My friend Jo Hill is nervous. Sitting in her seat in a classroom at the Community College of Allegheny County, she is twirling her hair and chewing gum. She's shifting in her chair.

Going to college is hard enough. Meeting new people, taking tests, impressing the teacher, making the grade. And that's just the beginning to what is, essentially, rounding a turning point in your life.

Jo, who is nearing graduation, is taking Oral Communication 101. Public speaking -- a class she needs to fulfill one of her last requirements.

She has been putting it off. But who wouldn't? Not many people enjoy public speaking. In fact, it is one of the most widely held phobias out there.

Most colleges and universities offer courses in public speaking. Some of them even make it mandatory, because it is seen as such an essential part of going out and succeeding in the real world. What good is teaching people how to do a job if they freeze up any time they talk to a group or speak out at a meeting?

Jo's class is taught by Fran Leifheit, who has been teaching oral communication for eight years. The school year started out with almost 30 students. Today, half way through the semester, there are 20 students left.

Some students wash out because this is hard, standing up in front of a group, commanding attention while you talk. It's intimidating.

You want to make a good impression. You want to appear as if you know what you're talking about. And you want it to end as quickly as possible.

Today, Jo is presenting a "demonstration speech," one of four major speeches that Ms. Leifheit has incorporated into the curriculum. The others are narrative presentations, informative presentations and persuasive speeches.

Jo has decided to discuss self-defense, which dovetails nicely out of the fact that she is also taking a course in self-defense at CCAC.

She will need a visual aid for the speech. I will be the visual aid.

Volunteering to be Jo's tackling dummy not only provides me with a chance to help a friend, but it gives me a chance to see how far public speaking courses have come since I took one in the late '70s.

I quickly see that they're pretty much the same. Same standing at a podium, talking fast and stumbling over phrases. Same note cards. Same "ums" and "uhs."

Jo is one of six students speaking today. I'm pretty familiar with her topic and we've rehearsed it a couple of times. Still, it's a long way from the back porch to the front of the class.

The other students' topics are interesting enough. David discusses how to make smoothies. He has brought a mixer and slides showing the ingredients.

Sarah discusses ballet, passing her old point shoes around to make her point. Rosemary talks about reading the sheet music she has brought, and Chanel goes through baby-sitting and the best ways to occupy a child's time. She has brought snacks and crayons.

Robert, who has a first-degree black belt, explains his martial art training. (I wonder if the teacher has the courage to give him anything but an A.)

Jo, who speaks after Robert, is not worried about him stealing her thunder. Her topic is more about escaping a beating than dishing one out.

When it's over, there is polite applause from the classmates and each student will fill out an evaluation form. Of course, it is Ms. Leifheit's opinion that will matter most.

After class, I ask her how she can give any of the students anything but an A. It isn't easy to do what they're doing, and who knows what each person had to overcome to find the courage to get up there and give it a shot. Besides, they all seemed great to me. (It never occurred to me that smaller pieces of ice make better smoothies.)

"Basically, I'm grading progress," she says. "Public speaking is such a very basic fear to overcome."

The course syllabus states that the objective is "to improve oral communication in professional, business and social situations."

My objective was to help Jo without getting hurt.

Mission accomplished.