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When I was in 4th grade, I had a teacher who embarrassed me by asking me to answer her question repeatedly by telling me to speak louder every time. She claimed that she couldn’t hear me and wanted me to speak up so that the whole class could hear me. She asked me, “Patricia, what do you want to be when you grow up?” I told her that I wanted to be a teacher. She responded with “How do you plan to be a teacher when you can’t even speak loud enough so we can all hear you?” With that final comment, she moved on to continue her lecture. I was humiliated and embarrassed. Public speaking has always been a challenge for me because I know that my voice does not carry well in a large room. To add to my nerves, I have this fear of not being heard above all other noises in the room, plus being able to communicate well when trying to capture my audience’s attention has always caused me apprehension. When researching a topic for my Communication and Leadership class, I knew that I wanted to look fo...