XAVIER BOATNER
campus editor
xavier.boatner@my.tccd.edu

NE Campus hosted three informal seminars to teach students, staff and faculty the best ways to navigate social encounters and difficult conversations.

NE speech chair A’Isha Malone held “Communicating in a World of Chaos” Nov. 10, where hosts shared tips and tricks with audience members to help them improve their communication skills.

“Good communication skills are important,” NE speech instructor Jamie Melton said.

Effective speech is a necessary element in a person’s day-to-day life, Melton said.

“Communication is how the world works,” she said. “This is how we establish our relationships. It’s how we work. It’s how we communicate with those at work. It’s how we communicate with our family members.”

During the event, Melton said changing approaches while talking to others can be beneficial.

“We talk to people with diverse communication styles every day,” Melton said. “We are living in a very diverse world, and it helps us understand different people with different worldviews.”

NE student Hannah Morcha said she thinks the event was created to inform and empower people.

“I think the motivation behind the event was to help people learn better communication skills,” Morcha said. “I think it helps you build more confidence when communicating with other people.” 

She said the event allowed people to understand why learning how to speak effectively with others can be challenging.

“I think communication can be very hard,” Morcha said. “It’s easy to get nervous, and it can be a very shaky experience.”

NE student Tin Nguyen believes the idea behind the event was to teach people the benefit of talking with others.

“I think the purpose of the event is to have professors spread their knowledge to the students to help them become better when they’re on their own,” Nguyen said.

The important lesson from the event was understanding the benefit of good communication skills, Nguyen said.

“Connection – making people connected is the benefit,” he said.

Event co-host and NE speech instructor Amber Meyers said she hoped people walked away from the event understanding the significance of different forms of speech and where to apply them.

“I hope to share that conflict arises from the perception of a threat,” Meyers said. “There are ways we can act when those around us feel threatened or act in ways we find disagreeable…I wanted to share that we have the power to create a calmer society by intervening when we see bad behavior in public.”

Meyers said she wanted to help people sharpen their communication skills because of her past experiences.

“As an autistic person, communication has never come naturally to me,” she said. “I guessed that if I struggled, others must struggle too so I decided to polish my skill set to learn and then be able to present ideas in a hopefully fun and interesting way.”

Throughout the event, discussions were had about the best aspects of speech and Meyers said speech’s greatest strength was its ability to allow others to understand different types of people.

“Language development allowed us to transmit knowledge from one generation to the next,” she said. “Nonverbal communication enhanced those verbal utterances and allows people who don’t speak the same language to still communicate, trade and prosper.”

After being asked why many people struggle when talking to others, Meyers said poor communication comes from underexposure and an inability to change. 

“Mostly it comes down to a desire to learn and a desire to change,” she said. “Change is always hard, but the benefits of learning to communicate are worth the discomfort of change.”