You’re nervous, trying to remember all the words to your big speech when suddenly you hear a loud crunch of a potato chip and a slurp of a coke. This incident became a regular trend for some of the NUHS PSEO public-speaking students since they had to present every speech to eight of their friends.

Seniors Evelyn Friese, Ty Frederick, and Ella Ahrens dived into the PSEO public speaking world this semester. Although NUHS offers a traditional public speaking course in the school taught by Mr. Van Leeuwe, students also have the option to take it online through the University of Northwestern, St. Paul, MN. “I took the public speaking class online because I knew I wouldn’t have to present in front of such a large crowd as I would in Mr.Van Leeuwe’s class,” said Friese. Another reason this online course was taken was that “the curriculum wasn’t as advanced,” according to Ahrens.

When you think of a public speaking class, usually there is an audience of your peers listening to your speech, and the same is true for the online course, except you get to choose who gets to attend your speech. For every speech, eight people were required to listen to their speeches to ensure they practiced good public speaking. To entice their friends to attend, Evelyn, Ty, and Ella would provide food and drink to entertain them while they watched their speeches.

According to all the speechgivers, having the class online was easy and straightforward. Once they figured out how to upload their speech videos, submitting them to their teacher and getting feedback was easy.

However, having eight of your closest friends watch your speeches may not be the easiest. “There were times they would look at each other if I messed up, and they would start laughing, which would distract me,” said Friese. They may have been distracting, but that did not hinder these speechgivers in presenting speech after speech during the semester.

Participation and effort were needed from the students in this course and their chosen audience. Sometimes, audience members had to give up an open lunch or a free evening to come and listen to speeches, boring or not. “I decided to come to their speeches because they provided food and are my friends,” said Ethan Lieb, a member of the regular speech audience.

Although it took more effort outside of school hours for all involved, overall, the consensus from the students who took this online course is that it was well worth it. It allowed Evelyn, Ty, and Ella to be more comfortable during speeches and gave them and their friends a chance to get together. These three appreciated their audience, and during the last round of speeches, Frederick presented the group with a speech thanking the audience for the sacrifices they made in helping their friends out with this class. For this group of seniors, this online course was more enjoyable and, in their eyes, more manageable than the one provided by the high school.

Fun during speeches

Rudy Friese(cat) climbing Joey Kotten (Karlee Stocker)

Joey Kotten became a cat tree mid-speech

Joey Kotten was enjoying a nice beverage during one of Ty's speeches, when suddenly, Rudy Friese, the cat, decided to take a climb.

Ty Frederick(right) pausing in front of camera before speech to show notes for class (Karlee Stocker)

Ty making sure requirements are met during speech video

Once the camera starts rolling, the audience is panned to and then a pause is taken to focus in on Ty's speech outline, which must be done to meet the class requirement for every speech.

Ella Ahrens(right) presenting her final speech (Karlee Stocker)

Ella giving it her all during her final speech

After filling up on some pizza provided by the Friese family household, Ella stands in front of her friends to present to them her final speech for the class.

Ty Frederick cuddling up with Rudy(cat) before his speech (Karlee Stocker)

Ty spending time with Rudy the cat before his speech

Ty loves the Friese family cat, Rudy. Even when this cat is bouncing around and biting people, Ty will always try and cuddle up with this crazy furball.

Taylor Hauenstein(left) and Ella Ahrens(right) playing with Rudy(cat) during speeches (Karlee Stocker)

Taylor and Ella entertaining Rudy during a speech

Rudy stole the spotlight once again during this round of speeches. Taylor tries to wrangle him this time but Rudy has other plans to cause more distractions