Five years ago, I was a student whose heart would beat so fast when she would raise her hand to answer a question in class. I used to have this public speaking fear that was like a big obstacle in my way to achieving my dream of becoming a motivational speaker. Last week, I was speaking in front of the CCBC board of trustees.
I was picked by the Maryland Association of Community Colleges (MACC) to speak at the MACC Trustees Leadership Conference. Presidents and board of trustees of the 16 community colleges across the state of Maryland were meeting in this virtual conference to focus on the legislative needs to support our community colleges. Students from all community colleges across the state of Maryland applied to speak at the MACC Trustees Leadership Conference and I was the one who was picked to speak about my college experience. It was a virtual conference and I shared my experience in a video format.
While the conference was going, the communication director emailed me asking my permission to share my speech on MACC social media accounts. They shared my video on their Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. My story was all over social media. Our college president, Dr. Kurtinitis was attending the conference and she watched my video, so she invited me to meet the CCBC Board of Trustees during their meeting last week on the Essex Campus. Hearing Dr. Kurtinitis introducing me to the board by saying, “I have a special guest for you tonight” made me feel so proud of myself. I was so relaxed during the meeting when I spoke in front of the board that no one believed I used to have public speaking fear before I joined the CCBC community.
The next day, I receive an email from my Ambassador Program Director Lesley telling me that the Vise President, Dr.Lilley stopped by her office to tell her that everyone enjoyed my speech. My favorite part about all of this is hearing what Dr. Kurtinitis said after she played my speech video. She was addressing all of CCBC faculty and staff virtually during her livestream chat on Monday. She said, “You can’t listen to that and not feel justifiable pride in what we do here. Every single one of us plays some large or small role in making what we witnessed.” Then she went on and said, ” It’s really nice to see us preparing a Rama for the future of our communities and the future of our world.”
My message was really from my heart and I wanted my message to touch the hearts of everyone who works at CCBC. I hope everyone who works at CCBC knows how much of an impact they all have on students’ lives. Dr. Kurtinitis, if you are reading this thank you so much from my heart for helping me delivering my message to everyone who works at CCBC. What a great way to start my spring semester!
I would like to include a link to my speech video to this blog for you if you’d like to watch it.
Until next time my friends,
Rama
