Writing Center Director Alicia Brazeau feels pulled in two directions when it comes to AI. “I have deep concerns about what it means for writers, but at the same time, this is clearly a tool students are using and need to be literate in,” she said. That’s why in her First-Year Seminar course, Brazeau communicates clear policies for each assignment, so students know where AI use is appropriate and where it’s undermining learning.

The first-year students explore different ways to enhance study habits using AI. Primarily, Brazeau models how to effectively prompt AI, and the class evaluates AI outputs like feedback on essays and outlines. For added insight, she surveys each class about their experience and preferences around AI. Based on their level of enthusiasm toward the technology, Brazeau might include more of it throughout the semester. However, she’s been surprised to learn that even first-year students worry about AI taking away their voice.

Brazeau also builds in required drafts to assignments to push down the panic of a completed paper. To increase emphasis on the writing process, students also need peer review from the Writing Center. Brazeau’s consultants have been trained on using AI for feedback on writing and can use it when assignments allow it.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Peter Abramo, director of Entrepreneurship, is using the technology in different ways in every class he teaches. “I’m not focusing on what it replaces, but what it adds to our work,” said Abramo.

Students collaborated with Abramo using ChatGPT to create EntrepreBot, an AI tutor that provides International Entrepreneurship students who didn’t previously take Abramo’s Introduction to Entrepreneurship course with access to material they may need. The bot used data, files, and links from Abramo, giving him control over content and eliminating the need for multiple requests for information.

ChatGPT also serves as a presentation coach by guiding students on presentation structure and content principles based on what they learned in class. Using the voice option, students verbally deliver their presentation for the AI tool to react to rather than a text file. ChatGPT takes on multiple personas to help better prepare the students for the specific audience they need. They might prompt it to act as an investor listening to their new venture pitch to get financial questions or opt for professor-related feedback to receive more business model and strategy questions. It prepares students by asking questions they might not think of on their own and offers feedback they can use to improve clarity, engagement, and persuasion.

Abramo made clear that AI saves him and the students time, but he emphasized that people still need a core knowledge base before they can use the tool and really maximize it. “The students are comfortable using AI, but they don’t really have the independent understanding of how to effectively leverage it to enhance the class learning objectives,” said Abramo. “They play around in it, but probably not in the most
strategic way. However, they’re very open to learning and finding out ways to incorporate it.”

Featured image: Wooster writing consultants now train on using AI for feedback on writing and further using it as a tool when assignments allow it.

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Led by Jennifer Hayward, Virginia Myers Professor of English and global media & digital studies, the group expects to have guidelines and recommendations ready by the end of spring semester 2026. They are also completing a plan for how to achieve student readiness, with implementation to follow. First, they’ll survey faculty, students, and staff to learn more about how the campus community is thinking about the role of generative AI here and survey alumni to ask how leaders in a variety of fields believe Wooster needs to be preparing graduates for the workforce.

Alex Nord, assistant professor of computer science, brings tech knowledge to his work on the AI task force. “We’re integrating AI into a sense of responsible citizenship for students,” said Nord. “Our policies will offer clarification that we want our students to be curious and proactive in their own education.”

During an AI discussion at a special faculty meeting last fall, the task force learned that their colleagues are becoming more nuanced in their approach to the technology. Hayward said the conversation has moved from an earlier concern with policing AI use to a focus on pedagogical shifts that more effectively promote learning and assess knowledge. In one of her own classes, Hayward shifted to in-class writing assignments rather than asking students to submit “perfect” papers.

“Students who don’t feel equipped for an assignment will turn to AI,” said Hayward. “At this stage we want them to use writing as a tool for working through thought processes. Because of our small classes, I can work with them individually to discuss their challenges, and I’m finding it’s been much more productive.” Regardless of discipline, students’ need for a strong knowledge base in their field is necessary to�� make the most of AI. Critical thinking skills are equally important to assess the reliability of AI outputs. The task force knows every discipline has unique preferences and objections around the technology, which will apply to student I.S. work. That’s why the group doesn’t plan on formulating any I.S.-specific guidelines campuswide. “Many departments are already creating their own AI guidelines for I.S., so the task force sees itself building on that existing expertise to facilitate more transparency and clearer communication,” said Hayward.

