It’s right in Indiana Tech’s mission statement: our university’s desire to “motivate students toward lives of significance and worth.”
But what does living a life of significance and worth look like? That depends on who you ask.
- For some it’s having the wherewithal to actively participate in what our world has to offer—to relish in its beauty and share it with those you love, and to live with compassion, help others and treat them as you hope they would treat you.
- For others, it’s identifying a vocation you are good at and excelling at it, gaining confidence and gratification as you rise up the ladder of success and riding that momentum all the way to the top rung.
- For most, it’s a melding of both approaches—to varying degrees—that helps us find our significance in this life and gives us a sense of worth.
During this year’s Tech Talks series, we are going to introduce you to different people in our community and see what living a life of significance and worth means to them. Perhaps these interactions will help you clarify what it means to you.
Event Schedule
Multi-Flex Theater
Michelle Corrao, international best-selling author, keynote speaker and compassionate advocate for victims of violent crimes, will share her story of abduction, assault and the healing journey that followed. She will reveal how the worst experience of her life eventually brought a series of gifts that led her to discover her best self. This is a free event, and all are welcome to attend.
Magee-O'Connor Theater
In this special undercover report from China's secretive Xinjiang region, PBS FRONTLINE investigates the Communist regime's mass imprisonment of Muslims and its use and testing of sophisticated surveillance technology against the Uyghur community.
This film will educate students about the worst human rights abuses happening in the 21st century, including the slavery and genocide of a Muslim minority ethnic group in China. Reports suggest that nearly two million Muslims are currently being held in labor and re-education camps. A discussion will follow the film.
This online workshop is taught by Dianne Maroney, the creator of The Imagine Project. Using a simple seven-step template, participants will find it easy, enlightening and powerful to bring their old stories to light and find a deeper understanding of them. Participants are then guided to let go of the negative impact of the old story and invited to Imagine and write a new story in its place. Each participant creates a new vision of a life full of unlimited opportunities and leaves feeling hopeful and excited about their future.
If you wish to participate in this event, refer to Indiana Tech's Corq app (Commons 803) and search for The Imagine Project.
Learn more about her initiative on the Imagine Project Website.
Talwar Conference Center
Learn important tactics that will positively impact they way you manage money today and in the future. Local financial advisor Tina Antrim will lead the workshop.
Jeannie Zappe is the Eternal Optimist. At 55, she trained for and successfully swam the English Channel solo, becoming the 707th woman since 1926 to do so. In September 2022, she completed a solo Catalina Channel crossing to complete the Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming—one of 280 people to swim around Manhattan, across the English Channel and from Santa Catalina Island to mainland California.
Jeannie inspires people to listen to their hearts, figure out what they want to do in their lifetime—no matter how big or small—and have the courage and confidence to say yes to those things. She is an inspirational presenter, a personal/swim coach and a marathon open-water swimmer with so many more goals. She owns and operates Eternal Optimist, LLC (eternaloptimist.me), located in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.
About Tech Talks...
The Tech Talks series is a collaboration between Indiana Tech’s Academics and Student Affairs departments. The purpose of the co-curricular series, which centers on a yearly theme, is to promote active dialogue and awareness about important issues of social justice across the globe.
Through this series, the university hopes to:
- Foster a sense of campus community and acceptance
- Promote critical thinking about the historical and social contexts of contemporary social challenges
- Raise awareness of global issues impacting the development of a just society
- Educate students on the ways in which global issues can be addressed through a variety of professional disciplines
- Engage the campus and the greater Fort Wayne community in joint dialogue on issues of justice
- Educate students on the role of empathy with those impacted by social injustice in the promotion of a civil society