Jerome Junior Is Teaching Students to Speak Up

Local News

Remember that German Christmas market coming to Riverside Crossing Park this year?

Well, we now know what we’ll be eating.

Christkindlmarkt Dublin announced its first group of vendors yesterday, and it sounds like organizers are going all-in on the European Christmas market experience.

There will be bratwurst, schnitzel, Bavarian pretzels, potato pancakes and Raclette — that wonderful contraption where someone takes a giant wheel of hot cheese and scrapes the melted part directly onto your food.

And apparently we’re going to be setting our wine on fire too.

The market will serve Feuerzangenbowle, a German holiday drink made by placing a rum-soaked sugar cone above warm spiced wine and lighting it on fire. The caramelized sugar then drips into the wine.

For those who prefer their beverages not to be on fire, there will also be traditional German Glühwein, hot chocolate, cider and other options.

Several local businesses are joining the market as well, including Dublin’s Holy Crepes and The French Store. And the shopping side will feature things like German nutcrackers, cuckoo clocks, beer steins, Polish pottery and hand-blown German ornaments.

There will even be a special Christkindlmarkt Dublin beer brewed by BrewDog, along with an inaugural boot-shaped mug and Christmas ornament created for the market.

So, yes. It appears Dublin is getting considerably more than a few wooden huts and some Christmas lights.

Local News

A kid from Dublin who grew up going to Ohio State hockey games will now be leading the team.

Dublin Coffman graduate Nathan “Nate” McBrayer has been named one of two captains of the Ohio State men’s hockey team for the upcoming season, after a vote by his teammates.

McBrayer is only the second Central Ohio native ever to wear the captain’s “C” for the Buckeyes.

The Dublin native started playing hockey at age three after attending a Columbus Blue Jackets game and actually learned to skate at the Ohio State Ice Rink. He later played for the Ohio Blue Jackets AAA program and graduated from Coffman in 2023 before coming to Ohio State.

Now a senior defenseman, McBrayer has played 110 games for the Buckeyes and served as an alternate captain last season.

Not bad for a Dublin kid who learned to skate at Ohio State.

Local News

A couple of years ago, Ryan Dave Jacob was the kid who knew the answer in class but didn’t want to raise his hand. Standing up and speaking in front of a group was even worse.

Now the Dublin Jerome junior is teaching other students how to do it.

Ryan started SpeakWell in March 2025 and held his first workshop a few months later. The idea came from his own struggles with public speaking and his realization that students don’t always get much instruction on how to actually become comfortable doing it.

Since then, he’s held more than 20 workshops and worked with more than 250 students, teaching everything from organizing a speech and using stories effectively to handling nerves and speaking with confidence.

And this hasn’t all happened in Dublin. Through connections with church communities in India, Ryan held two workshops for about 100 students in rural India. He also led a workshop for roughly 90 students at the Future Business Leaders of America National Leadership Conference.

Most of the rest has been a little closer to home. Ryan runs virtual workshops for students in Dublin and the surrounding area, along with some one-on-one coaching. He handles most of SpeakWell himself, with teammate Johannes helping with some workshops and projects.

And he’s not done yet. Ryan is now working on a self-guided public speaking course that he hopes will make the program available to students who can’t attend one of his workshops.

Not bad for someone who used to be afraid to raise his hand.

You can check out his courses here.