily seen power. ... Very few people can harness or even recognize that power."
In order to become a speaking adviser, Maloney and her fellow advisers had to go through a rigorous training class taught by Lenthall called "The Art of Persuasion."
"Going through [the class] was disorienting at first," Maloney says. "After all, I had just spent all of my high school career listening to people compliment me on my speaking skills. Then I entered a class in which all I heard were things to improve upon. It was a type of trial by fire."
Ultimately, Maloney's training paid off, and she has learned not just to improve her own speaking, but also that of other students.
She explains that a "typical session with [a student] consists of trying to isolate a thesis for their presentation, talking about the structure of speech and then working on some general delivery skills."
Maloney adds that "most come back for at least one more optional dress rehearsal ... because they've found it so helpful."
Yet it's not only students who are helped by the CWiC program -- faculty also boast of its benefits.
Guild says he uses the CWiC program in combination with his lab courses.
"The last two weeks of class, students give a symposium on technology," Guild explains. However, when he first started having students speak in front of the class, he found that "less than half had experience with speaking."
To mitigate his troubles, Guild turned to the CWiC center -- of which he is currently a member of the advisory board -- in order to help his students improve their speaking.
Since this collaboration with CWiC, "all of the talks students gave were at least as good as the best ones the year before," Guild claims.
What makes this combination of speech training and science so productive is that the adviser who works with Guild's students -- who are mostly graduate students in biotechnology -- is also a science student who is familiar with the microarray technology used by the class.
"It's nice to have someone in science [help out] because there is no learning curve for science vocabulary," Guild notes.
While CWiC has been successful, the faculty board is still looking to develop the program for the future.
Rosen hopes for "more affiliated CWiC courses," along with "more trained advisers" and a partnership with senior thesis programs.
Like Rosen, Guild also sees a need for expansion, especially among teaching assistants.
"I would like to move the program to the graduate level," he says. "Grads get teaching assistant training, but there are some basic things they could still learn."
As CWiC moves into the future, Maloney offers some advice for fellow Penn students, saying, "You could be the most brilliant person on Earth, but if you couldn't communicate your thoughts, you'd have nothing."
