Read a student's account of a recent session of Rocky VoxMasters, one of our student-led groups.
I went to a “passion” themed session of VoxMasters during the fall term. That week’s event was hosted by both the VoxMasters student group and the Modern Abolition Initiative. Aside from eating delicious Thai food, we gathered to practice making “call to action” speeches. This is a subject we had also covered in an earlier MLDP session, so I was able to gain further experience with this type of speech. Participants spoke about everything from the power of coincidence to broken tennis rackets, and one even gave a speech about puppies after seeking topic ideas from the crowd.
I spoke about the importance of stepping outside of the “Dartmouth bubble.” I began by saying how Dartmouth is labeled with many stereotypes, but of all of these, it is certainly true that students are busy and we live in a bubble. To counteract this, I asked students to volunteer, interact with outside visitors (including those that come to give lectures and student dinners through Rocky), or join extracurricular activities that lead to interactions with the community. Personally, I’ve gotten to do this by participating in DREAM. While this may seem a large commitment to some, there are many smaller ways to interact with the community and the outside world.
At VoxMasters, I simultaneously learned to speak convincingly about this topic while paying attention to stylistic details like posture and filler words. VoxMasters helped me to build upon and improve the skills I’ve been learning in MLDP, and to learn new ones.
-Sasha Dudding '15