Challey Spotlight: Shane Corbett
NDSU Graduate Student
Shane Corbett is a student at NDSU pursuing his master's in Statistics. He loves working with data, doing research, and using data to uncover facts. Shane participated in the Human Progress and Flourishing Workshop during his undergraduate studies and was recently invited by the Challey Institute to participate in a discussion colloquium hosted in Indiana through the Ball State Institute for the Study of Political Economy. In this spotlight he will share his experience and what he learned.
Recently you participated in a discussion colloquium. Will you tell us about that experience? Students from around the country were invited to go to Indianapolis to participate in a discussion colloquium on Frederick Douglas. They gave us readings of his to read beforehand. Then when we arrived on Friday night there was a speaker who had written a play about Frederick Douglas and she talked about that and we had dinner. On Saturday, we spent the day discussing the different readings. It was one big group discussion that was broken up into 4 discussion sessions so we all had a chance to hear from each other a lot and voice our opinions and our thoughts.
What was it about this opportunity that drew your interest and made you say yes to going? I love having conversations about important things, especially maybe contentious things. It seemed like a great opportunity to have a conversation with people who also want to have those type of conversations. Sometimes I try to have those conversations with people that don't and it doesn't work very well. I also thought that it was going to be a cool opportunity just to learn more about an important figure as I'd mentioned earlier. I knew very little about Frederick Douglass but I knew enough to know that he was very important in American history, and I'm really glad that I made the decision because I should have known more about him before the discussion colloquium, and I'm really glad I know more about him.
How do you think this experience will support you in the future? I think the ability and the practice of having tough conversations and being civil about them and respecting other people's time while balancing, making sure your opinion's heard without speaking over people is an important skill that I assume will be used throughout the rest of my life. So I think that the practice of having an important yet civil conversation is something I'll take forward into my my future.
The Sheila and Robert Challey Institute for Global Innovation and Growth aims to advance understanding in the areas of innovation, trade, institutions, and human potential to identify policies and solutions for the betterment of society. Learn more at www.ndsu.edu/challeyinstitute