Congressman Rodney Davis visited Millikin on Sept. 3 to give a speech presented by Millikin University’s Institute for Science Entrepreneurship. Davis currently serves in the House of Representatives representing Illinois’s 13th Congressional District which includes Decatur, Champaign and Taylorville and is a class of 1992 graduate of Millikin University.

Davis came out to Millikin to speak on the topic of entrepreneurship as well as the main point of his speech: the idea of compromising and working together when it comes to getting things done.

“Entrepreneurship is an opportunity to not only turn dreams into realities. It’s an opportunity to turn a dream into a reality into jobs and into integral parts of our communities.”

According to Davis, “As we look around Decatur and other parts of Central Illinois, all we have to do is wonder how did all these companies start? What was the seed that was planted in one of our entrepreneurs minds that turned into what we know today as Tate and Lyle, ADM, Millikin University?”

On the topic of compromise and working together, Davis used his experiences in Congress to back up the points he was making. Davis is currently serving in the House of Representatives as a member of the Republican Party, and on a daily basis, works with members of the Democratic Party. As you may know, the two parties have political ideologies that are opposite of each other and as a result, there is a lot of arguing in Congress and bills tend to have a difficult time going through the process to become laws.

During his speech though, Davis talked about when politicians of differing ideologies decide to put aside their differences, compromise, and work together, that’s when progress actually gets made in Washington D.C. Thus bills get made, voted on, and made into laws.

This could be applied to the students at Millikin because the idea of working together and compromising to accomplish goals and tasks won’t only work in Congress, it can also be applied to students during their time at Millikin. When you are working in groups, you will have to work together to accomplish a goal. Typically when you work in a group, there will be at least two people in the group that disagree on how something should be done or how something should be run or how they should go about the project. Still through all of that, the two will have to put their differences aside so that the group can get the job done and not only get it done, but get the job done well.

By taking the advice that Davis gave in his speech, it can help you be successful when not only working in projects for class, but also projects in the real world.