Hello Pfoho! I am delighted to announce the launch of Pfoho’s house speeches program — Pfoho RePflections! This is a supportive and exciting program that will allow students in the house to share their thoughts, questions, reflections and stories with their peers through 5-7min speeches during a single dinner, once a month, in the house. My name is Fanele, a non-resident tutor in Pfoho, and I will be running Pfoho RePflections this year. I lived in Pfoho as an undergrad (’17), and had the good fortune to serve as the president of the college’s competitive debate team back in the day. Having now graduated and gotten to know some of my friends more deeply outside of the undergraduate “treadmill,” I know that I would have loved to have had more opportunities to hear authentic stories from peers when I was still in school. I am hoping I can help create some of those kinds of opportunities in Pfoho now. If you’re interested in potentially giving a speech at some point over the course of the year -- even if you’re not yet sure and want to learn more -- please express your interest in this 1min google form here<https://forms.gle/gmy6j5xD2WvTGypx8>. F.A.Q. Who gets to speak, when and about what? We are going to have speeches during dinner once a month. The number of speeches per dinner will vary based on demand but we imagine 2-3 speeches in a given dinner. The only requirement about the speech content is that it be a subject of some amount of personal import. This can range from personal stories to really cool enzymes you found in the lab. Anything that matters to you and can be communicated to a general audience. Can you share some model speeches? We are reluctant to identify any speeches as “models,” because we’re trying to have you establish a form of speech that comes to be a Pfoho RePflection so we aren’t going to provide samples. That said, if you’re interested to see what others did in the past, you can find some examples by searching for Pfoho RePflections on YouTube. I’m nervous about speaking in public, but I think I might have something I’d like to say — should I still sign up? 100%, yes. If you want to try this, we are here to help you through the process. We’ll meet with you a month before you are due to give your speech to talk through the ideas you have, and offer some guidance. We’ll then have a more formal ‘coaching session’ a week before the speech to make sure we’re all squared away. And remember, the audience is very friendly! Should I sign up? Yes! Do so here<https://forms.gle/gmy6j5xD2WvTGypx8>. If you have any thoughts on how this program can be maximally helpful to speakers and the house community alike, I’m all ears. Please email me at: fmashwama@fas.harvard.edu<mailto:fmashwama@fas.harvard.edu>. Looking forward to hearing from you all! _______________________________________________ Pfoho-announce mailing list Pfoho-announce(a)lists.fas.harvard.edu To unsubscribe from this list or get other information: https://lists.fas.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/pfoho-announce