Ana Moyers (2023 undergrad; 2025 masters)
Major: Organizational Communication
Current position: Human Resource Representative/Benefit Counselor at SIUC
Compete in: CA, Persuasion, Informative, & Spanish Interpretation
The SDU has helped me get and succeed in my job! The SDU has given me the confidence and capacity to communicate with empathy, authenticity, confidence, and be an advocate for myself and others. The organizational skills has assisted me in honing data analytic skills that I use every day when maintaining benefit data and upkeep. Additionally, the speech and debate union has helped me further my interpersonal communication skills which will make me successful when counseling employees through benefit choice and other benefit related matters through the ability to explain and guide individuals through complex benefit choices, questions, and situations while always remaining empathetic to their experience and needs.
The SDU to me is an experience and opportunity that allows individuals to explore their interests in a scholastic and professional environment. I truly found my confidence through the SDU. I competed in CA, Persuasion, Informative, and interpretation. Each pushed me to break through my comfort zones and embrace what makes me a unique individual, teaching me to use my strengths and personality to my advantage. That being energetic and fun, especially in public address, is not a weakness but a strength. The SDU is where I honed my ability to connect with people, both interpersonally and in a public address forum. To me, finding my voice was more than giving a great performance, whether it’s speech or debate, but it’s about learning about myself and using what makes me stand out to better society through communication and that’s what I have gotten from the SDU and much more.
Jillian A. Rosa (2021 undergrad; 2025 masters)
Major: Organizational Communication
Compete in: IPDA, NPDA, & Impromptu
The SDU taught me confidence, critical thinking, planning on the fly, and how to overcome even the most daunting obstacles. In doing so, it made me not only a great candidate for any position I’ve been in, but also allowed for promotion and raise opportunities personally and opportunities to help create and structure the environments I’ve worked in.
Aidan Schweitzer (2024)
Major: Advertising
Minor: Music
Current position: Grants Assistant for Neurology at Washington University in St. Louis
Compete in: ADS, POI, DUO, Radio, DI, Prose, & Impromptu
SDU skills have taught me how to work under pressure and on tight timelines. In my job sometimes we are down to just a few minutes before a grant is due and I have to stay calm and figure out an issue to get it in before the deadline. Doing radio and impromptu speaking helped me with that, as well as being entered in multiple events in the same time block. You have very little time to get from one room to another and fully switch gears to a new event. The SDU also taught me how to be confident speaking whenever necessary. I’ve been thrown in front of a full audience with barely any notice and was able to stay calm and deliver the messages that needed to be delivered. Even though I don’t talk to people publicly in my day to day work, the skills I have learned in the SDU still help me a lot in the real world!
The SDU means a lot to me, it was a sense of community and the teammates I had are still some of my best friends today. It taught me so much and helped me to grow as a person and speaker and I’m very lucky to have been apart of it!
Case Thomason (2023)
Major: Political Science
Current position: Law Student at the University of Michigan; Research Assistant at the Federal Judicial Center; Research Assistant at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine; and Incoming Federal Law Clerk for the 2026-27 term
Compete in: IPDA, NPDA, Extemp, Impromptu
The SDU helped teach me how to display myself towards others professionally and how to effectively speak on the fly without any rehearsal. While I have always been outgoing, the SDU helped show me how to think on my feet in things such as extemporaneous speaking and debates where you need to come up with answers on the spot. Applying these skills in interviews and just in law school classes where you’re asked questions and to come up with new ideas about things you haven’t ever thought about is hard, but the SDU really helped me be able to effectively do so and I truly thank them for it. They’ve taught me skills that I plan to take with me into my legal career.
The SDU for me is ultimately about learning things beyond the classroom that you’ll take with you for life. While you learn a lot in class, you don’t necessarily learn how to display yourself towards others like the SDU teaches you.