A possible model for that communication is the AI Literacy Guidebook, a digital resource created by students in Hayward’s Writing for AI class last spring. Their proof of concept demonstrated what the students would like tosee available to the entire campus. For instance, faculty might find direction for incorporating AI in their curriculum and fostering responsible use, while students might get best practices for using AI ethically or developing AI literacy.

A guidebook could also house case studies on ethical challenges with solutions across various disciplines. “A critical part of preparing students for the possibility of an AI-saturated world will involve providing them with concrete information about the environmental costs
incurred by data centers,” said Nord. “Students also need the skills required to interrogate the political, social, and profit interests of the groups charged with developing the ‘guardrails’ for information produced by AI systems.”

Featured image: AI taskforce hopes to prepare graduates in AI skills, while continuing to develop their writing and research skills.

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Keefer’s photography supports funding for Parkinson’s disease research, a condition that affects the central nervous system and impacts balance, movement, and speech. When he sells a photo, the revenue goes to the Michael J. Fox Foundation, a nonprofit organization focused on finding a cure to Parkinson’s. He’s raised nearly $500,000. “I’ve had Parkinson’s for 18 years now, so this is a labor of love. I do believe there’s a cure, maybe not too far off,” said Keefer, who sits on the board of the foundation.

As well as selling his photography, Keefer supports newly diagnosed patients by sharing his experience with the disease. “I try to tell them about my personal experiences, to the extent those match up with theirs, so they can watch for those milestones along the way,” shared Keefer. “Having the ability to talk to and get advice from places like the Fox Foundation gives me resources few often have. To the extent that I can share some of that with people is a blessing.”

Keefer’s focus on photography is not a new hobby, although not front-of-mind at Wooster. On campus, Keefer participated in swimming and spent a semester abroad with a greater emphasis on his coursework. Looking back, he urges students to keep an open mind about their futures, claiming that seeking out opportunities is more important than having a narrow path. “You can’t predict what you’re going to do or exactly how you’re going to do it, but what you want is the opportunities to come along,” said Keefer. “I couldn’t create the gallery and do what I’ve done without my business career, but that’s turned out to be a supporting role in my life, not my purpose.”

Featured image: Jeff Keefer ’74 and President McCall pose for photos at the Distinguished Alumni Award ceremony during Alumni Weekend.

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As a physical education major at the College, Minton immersed himself in athletics opportunities. He played basketball and coached a sorority flag football team before entering the United States Air Force upon graduation. Serving in the Air Force from 1969-1983, Minton became an assistant basketball coach with Hank Egan for the Air Force Academy’s men’s basketball team, the Falcons. In 1983, Minton started his first head coaching job for Dartmouth College’s men’s basketball team before going back to the Air Force in 1985 as the head coach for the Falcons. “Wooster being on my resume immediately got people’s attention, particularly at an academic school like Dartmouth,” shared Minton. “Wooster opened horizons that I hadn’t seen before.”

In 2000, Minton joined the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) on a tenure track, working alongside other basketball coaches with the goal of making the sport more inclusive, ethical, and community-based. He served as the deputy executive director starting in 2004 until his retirement in 2020. While working with the NABC, Minton developed a relationship with Coaches vs. Cancer, a collaboration between the American Cancer Society and the NABC that aimed to raise funds for cancer research. “We’ve raised more than $200 million for this cause,” said Minton. “I got some awards from the cause that I don’t think I’m all that deserving of. I just did the right thing.”

Looking back on his time at Wooster, Minton emphasizes how impactful the College was to his future career. “Wooster helped me learn how to communicate with everyone and come to grips with some things that I hadn’t ever dealt with growing up,” he said. “I enjoy telling people I went to Wooster. I feel blessed.”

