Purdue Human Development and Family Science students prepare to share their learning experiences loud and proud at the annual Say It BIG competition

Written By: Rebecca Hoffa, rhoffa@purdue.edu

Julia Kirkham delivers her winning elevator pitch in the 2024 Say It BIG competition.

“Tell us about your participation in an experiential learning activity in only three minutes.”

That’s the task that lays ahead of a group of students in the Purdue University Department of Human Development and Family Science (HDFS) as they prepare their elevator pitches for the second annual Say It BIG competition, which will enter its final round at 3 p.m. Friday, Nov. 7, in Meredith South Residence Hall, Room 1063.

Led by HDFS clinical faculty Cezanne Elias, Davina Quichocho, and Natasha Watkins, the Say It BIG competition aims to celebrate experiential learning in HDFS while helping students refine their career skills and showcase their accomplishments.

“These students are in these helping professions,” Elias said. “They do these amazing things in their coursework that translates into the university and community. These are their superpowers. We want them to be able to share them with people and inspire others to be able to do these things.

Introductions

After attending a conference presentation that discussed adapting the Three Minute Thesis model — in which graduate students share their research in three-minute speeches — to students’ experiential learning experiences, Elias and Watkins saw the value in bringing that idea to HDFS. Bringing in Quichocho, the three brought the idea to life with support from an Office of Experiential Education Program Development Grant.

The 2024 Say It BIG finalists stand together for a photo with HDFS department head Valerie Knopik (left).

“We noticed our students are wonderfully engaged, dedicated, passionate emerging professionals,” Quichocho said. “But, when they go to speak about themselves in interviews or other professional situations, they are so humble. We really wanted to create an opportunity to showcase all of their excellent work and allow them to practice speaking about what they do confidently, in a polished way and in a way where the goal is to be excited and persuasive. The speech competition seemed like a fun way to bring that forward.”

The faculty have seen a variety of developments in the students who participate in the competition, from enhancing their public speaking abilities to gaining renewed confidence in themselves and their experiences.

“This is a learning experience for our students,” Elias said. “We want it to be a learning experience. For students who participate in the preliminary round, we have the option to get feedback about how they did on their rubrics from that preliminary round. We also will do follow-ups with students from the feedback they received in the final competition.”

Becoming a champion

With her opening paragraph talking about pretending to be a daycare teacher in her purple bedroom as a kid, Julia Kirkham, a senior majoring in developmental and family science, dazzled the inaugural Say It BIG competition in 2024 with stories of her experience working in the Ben and Maxine Miller Child Development Lab School’s Purple Classroom. Kirkham walked away with a first-place finish.

“I got to talk about the really cool experiences I’ve had there with the kids, what I’ve learned from it, why I enjoy it and why I think it’s going to help me in the future,” Kirkham said. “I haven’t really done much public speaking, so I was really nervous about it in the beginning, but once I started doing the workshops they provided and all of the practice, I felt very supported. They provided a lot of resources along the way. You weren’t on your own for it.”

Kirkham, who originally wasn’t even sure she wanted to compete, said the competition has really enhanced the feeling of community for her within the department.

“I learned to not doubt myself and to go for opportunities, even when they seem hard,” Kirkham said. “It was a really good experience, and people in the department saw that and recognized me from it.”

For Kirkham, the key to a successful Say It BIG pitch is being intentional with each point and letting the passion for the project shine through.

“Practice and make sure you think through what you’re going to say,” Kirkham said. “Have a strong reason for everything you’re going to say. You have three minutes. Make sure those three minutes are things you really want to say and care about because that will help you remember it.”

The countdown is on

Elise Peckinpaugh, a junior double majoring in developmental and family science and psychological sciences, heard about the competition after completing her HDFS capstone project: an internship at the Fort Wayne Boys & Girls Club. For Peckinpaugh, the experience would give her practice and feedback on her public speaking while also allowing her to share the importance and influence of her internship experience.

The judges from the 2024 Say It BIG competition listen to the finalists present their pitches.

“I decided my internship was the experience I was most passionate about and that I felt like I would be able to have someone walk away from the competition and say, ‘Huh, I didn’t know that about Boys & Girls Clubs,’” Peckinpaugh said. “If even one person walks away with that thought, then even if I don’t win the competition, I have gotten this experience of being able to express my passion to other people.”

As the final competition quickly approaches, Peckinpaugh said she hopes to improve her communication abilities and walk away with new skills that she can apply to graduate school interviews in the future, as she prepares to graduate early in May 2026.

“I hope to gain practice being concise yet effective with my wording,” Peckinpaugh said. “Three minutes sounds like a long time, but when there’s so much to say and so much to express, I want to make sure it is digestible but still gets across the importance of my experience and its impact on my career trajectory.”

As the department works to conclude a second successful year of Say It BIG, they’re already thinking ahead to the future with the idea to eventually consider expanding the initiative to other departments in the College of Health and Human Sciences.

“The long-term benefits of that would be not just the student learning, but our faculty will know more about the hopes and dreams of our students as they teach their classes,” Quichocho said. “Our site partners who host our students as interns will have a sense of appreciation because they can hear how much students are taking away from those experiences. We’re looking for a more tight-knit community where everyone understands the impact that HDFS can have when we are invested in students and what they are getting out of their learning experiences.”