By Emily Braun

Sophomore, Telecommunications Major

One of the many benefits of being in the Honors Program at the University of Florida is the opportunity to be taught by some of the most top-notch professors in the school. A good number of classes that satisfy varying types of general education requirements and critical tracking credits are offered as honors courses, and they are certainly worth taking. One such course is SPC2608, or Introduction to Public Speaking.

Dr. Stephanie Webster is the instructor for the honors section of this course, and from my experience, she represents everything a student could picture in a great professor. Going into the class, several of my fellow classmates admitted they were not comfortable with public speaking. But by the end of the course, they were up there delivering their speeches with great confidence and ease. Dr. Webster was largely to thank for that.

She does a number of fun and engaging activities throughout the course to help us with our speeches. She once had us break into a team to read a children’s book aloud to the class, while fellow classmates in the audience held up signs saying things such as “louder,” “softer,” “slower,” “faster,” and “move around” to help us with our delivery.

Dr. Webster makes the course very interesting and provides great feedback after each speech delivery. During her office hours, she takes time to thoroughly work through a problem or address a concern with a student. Her primary concern is quite obvious; she wants every one of her students to succeed. Dr. Webster is always one to recognize and reward hard work and high amounts of effort.

In addition, Dr. Webster is a great person to have as a reference. Students should get to know her because she is not only easy to get along with, but she is also very knowledgeable in her field. She is more than willing to write a recommendation letter for a student applying for a competitive internship.

I highly recommend taking the honors section of SPC2608, just so you can have the chance to be taught by Dr. Webster. You will learn a lot about public speaking, and you will also be enrolled in a fun class that you can look forward to every week.