From Campus Visits to Coffee Chats: Expanding 1:1 Professional Connections at SVUDL
The SVUDL Advisory Committee’s core goal is to help interested students and alumni build their social and professional capital with the networks they need to pursue their career aspirations. The skills our students build through Speech and Debate are exactly what today's professional world demands, and our Advisory Committee—composed of leaders across diverse industries—is dedicated to turning those skills into tangible opportunities. SVUDL is excited to channel the momentum of Advisory Committee professional access events and site visits to broaden our Advisory Committee’s reach from group events to 1:1 coffee chats.
This post traces one SVUDL thread over the past year—from a group campus visit to 1:1 coffee chats. This highlighted journey starts early in 2026, when SVUDL more than doubled the turnout from our 2025 Waymo campus visit to host another group of students, alumni, and parents for this year’s Waymo campus visit.
The Waymo site visit included a tour, a behind-the-scenes tech talk, lunch, ice cream, and Q&A. Students inquired about the tech behind these autonomous vehicles—vehicle mechanics, driving technology, recording timelines, privacy protections, artificial intelligence, technological competition; students also asked about career paths—internships, professional trajectories, work progressions.
Annie Matheu, Waymo host and SVUDL volunteer, highlighted the transferability of Speech and Debate skills, especially the analytical frameworks. She gave many examples of how Speech and Debate principles can be applied across industries and fields to help one thrive.
Several students reached out to Annie after the Waymo campus visit, and as Annie set up follow up conversations with them, she enthused to SVUDL about the value in both group campus visits and 1:1 individual sessions, which accelerated the momentum for SVUDL and the Advisory Committee to spend 2026 putting together a new initiative: Advisory Committee coffee chats. Through this program, students and alumni can connect directly with Advisory Committee members—in person or over video call. SVUDL has assembled a dedicated bench of volunteers across diverse fields—our volunteers are all in different career stages, so each will be able to offer unique, specific insight, but all want to spend more time with our students and alumni!
We’ll be launching our internal Advisory Committee coffee chat platform soon, but as a teaser, here’s Annie in her own words for what she personally hopes to offer students and alumni through “Advisory Committee Coffee Chats.”
Thank you to Annie and Waymo for hosting our students and alumni. And thank you to the SVUDL Advisory Committee for continuing to expand its offerings to our SVUDL community members! Stay tuned for our official launch!
