NSLC Program — Culinary Arts and Restaurant Management
Speaking for Impact (1 or 2 credits) Focus on the Demonstration Speech—Cooking Demonstration for Camera
Course Description: Strong, effective communication skills are necessary in all aspects of your life. The focus of this course will be on preparation, examination, organization, and delivery aspects of the demonstration speech and in particular the cooking demonstration for camera—much like you might see on the Food Network. The skills you build will also be applicable to other areas of your life. The readings, course activities, and course projects are created to strengthen your skills. Active listening will be examined as a fundamental prerequisite for effective and efficient public communication. This will include making ongoing efforts to learn from our experiences during the time in this NSLC program and through deliberate critiques; these activities will improve our communication skills.
Professor: Sarah Menke-Fish is an educator and documentary filmmaker who teaches Understanding Mass Media, Visual Literacy and television and film production courses at American University's School of Communication (AU SOC). In 2006, she participated in a faculty exchange with Tecnologico de Monterrey University in Monterrey, Mexico, that lead her to develop Cross Cultural Film and Video Production, a new course in which students from AU and ITESM, Tecnologico de Monterrey collaborate via video conference, Facebook, Skype, and email on topics of mutual cultural, political, policy or environmental interest. The AU class then produces mini documentaries in Mexico with the ITESM students that premiere in Washington, D.C. Menke-Fish also launched and directs Discover the World of Communication, a summer program that brings more than 400 high school students from around the world to AU for intense, hands-on courses in environmental communication, video production, screen writing and journalism. In 2006 she received the highest ratings possible for a professor at ITESM. In 2005 she was selected Faculty Member of the Year by the AU Student Confederation; in 2002, she received American University's award for Outstanding Teaching in an Adjunct Position.
Prior to joining the SOC faculty, Menke-Fish coordinated Montgomery County Public Schools' Humanities and Communication Magnet Program for gifted and talented students. She has won numerous awards for educational documentaries produced with middle school and high school students, including CINE awards for If You Change Your Mind, about cocaine and its effects on the brain, and Remotely Science, which encourages women and minorities to pursue science careers. She and her students received the Presidential Environmental Youth Award for Trash: What A Waste, a comprehensive look at recycling. As a new Associate Director In the Center for Environmental Filmmaking at American University, Menke-Fish continues her outreach to high school students by partnering with AFI, MCPS and other public and private schools in the Washington Metropolitan Area to conduct filmmaking workshops on AU's campus for high school students which support Environmental Film Festivals including the MCPS Environmental Film Festival.