Balloons, games, activities, interesting speeches, food, and prizes – what more could you ask for! We had some incredible speakers talk about topics which they are passionate about. We also welcomed our newest members, Monika and Richie.
Richie won the raffle prize – a cool USB pen! Well done
Many thanks to everyone who came and participated – it wouldn’t have been the same without you. We hope you gained something out it and made some new friends. Hope to see you soon.
Yesterday we heard from two incredible women, Nidhi Tewari and Kate Wislang. Both of them shared their personal experiences of what it is like to study within the male dominated STEM field.
Nidhi talked about practical steps that can be taken to help women feel like they belong in STEM. It was interesting to hear about her journey and what led her to research about the convergence between Technology and Law.
Kate used graphs/diagrams to convey her message that the number of women in science decline as they progress in their career. She is also keen to be a role model and encourage young girls in high school to pursue careers in engineering and physics.
A big thank you to everyone for taking part in our Toastmasters event.
On Saturday, U-CAN-SPEAK club members Timm and Peng competed in the Area E5 Toastmasters Contests. Congratulations to both of our Club Champions, they did an awesome job at presenting their speeches.
Timm was awarded First Place in the Evaluation Contests.
Peng was awarded Second Place in the Table Topic Contests.
Congratulations to U-CAN-SPEAK club member Elise! After having won the club’s speech competitions in evaluations (giving feedback) and Table Topics (impromptu speeches) last week, Elise competed again tonight at the area level. In both the evaluation contest and the Table Topics contest, the judges picked Elise as the winner!
In the evaluation contest, contestants had to evaluate the speech ‘Adventure Lust’ from Staci, who visited from Civic Toastmasters. During Table Topics, contestants had to give a 1-2 minute speech answering the question: ‘If you were the mayor of Christchurch, what would you change about the city?’
Tonight’s success means that Elise will be competing again at division level, together with tonight’s second placed winners from AirWaves Toastmasters and Christchurch Women’s Club as well as the winners of all other area contests in the upper half of the South Island. Elise has already done our club proud, and we keep our fingers crossed!
Meet our past member Dave Wareham! Dave contributed to the club as Vice President Membership, and even designed and produced a club brochure.
My name is David Wareham and I am an Associate Professor in Civil and Natural Resources Engineering. I joined Toastmasters in the early years of my career here at UC and I went through the first 10 speeches of the first book. The Toastmaster’s experience helped me tremendously in practicing how to make a speech interesting; and I often use the generic skills I was taught at Toastmasters in my lectures – especially “spicing” up my lectures with “war” stories that bring sometimes rather dry lectures to life. Even now, I regularly give sermons in a local church and/or other related theological talks and again, I make use of the abilities I gained during my tenure with Toastmasters UC. I highly recommend the club to anyone wanting to become a better presenter.
Do you want to experience the same benefits? Please get in touch or join our next meeting!
The thesis review is coming up for Lisa*, PhD student at Massey Albany. Understandably, she’s felling a bit nervous about this formal presentation in front of academics from the department, her supervisors and examiners. Therefore, she decides to first have a practice run at her Toastmasters club in Auckland. Continue reading 2 PhD students: 1 is a Toastmaster, 1 isn’t
Congratulations to Vivek, who got awarded the 1st prize for the best second year presentation in the Department of Chemistry! Vivek is studying towards a PhD at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch and joined U-CAN-SPEAK eight months ago. “Definitely 50% credit goes to Toastmasters!”, he says.
Congratulations to our club member Timm! At the Australia – New Zealand Mathematics Colloquium in Melbourne, he delivered the best presentation and won the Aitken Prize for the best contributed student talk. Well deserved $500, and his membership subs for Toastmasters were obviously an excellent investment!!!
Timm joined U-CAN-SPEAK, the Toastmasters Club at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, one and a half years ago. He is studying towards a PhD in mathematics.
At the 2013 convention of the New Zealand Mathematical Society, Timm was awarded the prize for the best student talk, which comes with a certificate and a $500 cheque. Congratulations on this awesome achievement! Timm joined U-CAN-SPEAK half a year ago and has since gained outstanding speaking skills. He is studying towards a PhD in Mathematics.
U-CAN-SPEAK 