Student Fellow Spotlight: Cheyanne Rider

At the start of a two-year initiative funded by the John Templeton Foundation, the College Debates and Discourse (CD&D) Alliance joined forces with ten diverse colleges and universities to invigorate civil discourse on their campuses and gauge its impact on students. At one of the most active of these institutions, Linn-Benton Community College (LBCC) in Corvallis, Oregon, Cheyanne Rider played a central role in this effort. Serving as a CD&D student fellow during academic years 2023 and 2024, Cheyanne played a major role in bringing Braver Angels-style debates to her campus community.

An alumna of LBCC and Oregon State University (OSU), Cheyanne first became involved in promoting civil discourse in a communication class taught by LBCC instructor Mark Urista, who served as the CD&D curricular fellow for the Templeton initiative. “Mark reached out and told me about the Civil Discourse Program at LBCC, and it just sounded like a really great program,” she recalls. “That got us involved with the CD&D Alliance. Our views aligned really well, and I was selected to be a student fellow and never looked back.”

At the time, LBCC’s Civil Discourse Program included activities like setting up whiteboard forums and publishing point-counterpoint op-eds in the student newspaper. Cheyanne joined the program during the pandemic, when engagement was low and in-person conversation had all but disappeared. “It was COVID, so communication was really limited,” she explained. “Once I joined, we started to bring people back, and the Braver Angels debates really helped drive engagement up.”

What set those debates apart, she says, was how they facilitated in-person connection within a diverse student community. LBCC’s whiteboard forums and op-eds, while valuable, were designed to engage individual students and are less interactive. “LBCC is a commuter school, so we don’t have the same kind of student campus life that a lot of other universities have. The debates actually bring people together into the same room to have these discussions face-to-face.”

As their civil discourse efforts expanded, LBCC’s CD&D fellows began partnering with nearby OSU to host intercollegiate Braver Angels debates. The idea to join forces with OSU, Cheyanne explains, germinated at the Braver Angels National Convention in 2023. “A couple of faculty members from OSU came to the convention, and our faculty fellow and civil discourse team from LBCC were there as well. . . They saw the Braver Angels-style debate, and it was easy to see how it could work at their campus. Since LBCC had an established program and experience with CD&D and Braver Angels debates, OSU asked to join in, and we went and helped.”

Cheyanne chaired the first joint debate between the two schools, noting that it was a highly impactful experience for all involved. The collaboration brought in a wide mix of participants and strengthened connections between the two communities. “LBCC’s demographics skew older than your average college student,” she explains. “Students have part-time or full-time jobs and families. And OSU has a younger student body and strong connections to its alumni and the Corvallis community. So, the collaboration really gives us a more diverse audience for the debates and a richer conversation.”

The partnership was also important for Cheyanne on a personal level. “I got my associate’s degree at LBCC and my bachelor’s degree at OSU. The two schools have a really strong dual partnership program, and it enables a lot of people in our community to work together and create opportunities for students.”

Since fulfilling her role as a student fellow, Cheyanne has continued to support the CD&D Alliance by leading campus debates at schools like the University of Minnesota Morris and the University of Texas at Austin. As a highly skilled debate chair, she notes how the parliamentary structure and low-stress atmosphere of Braver Angels debates encourages students to freely share their opinions. 

“The experiences that stick with me are those of people who usually don’t feel comfortable speaking in public or maybe have an opinion that isn’t the mainstream opinion in that area or on that campus. They feel safe and comfortable in that space as the debate goes on to share their opinion.

“My favorite moment from Braver Angels debates is always the debrief. I get to tap people who maybe didn’t speak up and give a speech or ask a question, and ask them what they thought of the format. That’s when we get a lot of positive feedback where people say, ‘Oh my gosh, this went so much better than I expected,’ or, ‘I didn’t change my mind, but I heard a lot of opinions that I’d never heard before.’”

Cheyanne’s experience with the CD&D Alliance had a lasting impact. “Learning how to navigate difficult conversations with people from varying backgrounds is important for every career and almost every conversation that you’re going to have. Hopefully, I’ll be able to continue this work for the rest of my life—volunteering with Braver Angels, staying connected with the CD&D Alliance, and finding a way to make this my career. It’s truly what I care about. I think it’s really the solution to most of the problems that our country and our world face.”

To watch Cheyanne reflect on the highlights of her time as a CD&D student fellow, click here.

Kayla Johnston is Program Coordinator for the College Debates and Discourse Alliance in North Carolina.