12 HS students are meeting on Thursdays from November 2-14 in the ES conference room to practice public speaking techniques and apply them in real-life situations.

The students are working towards improving their debating, oratory, and public management skills in after-school workshops facilitated by psychologist Dr. Juan Carlos Posada. 

“It’s amazing that the school has given us this opportunity to work with someone who has so much experience in public speaking and we are actually able to learn and improve our skills with him,” Maria Correa, Grade 11, said. 

Students will participate in 6 sessions with Posada, where they will cover vocalizing, corporal expression, and other topics. The purpose of these activities is to improve their public speaking skills for future experiences such as the Model of the United Nations (MUN).

“I believe that we are learning something that is really important for our daily lives and all these different strategies will help us with these and more, as we are learning a really important life skill,” Correa said.

The Asociacion de Padres de Familia (ASOPAF) has been organizing these workshops for the past several years. The students that participated were summoned by senior, Santiago Villegas, COSMUN Secretary General. 

“I was invited by ASOPAF a few years ago. Each year it is my very pleasure to attend because as the years pass by,  these workshops have improved significantly and there is more student participation,” Posada said. 

The vast majority of the participants are student leaders that take part in extracurricular activities such as TOM, Cosmun, GirlUp, and GIN. 

“Most of the student participants are part of this year’s Cosmun board. When sending out the invitations, I thought it was important to have them learn these abilities and put them into practice,” Villegas said. 

According to Posada, the workshop is centered around the 5 most important public-speaking skills, The students have had to complete work even after the workshops, in order to thoroughly analyze the skills taught during class. 

“I have gained so many skills and different strategies for public speaking. For instance, I have learned to express my ideas better, vocalize, interact with the audience, regulate my voice tone, and much more. I’m very thankful for having the opportunity to attend and grow as a speaker,” Correa said.

The students have worked towards applying and introducing these concepts into their daily life, as they have had after the session time to practice and apply the new learnings. 

“TCS students are really receptive and intelligent and immediately understand all instructions, I am glad to be here,” Posada said.