Students in Northeast Community College’s new Community Communications class spent the majority of their semester outside of the classroom. The new course was created as an alternative to competitive speech. It gives students the opportunity to present and interact with all types of community organizations, both large and small.

Instructor Terry Nelson says “This course is a great elective for students who are pursuing careers that will require them to be comfortable speaking in front of diverse groups, such as education, early childhood, human services, communications, and criminal justice.”

The class has had various service learning opportunities to interact with audiences at different places like Norfolk Rescue Mission, The Zone, the YMCA, Toastmasters, area nursing homes and preschools. When visiting one of the area nursing homes, students prepared a short pet therapy presentation and brought two dogs for the residents to pet. In the memory support unit, students simply conversed with the residents.

On Monday, December 7, 2015, the group performed a skit, shared favorite holiday memories, had a gift exchange, sang songs, and visited with residents at Madison’s Juvenile Detention Center.

Sophomore Jasmine Phander, Ewing, NE, says she’s learned that “for younger children you need to make it simple and funny, and you can’t ask them a lot of questions because they get off topic so easily.”

Wendonda Koala, who is also a sophomore, is from Burkina Faso. He says he has enjoyed this class because it has allowed him the opportunity to speak to Americans off campus.

In the spring, these students will be in the Community Communications II class. They will be assisting local high school speech teams with their performances and they will also be required to judge a high school speech tournament.