When Monecia Samuels wanted her students at the College of Westchester to hear a well delivered speech, she took them to hear Sal Capiello, the owner of Tuscany Cafe in White Plains.

Here’s a description of the field trip courtesy of Jessica Del Balzo.

Capiello gave a speech on persuasive speaking that students from the Oral Communications class described as informative and entertaining.

“I learned a lot from Sal—specifically, the five p’s: Proper preparation prevents poor performance,” said one student, David Occhino. “To be a persuasive speaker, I also learned that you have to be confident about the product that you are trying to market and confident in yourself and know the product in and out.”

Samuels said her students took away a sense of what it would be like to run their own business.

“I wanted them to get exposed to a business owner to find out what it’s like day-to-day to own their own business and for them to be able to ask any question about life in the business world,” she said.

“What’s great about Sal is that he’s an entrepreneur,” she said. “He’s not your traditional speaker who’s only hired to give speeches. I wanted them to see that in the work world, no matter what you do, you’re going to have to speak, formulate your thoughts and communicate what you need in order to get what you want.”