Sharing the Methodist College Story

Students in a summer communications class at Methodist College used their group speech project as an opportunity to share about Methodist College with high school students in the City of Peoria Mayor's Summer Youth Program.

This was the third summer that students in the Summer Youth Program have visited Methodist College as a way to not only learn about the college, but also be exposed to career opportunities in nursing, healthcare and social work.

This summer, students in instructor Renee Prunty's COM 101 Public Speaking and Presenting course used the good fortune of having the high school students on campus as an opportunity to complete the course's group speech assignment and incorporate service learning -- which combines learning experiences and community engagement.

"Through this group assignment the students were able to prepare and present their group speech, and connect that experience with our classroom discussions on cultural and interpersonal communications," said Prunty. "It gave the students a more realistic idea of what it takes to put together a group presentation as there were a lot of unknown variables to contend with and they had a larger audience than we normally would have in class."

The four college students hosted the Summer Youth Program students for a 20-25 minute presentation where they provided information about the college's history and its programs and career opportunities in healthcare. Two of the students shared about their work experience as a home health worker and a certified nurse assistant, and one of the students brought items and pictures from when her grandmother attended the college when it was the Methodist School of Nursing. In addition, the college students shared what college life is like and what they thought was the most important thing to know.

The college students were Krissi Hatcher, Sierra Jackson, Rhielea Songer, and Mindy Ward.

After the presentation, the Summer Youth Program students were led on a tour of the college campus and the student apartments.