Jacob Siri

Final Reflection

 

 

Coming into this class I really didn’t know what to expect. I have never been in a class, or in any sort of system, that was solely dedicated on improving my public speaking skills. Before I entered this class, I’ve only had a few experiences involving public speaking, but even with those experiences I lacked the knowledge on how to deliver an effective speech.

 

When it came to public speaking, I was always nervous and missing confidence. I knew that these characteristics where holding me back, so I wanted to improve these skills and be the speaker I knew I could be. I understood that the only chance I had at improving these flaws was by being in a class where I was going to feel comfortable. If I wasn’t going to be able to feel comfortable in the class, then I knew I was never going to feel comfortable while giving a speech. So, when it came time to register last fall, I spoke with my friends who had previously taken COM 1010, and I asked them if they enjoyed their COM class. Some of my friends told me that they weren’t impressed with their COM class, while others told me that their COM class was great. However, one of my friends, Andrew, told me he was in the most amazing COM class with the best professor, and I should take the class that he just took. That class was Professor Kyueun’s class. Even though he told me this, I didn’t know for sure if the class was going to be a good fit for me. Nevertheless, I decided to register for Kyueun Kim COM 1010 Monday and Wednesday from 9:05- 10:20.

 

After sitting in class for only a few days, I knew that Andrew couldn’t have been more right. I was instantly drawn to how Professor Kyueun set a classroom environment that was lax and fun, but also set an environment that prioritized improving our public speaking skills.

 

The first few days, we did some fun, public speaking exercises. This really set the tone for the class, as I was able to get to know my classmates better, which made me feel more comfortable in the classroom.

 

As the semester went on. My nervousness and lack of confidence progressively diminished with each speech that I gave. The low stress atmosphere made me feel calm as I was able to concentrate on what I needed to say in order to deliver an effective speech. After I was done speaking, Professor Kyueun always gave me great advice on how to improve my public speaking ability. I always took this advice, and worked as best as I could on improving those skills for my upcoming speech.

 

Looking back, I realized how far I’ve come. In the beginning of the semester, I remember we did a speaking exercise where we had to pick a scenario at random from a cup, and give a one minute speech on that scenario. Even though, it was only for one minute, I remember how nervous I was to deliver a speech in front of the classroom. Now, no matter the class, when I give a speech I am able go in front of the classroom and deliver a strong, confident, and effective speech. I know that I still have a lot to improve on, but I now have the tools to give a well-organized and efficient speech.

 

I can’t imagine if Andrew didn’t tell me about this class. If that was the case, then I would still be exceptionally nervous and lacking confidence while giving a public speech.

Thankfully I got into this class. This class is as perfect as it gets.

Guideline for preparing an additional speech to be delivered on May 14

1. speech date: May 14 Monday
2. topic: critical reflection on speech communication course at Baruch based on your experience as a speaker and a listener.
3. possible questions to explore: Do you think speech communication class has helped you or will help you prepare and deliver future speeches? Why? Why do you think this course is mandatory for all Baruch students? Do you like the idea? Why or why not? How can this course (my class in specific, or speech communication class in general) be improved in order to better communicate with the students of your generation or to better fulfill the needs of the students? Please try to contextualize your reflection as much as possible. We live in the digital world: how can this course be modified in that context? Do you find VOCAT (an open-source digital tool developed at Baruch) beneficial in anyways? What kind of digital tools might be useful for speech communication class?
4. You are welcome to be super-critical, meaning you can provide some critical, supportive feedback specifically to my course design.
5. As for the delivery: you must read your VOCAT comments again and think about my comments too. What is one thing that you want to improve the most? For example, voice, eye contact, etc. Your speech should show us some improvement (at least best-try) on that aspect.

Givenchy Ayisi-Boahene
Com 1010
Kyueun Kim
23 April 2018
Persuasive speech outline: Advocate for Human dignity in our city

Intro: Who here lives in a dorm or an apartment away from home?
Who here still lives with parents or family member?
After school where do you go?
At the end of the day most of us will go home. Whether it be your parents’ home, apartment, or dorm you know where you are sleeping tonight. For thousands of New Yorkers this is not true.
In recent years homelessness in New York City has reached the highest levels since the great depression.
Body: Facts about Homelessness
• In February 2018, there were 63,343 homeless people, including 15,546 homeless families with 23,314 homeless children, sleeping each night in the New York City municipal shelter system. Families make up three-quarters of the homeless shelter population.
•Over the course of City fiscal year 2017, more than 129,803 different homeless men, women, and children slept in the New York City municipal shelter system. This includes over 45,000 different homeless New York City children.
•The number of homeless New Yorkers sleeping each night in municipal shelters is now 82 percent higher than it was ten years ago.
•Research shows that the primary cause of homelessness, particularly among families, is lack of affordable housing. Surveys of homeless families have identified the following major immediate, triggering causes of homelessness: eviction; doubled-up or severely overcrowded housing; domestic violence; job loss; and hazardous housing conditions.
•Research shows that, compared to homeless families, homeless single adults have much higher rates of serious mental illness, addiction disorders, and other severe health problems.
•Each night thousands of unsheltered homeless people sleep on New York City streets, in the subway system, and in other public spaces. There is no accurate measurement of New York City’s unsheltered homeless population, and recent City surveys significantly underestimate the number of unsheltered homeless New Yorkers.
•Studies show that the large majority of street homeless New Yorkers are people living with mental illness or other severe health problems.
•African-American and Latino New Yorkers are disproportionately affected by homelessness. Approximately 58 percent of New York City homeless shelter residents are African-American, 31 percent are Latino, 7 percent are white, less than 1 percent are Asian-American, and 3 percent are of unknown race/ethnicity.

