Techy Talkers Toastmasters Club: Speaking, leadership, and fun

Developing public speaking skills and having fun go hand-in-hand for members of Carnegie Mellon University Africa's (CMU-Africa) Techy Talkers Toastmasters Club. The student club is part of Toastmasters International, an organization designed to help individuals grow their public speaking and leadership skills.

"It's been a journey to get here," club president Sylvia Kipkemoi (MS EAI '27) said. "When I started as an undergraduate, I was an introverted engineering student. I thought Toastmasters wasn’t meant for engineering students like me." After applying for internships, she realized she needed a structured way of telling her story. "I joined the Toastmasters Club as an undergrad and learned how to communicate effectively," she said.

When she started graduate school at CMU-Africa, she was excited to be part of the Techy Talkers Toastmasters Club. "I learned that there's more to communication than just standing up and speaking. There's a system to it, a way to do it properly, and it is an underrated skill, especially for people in the tech space. It's very important to learn how to communicate your message. I am excited to serve as club president so I can help others," she said.

CMU-Africa's club is one of more than 15,800 Toastmasters Clubs worldwide, and part of the organization’s 300,000 members. While Techy Talkers Toastmasters Club has a membership of 100 students, a subset of those students officially registered through Toastmasters.

By volunteering for different roles during weekly meetings, members display their overall leadership and competence. "Those who take a role have to give a report at the end of the meeting,” she said. “You learn how to structure your thoughts and present a report in front of people. Providing a report demonstrates that a person can take in information, synthesize it, and give feedback." Roles include speaker, evaluator, timekeeper and grammarian.

CMU-Africa recently hosted the Toastmasters Area Level competition, bringing together speakers and leaders from clubs across Kigali. Kipkemoi earned first place in the "evaluation" category and Chinonso Phillip, vice president of membership for the club, earned first place in the "humorous speech" category.

They will advance to compete at the division level in Uganda on April 11, 2026. If Kipkemoi and Phillip advance further, they will compete in the Toastmasters East Africa District 114 Conference. Rwanda is serving as the host country for the conference, which will be held in Kigali from May 15-May 17, 2026. "The Toastmasters Clubs in Rwanda will be hosting people from 10 countries," Kipkemoi said. "At the conference you get to make friends from all around the continent. You meet really good people in these spaces. People who will help you grow and encourage you. It's also very fun."

I want to communicate engineering concepts on global stages and help people understand and see the beauty of tech.

Sylvia Kipkemoi (MS EAI ’27), President, Techy Talkers Toastmasters Club

While she is looking forward to the conference, Kipkemoi is thinking about her future. After graduating, she plans to focus on machine learning and combining her engineering background with her leadership and communications skills that she learned as part of Toastmasters.

"Tech is the future, and I would love to merge the tech side with communications and break down these engineering concepts on global stages because not everyone understands how things like machine learning work. I want to help people see and understand the beauty of tech," she said.