A social service provider and advocate for Woman’s Advancement in Nepal spoke with students in a communications class on March 26 about the importance of public speaking and the challenges she faced on her journey to becoming a successful advocate for the rights of those oppressed by the caste system in Nepal.

Bishnu Maya Pariyar, who was born in Nepal into the lowest caste system labeled “Dalit,” otherwise known as “The Untouchables,” noticed the unjust and cruel ways other people treated her and her district members, she sought a way to fight against it.

Her father encouraged her to go to school to fight against the unfair treatment she and her people were being put up against. The main thing she had to learn in school was public speaking. In her words, “It was the reason I was able to change all these people’s lives.”

Even while in school she received hateful comments that related to her being a woman and her being in the Dalit class. Regardless, she always stayed true to herself and kept a strong will. Her goal was to be able for her community to have access to higher education rather than having to deal with the cards they were dealt with. Even though she helped start up an organization that helped her cause, she did not know how to speak in front of a crowd of people. She did not know how to give presentations, or how to influence people, she did not know how to inspire others with only words.

When she came to America, she took mass communication classes in her freshman year of college. She was very shy and nervous, to the point where she would start shaking. She worked hard to be able to speak up like her colleagues and friends. She always made sureshe knew 100% of what she was talking about and always did her background research whenever she had a public speaking assignment or project.

“It makes public speaking stronger,” she said. Pariyar used many strategies to help her feel more confident and stronger in her public speaking presentations. She would close her eyes, empty her mind, and meditate. To her, meditating was the most beneficial, and she found that the more she did all these things to calm her mind, the better her speeches went. She mentions practicing her speeches in an empty classroom, with the lights off, and imagining a full crowd. Since her first language was not English, she made sure to always use simple words, she never made her presentations too complicated.

“I wanted to make sure that people understand when I speak very slow,” she said.

She emphasized the importance of speaking from the heart rather than reading directly from a document. She said she believes that a speech that is about something you can talk about passionately will resonate with an audience more than something that has been too over-prepared because over-preparing can halt your ability to connect with an audience.