Camosun College’s Toastmasters Club, which is dedicated to improving students’ public speaking, communication, and listening skills, has now been in Victoria for 80 years (it was at other locations before Camosun was founded in 1971). College Liaison for Toastmasters April Atkins says the group’s longevity can be attributed to those involved in the club.
“There are clubs that are born every year, there are clubs that die every year,” says Atkins. “And our club has survived 80 years. It’s really amazing, and it takes a committed group to achieve the goals that are required to keep it alive.”
Atkins says Toastmasters has helped her gain confidence in a professional environment and better equipped her for communication in life in general. She knew she needed to make a change after a series of job interviews at the college went nowhere.
“I got to a point where I wanted to start a new job within Camosun; just a change, a new challenge,” she says. “And I would be asked to go to different interviews because of having a degree, because of having the stability of working in a department for 10 years. But every time I went to an interview, I didn’t pass.”
Atkins says learning the foundations of Toastmasters is the reason she was accepted into a job in the Trades and Technology department, a job which she says she had no idea she could even be accepted into, having earned a degree in Social Sciences. She’s also earned something else during her time in the club.
“I achieved the highest-level recognition within Toastmasters,” she says. “I am a Distinguished Toastmaster. During the first year of achieving that status, my employer nominated me for a staff excellence award at Camosun College, and I was the recipient for that award.” (Atkins was also nominated for a Canada-wide award for her public speaking the following year.)
Camosun Electrical Apprenticeship student David Diamond, who was a Sergeant in the military before coming to Camosun, says that Toastmasters has helped him learn to communicate with civilians.
“Whether it’s marketing something or selling something, or conducting a meeting, I find Toastmasters a very valuable skill for me,” says Diamond. “I was too direct; too stern. I can’t give an order to a civilian. I’m learning to be direct how I am.”
The key, says Diamond, is learning how to be direct in an amicable, professional way.
“I’m learning through Toastmasters to build on the valuable leadership skills I learned in the military, but now I get to use those and adapt to the civilian side of things,” he says.
Camosun’s Toastmasters is celebrating something else aside from their 80th birthday: they recently reached all 10 of their goals—which can be related to matters ranging from administrative to educational—for the year. If a club can achieve nine of their 10 goals, it becomes a “president’s distinguished club.”
See camosuncollege.toastmastersclubs.org for more information.