Applauding from the sidelines, Elizabeth Carter (left), a CDS undergraduate academic advisor, with Toastmasters club member Zach Walton (CDS’28) .

Student Clubs

Afraid of Public Speaking? This Club Can Help

BU’s Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences Toastmasters chapter helps students become more confident and articulate in front of a crowd

Roughly one-third of American adults say they fear public speaking more than insects, needles—even murder. For Sarah Rashed, standing in front of a crowd wasn’t something she hated, but wasn’t something she relished either. She felt fairly confident in high school, but once she arrived at college and the opportunities for talking before a group became fewer, her confidence began to fade.

“I was noticing in classes where I had to present, I would just lock up and get super anxious,” Rashed (CDS’26) says. “I’d go blank.”

Last year, she spotted a poster at the Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences for its new Toastmasters club. It promised to help students improve their public speaking skills and become more confident, articulate, and influential speakers. She decided to check it out, and quickly became a member.

Her off-the-cuff elevator pitch about why you should join: “You’re going to have to talk to people whether you like it or not. You’re going to have to present your ideas and articulate what’s going on in your head. It’s very important to know how to say something confidently so people are interested in the content of what you’re saying, versus not understanding what you mean because you are nervous or anxious.”

The group, an affiliate of the nonprofit Toastmasters International, is sponsored by CDS, which means the school covers the membership dues for its students; other BU students are welcome to join, but must pay the fee themselves. The club meets weekly and offers a structured yet supportive environment for students to sharpen their public speaking, communication, and leadership skills. Members can also earn certifications to include on their résumés.

At a recent meeting, 17 students gathered in a CDS classroom. They kicked things off with “table topics,” where they picked random prompts out of a hat and spoke about them for a maximum of two minutes: “What is something you’ve never done before, but you’re confident you could do comfortably?” “What are you most proud of yourself for?” “Where in Boston can you find the best cannoli? And “How often should you wash your water bottle?” One by one they spoke, with the other members grading their speeches and delivering their notes at the end of the meeting.

Members can also bring in a five-to-seven-minute prepared speech (one they’re working on to deliver for an upcoming class presentation, for example). They all also joined in for a “Socratic discussion” that addressed the question, “Does AI enhance or diminish human creativity and decision-making?” 

“It’s like a mini debate,” Rashed explains. 

The CDS Toastmasters club was founded in 2024 by Tanima Chatterjee, a CDS clinical assistant professor of computing and data sciences and director of undergraduate studies. A former member of the Toastmasters chapter at the University of Illinois Chicago, where she earned her PhD, Chatterjee says that while she was a confident speaker before joining the group, she felt she needed more practice since she is not a native English speaker (her native languages are Hindi and Bengali). 

“Every time I speak on stage, there’s an internal preprocessing happening in my head,” she says. “I might have to think about the words in my language and translate them into English. [So] practicing in front of someone was extremely necessary for me… It created a safe space for me where I could practice and get good feedback and work on those skills.” Another great piece of feedback she received from the group: slow down.

When she began teaching at BU, she took note of a trend when interviewing TAs for her class: student candidates had a solid grasp of technical content, but often struggled to explain it clearly and confidently. She thought a Toastmasters-type group might be a good thing for her students to join. She now coleads it with Elizabeth Carter, a CDS undergraduate academic advisor.

“We all know nowadays that being able to present yourself and sell your skills is super important,” Chaterjee says. Since CDS launched its chapter, she’s observed a “huge boost of confidence and huge improvement” in the students, she says, and the experience has not only boosted their public speaking skills, but their leadership skills as well.

Rashed agrees.

“You’re not going to be great the first time. I was horrible,” she says. “But as you practice, you get over the anxiety and start focusing more on the presentation aspect of it and what you’re actually saying.” Her tips? Make your opening few sentences catchy, and try to have a conclusion that you can wrap up nicely. And—don’t say “like,” “so,” and “um.” 

Once the content is nailed down, it’s time to move on to visual presentation. Try to appear confident and poised. Use some hand gestures, but not too many, and don’t walk around too much. Be mindful of speaking loudly and with emphasis. 

And Rashed counsels that especially in the beginning, it’s important not to be too nervous about how the audience is perceiving you, because everyone is nervous at first. 

“I think the biggest thing that’s unique about this group is that we all know each other, and we’re all comfortable with each other,” Rashed says. “Everyone is friendly and inviting, and they want everyone to succeed, whoever comes up on stage, and just want to see people improve. So students shouldn’t be scared to come and try public speaking, because this is the safest place to do it.”

Interested in learning more about the CDS Toastmasters Club? Email Tamina Chatterjee at tchatt2@bu.edu or Elizabeth Carter at cdsadvising@bu.edu.