More Than Words: Grow as a Confident Speaker and Strong Leader

Two Toastmasters Clubs affiliated with Duke offer support for delivering prepared and extemporaneous speeches

A man speaking

Born in Kenya, Mercy Njenga’s first languages were Kikuyu and Swahili. She learned English in grade school, but after moving to the United States as an adult, she wanted to become more confident communicating in American English, a dialect with slight-but-meaningful differences from the version she had been taught.

“I reached a point in my life when I decided it was time to work on my communication skills,” said Njenga, the Director of Fringe Benefits Accounting for Duke Financial Services.

Last year, Njenga joined the Duke Toastmasters Club, one of two chapters of Toastmasters International affiliated with Duke.

Founded in 1924, Toastmasters International is a global network of more than 14,200 clubs devoted to sharpening speaking skills in a welcoming and fun environment.

Join the Club

Duke is home to two chapters of Toastmasters International. Learn how they can help you learn speaking, presentation and leadership skills.

More Information

During regular meetings, club members take turns filling different procedural roles and giving both prepared and extemporaneous speeches. Afterward, they receive constructive and supportive assessments.

The Duke Toastmasters Club meets virtually at 7 a.m. on the second and fourth Wednesday of each month, and the Blue Devils Toastmasters Club meets virtually at noon on the first and third Fridays of each month. Both clubs are open to the public but draw most members from the Duke and Durham community. Membership is $10 per month.

While members such as Njenga come to Toastmasters for help with public speaking, the benefits of Toastmasters go deeper.

Duke Financial Services' Mercy Njenga is a member of the Duke Toastmasters Club. Photo courtesy of Mercy Njenga.

All Toastmasters members have access to 11 Pathways Learning Experience Programs. Covering topics such as Presentation Mastery, Persuasive Influence, Engaging Humor and Effective Coaching, the Pathways combine self-paced online lessons and speaking challenges – such as writing and delivering a specific talk during a meeting – to build skills in specific areas of communication.

Linda-Marie Miller, a Durham resident who isn’t affiliated with Duke but has been a Duke Toastmasters Club member since 2019, became an inspirational speaker after retiring from a health care research firm. She was first runner-up in the 2020 World Championship of Public Speaking. Currently working through the Pathway for Engaging Humor, Miller said the lessons available through Toastmasters have helped her build skills she uses to craft compelling talks.

“There is more educational impact and benefit from the 11 Pathways programs in Toastmasters than I’ve seen in some high-priced programs in corporate America,” said Miller, who gave a talk about the value of Toastmasters at a recent meeting of the Duke Toastmasters Club. “You can learn so much.”

Stacie White, Duke Regional Hospital’s Interim Director of Case Management, joined the Blue Devil Toastmasters Club earlier this year so she could communicate better with team members and hospital leaders.

She has begun working through the Leadership Development Pathway, completing the first handful of online learning modules about writing speeches with purpose and managing time while talking.

“There are so many more layers to Toastmasters than you realize,” White said. “You get to hone skills that you didn’t think you’d be developing.”

Send story ideas, shout-outs and photographs through our story idea form or write working@duke.edu.

Follow Working@Duke on X (Twitter), Facebook and Instagram and subscribe on YouTube.