Speaking to Students
September 20, 2007 | by brett | Permalink
As I write this, I am sitting on a couch with four girls at the University of Delaware. The RV is parked outside in their driveway, sticking out ever so slightly in the street and edging up against the gutter of Klondike Kate’s, the restaurant in which we just devoured three orders of nachos with five other female students.
Life is good.
We spoke to an entrepreneurship class of fifty-five students tonight. Considering that we wrote most of the presentation at 2am in a bar last night in Philadelphia with two professional hula hoopers, it could not have gone better.
Walking towards Alfred Lerner Hall with Jay and Zach, about to deliver our unrehearsed, soon to be improvised “speech,” I asked the guys what moment they were more scared of. Was it this moment, just minutes before facing a room full of our peers to see what the response was to a project we’d devoted the last three months to? Or was it when we were about to enter the Sheridan Correctional Facility to sit amongst a hundred prisoners and listen to an AA motivational speaker.
The unanimous answer was this moment.
Inside the classroom we had some technical difficulties that delayed our presentation ten minutes, nearly forcing us to deliver our message without the aid of pretty pictures on powerpoint. We finally prevailed and opened by showing our introductory video, which can be seen below.
As we got into the core of our story, we all became more confident in what we said. It was the first time we had shared it in a public setting. And it felt good. Jay shared stories about Class Project, living on my couch for two months, and group dynamics. Noah talked about how funny it was that a Spanish linguistics and creative writing major was standing in front of a business class, sharing entrepreneurial lessons gleaned from the road. Zach’s naturally beautiful voice put the class at ease as he talked about how the students sitting before us should take advantage of every opportunity in school. I just tried to speak from the heart.
An hour and thirty minutes later we had students in the RV signing our ceiling and talking to us about how energizing it was to have four guys their age talking about issues on their mind. Questions that had not been shared in class came pouring out as we talked with students one on one. All the fears that we had going into the class, and even at the conclusion of the presentation, were relieved after seeing the jubilant reaction of the students.
The fifteen minute break the professor allotted the students to come chill with us came and went, students scurried back to their class, and we left with Noah’s long lost cousin and her two friends.
It was a good thing we were a part of last night, and I’m down to do it again.
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THERE ARE 4 RESPONSES TO THIS INTERVIEW
Christian Says:
September 20th, 2007
Great video guys! Congrats on teaching your first class!
Taneika Says:
September 20th, 2007
I knew you all would do well!
Steve Says:
September 21st, 2007
I LOVE that video. Great job. The best part was your “high 5″ on the side of the RV that converted to a picture. I also loved your phone call to a CEO who apparently hung up on you. You probably had that happen the majority of the time. Welcome to sales…
Kelly G Says:
September 23rd, 2007
This video is amazing! Funny that Jay was featured brushing his teeth (when he is the most social)! Not the least bit surprised that your presentation went so well. You guys are naturals and the college campuses are so hungry for this type of venue to offer them an opening to to discussing what is foremost on their minds!
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