Featured image: Reggie Minton ’63 and President McCall pose for photos with the Distinguished Alumni Award at the ceremony during Alumni Weekend.

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Elizabeth Schiltz, professor of philosophy, developed a project to better support her students, who often ask for advice on transitioning to the working world. “Wooster students are fabulous and go on to do big things, but potential employers can’t always see that just from a resume. I wanted to help them better articulate the skills and capacities they bring to the workplace,” Schiltz said.

For her project, Schiltz organized a series of four open presentations for students featuring faculty and staff from across the College. Three of the presentations focused on specific pathways philosophy students often take, including graduate school, law school, and health and wellness careers, while the fourth provided tips and resources for applying for jobs and internships.

“We were encouraged to look objectively at the skills we developed in our academic journey, including critical thinking, time management, and teamwork,” said Maddie Moran ’25, a philosophy minor and student-designed major in data science and sports analytics. “These skills were all necessary for thriving in classes but can also be successfully transferred into a workplace environment.”

Josie McAninch, assistant director of residence life, saw an opportunity to build on existing training for resident assistants to help them recognize and leverage skills they are developing in their role. “RAs go into the workplace with a vast array of career-readiness skills, but we hadn’t been explicit in explaining the transferability of those skills,” McAninch said.

She incorporated elements of the National Association of Colleges and Employers’ eight career-readiness competencies into the training she presented during winter break. She then measured the effectiveness of the session through pre- and post-surveys and found that RAs were better able to articulate how the skills they’re gaining prepare them for success in the workplace. The trainings will continue to follow this model moving forward.

“The RA training connected what we do on campus to real-world skills, including decision making, clear communication, project management, teamwork, and problem solving under time pressure,” said Aditi Jha ’26, a computer science major. “Overall, the program gave me the confidence to connect the skills I’m building as an RA to the workplace and to talk about their value when I step into future career opportunities.”

Featured image: The new trainings help RAs articulate their experience as decision makers, communicators, teammates, project managers, and more.

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Conceived in 2005 by a group of faculty led by John Sell, emeritus professor of economics, SE launched in 2006 with an inaugural grant from the Burton D. Morgan Foundation. Since then, the program has served more than 40 clients whose missions solve social problems like food insecurity, affordable housing, access to education and art, and more, providing more than half a million dollars of value each year.

“SE was our initial foray into entrepreneurship education at the College,” said Amyaz Moledina, program co-founder and professor of economics. Melanie Long, associate professor of economics, who also advises SE student teams said, “People often think of entrepreneurship in a traditional business sense, but this is interdisciplinary work that also requires an awareness of the social problem we’re trying to solve and which groups are impacted,” said Long, noting that the program includes faculty, staff, and students from across the College.

SE’s for-credit seminar takes place most often during spring semester. The faculty work with community organizations to curate one to four projects each year. Then students are recruited to do the research in teams advised by faculty. A team of students this year hopes to conduct an impact analysis and compute the social return on investment of the program. Initial results suggest after 20 years, these local projects have made a tangible financial, social, and environmental impact on more than 10,000 people a year in Ohio.

Cameron Maneese ’79 serves on the Board of Trustees for The Lyric Theater (formerly the Downtown Arts Theater) and turned to SE in 2019 as part of a group of citizens looking to renovate and reopen the 1979 venue. After already experiencing a successful collaboration with SE in 2015 when she worked at the United Way of Wayne and Holmes Counties, Maneese sought help developing a comprehensive plan that looked at sustainability and how membership programs help the theater’s bottom line. “The team’s research was invaluable. It formed the foundation for the Lyric’s successful membership program,” said Maneese.

Another repeat client, Tiffany Leeper, development manager at Wayne Center for the Arts, said she knew SE would deliver a high-quality feasibility report for a new arts therapy program close to the caliber of a well-established research firm for a manageable cost. “Nonprofit organizations are notoriously lean, and there often isn’t much set aside in the budget for expensive studies,” said Leeper. “But funders want to see that an organization has done their homework and provided evidence of need and feasibility.”