Solution: A fundamental cause of homelessness is the widening housing affordability gap in New York City. Government’s actions have cut the already inadequate public assistance funds decreasing the amount of public assistance afford and the length of its assistance. It is has led to the loss of thousands of affordable rental units. Rent regulation laws, which help keep around half of all rental apartments in New York City affordable, has accelerated the loss of low-cost housing. To address New York City’s wide housing affordability gap, the Federal, State and City governments must significantly increase investments in affordable rental housing, with a significant portion targeted to homeless families and individuals. Similarly, strengthening rent regulation laws would preserve affordable housing and protect tenants, allowing them to keep their homes.

1. Federal housing assistance _ FHA are the most successful housing based solutions to reduce homelessness. Two largest programs are public housing and Section 8 vouchers which allow low income households to rent modest market housing of their choice and provide flexible subsidy that adjust to the family income. This is the most effective way of curing family homelessness

2. Permanent supportive housing- Pioneered New York in 1980s is a permanent supportive housing that provides affordable housing services for individual homelessness that suffer from mental illnesses, HIV/AIDS and other serious health condition. It is the most cost affordable form of assistance that saves the tax payers money and example of such policy includes the 1990 City-State “New York Agreement,”

3. The “housing first” approach involves moving long-term street homeless individuals — the majority of whom are living with mental illness, substance abuse disorders and other serious health problems — directly into subsidized housing and then linking them to support services, either on-site or in the community. Research studies have found that the majority of long-term street homeless people moved into “housing first” apartments remain stably housed and experience significant improvements in their health problems. Much like permanent supportive housing, the “housing first” approach is far less costly than emergency and institutional care, such as shelters, hospitals and correctional facilities.

Personal Story: witnessing the death of a homeless man on a cold winter night in 5th grade

Main Idea: Addressing homelessness is much more than just providing food and shelter it is about providing the basic human dignity to the people our society has chosen to shame and shun.
Why Should I care?

Addressing hunger and homelessness in the City is about providing the basic human dignity to the people of our community. People complain that these programs are costly yet rather use time and money to fund entertain industries like the NBA, NCAA, NFL and more. However when it comes to human dignity as Angela Markel stated “there is no compromise!” Human dignity is the basic respect and right each person is born with. It is the right to proper living conditions, the right not to starve to death, right not to eat your feces, the right to get proper health care, the right not to be treated less than a wounded dog. There more people concerned about the wellbeing of animals than of their fellow humans, when you see a wounded dog, do you think he’s a drug addict? He should get a job? Or do you sympathize with it?

Outro: How can you help?
Okay how many of you watch football? Jacob do you know how many people attend NFL events a year?
According to Statista in 2017 17.2 million people attended NFL games last year
According to city Harvest “More hungry individuals visited soup kitchens than attendees at NFL games across the country “With this amount of people visiting the soup kitchen more volunteers are needed to help serve them. I discovered a City Harvest on 32nd ST using the locator tab on the city harvest webpages. It is not far from school you can help for an hour or two during breaks, after school etc.
1)Volunteer: there are many programs you can participate in such as the Grand Central Food Program (GCFP) which was founded in 1985 the day after a homeless woman died of starvation in Grand Central Terminal. The largest mobile soup kitchen in America.
a)Each night, our three vans deliver healthy meals of hot stew, bread, fresh fruit, and juice or milk — as well as coats, hats, gloves and blankets in the colder weather — to those struggling to survive rough on the streets at 23 stops around the city. For many homeless New Yorkers, this is their only meal of the day.
b)You can call help for someone you see needs it, if you see a homeless person and you see it is not dangerous to approach ask them if they have heard of Coalition for the homeless or any other assistance program you can provide information on. You can go to the webpages and print out flyers that you can give hem that five them directions and methods of getting help.( Pass around Flyers)
Do not pretend not to see them, or judge them, think of it as if it were your father, mother or sister.
2. Take part in legislative actions example:
Sign the petition the coalition for the Homeless has started a petition to urge Mayor de Blasio to dedicate
To dedicate 30,000 units of permanent housing to homeless New Yorkers!

http://cfth.nonprofitsoapbox.com/more-permanent-housing

Website to visit:
1. http://www.coalitionforthehomeless.org/get-help/
2. https://www.cityharvest.org/