— Guest blog post from graduate student Francisco Guerrero, winner of the 2015 Scholars’ Insights competition and organizer of the LaRGe communication workshops. 

It started in 2014 when I decided to take part in the Oregon State University Scholars’ Insights competition. Scholars’ Insights is based on the Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition where you tell the story of your graduate work to a general audience in only three minutes with a single powerpoint slide. I was afraid that my accent (as an international student) and my nervousness would complicate the delivery of my message. I got some control over the nervousness by working on many versions of my presentation. But my accent was still there making me feel insecure. This insecurity showed up during my presentation and I forgot the script. But that was not the end of the story.

To squeeze all that I could learn from that experience and share it with other students, I organized a science communication workshop called “life-science encounters”. Kelly Lytle, the 2014 Scholars’ Insights winner, presented there and talked about her successful experience. When trying to summarize what she did, I came up with the idea of being Likable, Reliable and Gettable (LaRGe). During the workshop, we learned the elements of this combination: a good story, a powerful body language, and interesting pictures to capture people’s attention.

With the help of OSU’s experts in storytelling, acting, and graphic design, we put the pieces together as the LaRGe communication model workshop offered in spring 2015. The tools we developed through these workshops were the same that led me to won first place in the 2015 Oregon State University Scholars’ Insights as well as an “Outstanding Student Paper Award” at one of the most important scientific conferences in my field.

This spring, with the support of the Graduate School we are offering the LaRGe workshop series to more students across campus.