Organizing a Workshop: "SCSD x SGA Public Speaking Workshop" 9 points (Sophia Wade, Class of 2028)

 As President of Spelman College Speech and Debate, I had the opportunity to plan several public speaking workshops for the Spelman community. Most recently, I organized a bootcamp-themed public speaking workshop in partnership with the Spelman Student Government Association for the First Year Class Council candidates. In this workshop, we facilitated discussions about tone policing and free expression, highlighting the story of Serena Williams in the 2018 US Open Final. This workshop produced some insightful conversations about the commonalities between our experiences as Black women who have been labeled as “too loud” or “too aggressive.” It was these conversations that made the workshop such a meaningful experience. It is no secret that society's treatment of Black women is a painfully overlooked topic in modern academia. Not having scholarly research to validate your struggles can be challenging, especially in spaces outside of Spelman, where your experiences as a Black woman might be questioned by peers. That is why this workshop was so powerful--because we were able to unpack everyone's relationship with public speaking, address residual trauma from experiences with tone policing, and encourage the workshop participants to practice expressing themselves freely.