Archive for October 22nd, 2018

Debate in the Current Political Climate

by   |  10.22.18  |  Fall 2018 Events

By Sheila Ritchie

In fall of 1983 I walked onto ACU campus as a Freshman ready to debate. I had debated in High School and felt like this was a great place for me to continue honing my argumentation skills. Debate in college was much like high school – heavy research, rapid-paced speaking, and lots of travel. It was intense but it was also very rewarding. Each tournament was an academic endeavor that allowed our team to meet like-minded students from all over the nation and learn from the experience.

This year I re-entered the arena of collegiate debate as the new Director of Debate at ACU and found that things had changed a bit. Some areas of Collegiate Debate had taken a decidedly negative tone and did not seem to be the best fit for ACU students. With this assessment, we decided to branch out into a fairly new form of debate called IPDA – International Public Debate Association. It is a form that is designed to welcome thought, dialogue, reason, and research while seeking to preserve the civil discourse that is so very needed in our world today.
This fall we will be traveling to four IPDA tournaments and will likely travel to six more in the spring. Our first tournament was in Baytown, TX at Lee College. We took 7 debaters (IPDA is individual debate, not pairs) and they all did well for their first outing. We had one debater, Brittany Chapa, that advanced to elimination rounds and ultimately placed in the top four competitors in the Novice division. In her Octofinals round, she was paired with the number one seed and beat him to advance to Quarterfinals. Quite a good showing for our first time out.
The rest of this fall semester will be full for the ACU Debate Team. We will travel to TCU, east Texas, and Oregon before the semester ends. We will also participate in an online debate tournament that will allow us to compete without having to travel. In the spring we will continue representing ACU at tournaments in Texas, Louisana, Arkansas, and possibly Tennessee. All along the way we will build community, invest in knowledge, and strive to represent the mission of ACU in the most excellent way possible.
Watch for updates – I expect great things!!

Hacking Tech Communication

by   |  10.22.18  |  Intern Spotlight, Location-Based Learning

By: Madeline Fortner

Change Lives. Achieve the Extraordinary. Be a great team. These bold statements are the cornerstone everyday life at ServiceTitan, the software company I had the privilege of working with this summer in Glendale, CA. During my eight week internship, I worked on two large projects and had the opportunity to participate in numerous learning and development initiatives.

The primary project I worked on was rewriting and revamping the online-training webinar program that is offered weekly to customers. I created a six-part training series that included a curriculum, powerpoints, and facilitator guides. The biggest challenged I faced in developing these trainings was how to keep the audience engaged during a computer-mediated training. I applied training and development theory as well as numerous education strategies to the curriculum in order to create an engaging training that customers could not only understand but enjoy.

The other project I worked on was the company-wide Hackathon, a four-day event where teams got to solve any problem that impacted the company. I both served on the planning committee and competed with my own team. As a member of the planning committee, I was in charge of marketing the event. I created flyers and hosted meetings to build interest and facilitate team creation. Additionally, I was the product manager for my own team. Together, we developed a fully-functioning software solution that addressed one of our customers biggest pain points, tracking permits. During this process, I was able to utilize critical thinking, public speaking, and leadership skills I learned through communication, while also gaining new skills in product management. We presented our product to the entire company, including the CEO’s and were awarded “Best Customer-Focused Product” for the event. Even more exciting is the fact that we created a software solution that will save ServiceTitan Customers time, money, and headache. I feel proud knowing that something I made will make the daily lives of thousands of hardworking people all over the country a little bit easier.  Not all internships offer students that level of opportunity.

Some of the perks of interning with ServiceTitan included free lunches delivered to the office through Eat Club each day, access to linked-in learning, team outings, and career development workshops. Although these extras were exciting and showed me that ServiceTitan was invested in my success and wellbeing, they are not the reason I would recommend this internship. Student’s should consider interning with ServiceTitan because it is an opportunity to work alongside an extraordinary team who will empower them to take charge of their ideas and create change that benefits the lives of the customers who use the software every day.