SE provides a win-win for the community, faculty, and students who often go on to SE-inspired work. Wooster geology grad Annette Hilton ’17 recently earned her Ph.D. in environmental science and management. Killbuck Watershed Land Trust fully implemented the spring 2015 business plan she wrote alongside Matt Mariola ’98, associate professor of environmental studies and long-time program advisor. Now a postdoctoral fellow at University of California, Davis, Hilton’s work continues incorporating community and citizen science in a garden rehabilitation program in California prisons.

“SE gave me some realism in understanding how sustainable change takes time and effort on the part of many individuals,” said Hilton. “It helped me think about the scope of where I wanted to devote my efforts as an environmentalist and gave me some experience to understand if nonprofits were a place I’d want to work in the future.”

Featured image: Blake Southerland ’20, business economics major, (left) and Bijeta Lamichhane ’22, communication studies and mathematics major, present membership program research and plan recommendations to the Lyric Theater’s board in 2019.

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Growing up in the Cleveland area, Allman fell in love with Wooster after visiting the campus in high school. He hoped to be the starting pitcher for the Fighting Scots baseball team, but his playing career was cut short following injuries his sophomore year (“Plus the other players were better than me,” he laughed). He remained involved in the baseball program throughout his time at Wooster, serving as assistant coach for the junior varsity team as a sophomore and junior and for the varsity team as a senior. He also was active with intramural sports and his fraternity.��

“I loved my time at Wooster,” Allman said. “I made lifelong friends I’m still in contact with today. We were from all different backgrounds, and looking back, I see that contributed to my later success in business. I learned how to interact with people and, most importantly, how everyone has positive elements that they bring to every relationship.”��

Allman, a history major, originally intended to become an attorney but quickly discovered law school wasn’t for him. He began a career in media sales at a radio station in Cleveland. He transitioned into out-of-home advertising when he joined Foster & Kleiser, now known as Lamar Outdoor Advertising. He later spent 15 years with Transportation Displays Inc., the largest bus and rail advertising sales company in the world, where he worked his way up to CEO of U.S. operations.��

“We generated, over the years, literally hundreds of millions of dollars of non-farebox revenue for transit systems worldwide,” Allman said. “In other words, we were, in the majority of cases, the largest source of revenue for the transit systems we worked with after the farebox. We were always very proud of that.”��

In 2002, ready for a new challenge, Allman launched a business venture with the company’s former chairman. “We started a new outdoor advertising company called Titan, which, at the time, was anything but a titan. We had 11 employees,” Allman said. “We competed for and won back many of the contracts we had at TDI because we had developed strong relationships with the transit systems. They trusted us, and we had always overperformed. We ultimately grew the company to about 800 employees worldwide.” Treating those employees well was integral to the company’s success. It’s also a key component of leadership, according to Allman.��

“If you want people to trust you as a leader and want to follow you, you have to look out for them and be available when they need you,” he said. “I tried to be accessible. If anyone in the company needed to get in touch with me, they could call me anytime or walk into my office. At Wooster, people were so open to interacting and communicating, and I tried to bring that same openness to the companies where I worked.”��

When hiring new employees, Allman also thought of his time at Wooster, and specifically his experience on the baseball team. “When interviewing people for a job, I always asked if they had a background in sports,” he said. “Teamwork is critically important to the success of a company. We rise or fall together.”��

Allman initially retired in 2020 after selling Titan and working as a consultant for a few years. As of 2025, he most recently served as partner/co-CEO of VIAVERDE USA, an international company that combines out-of-home advertising with sustainable, green infrastructure.��

Making several generous gifts to his alma mater over the years, Allman, notes that the administration at Wooster is a perfect example of how leadership starts at the top. “I have so much respect for President McCall, the president’s cabinet, and all the faculty and staff at the College. They’re doing so many things right at Wooster, and that’s why it’s one of the top liberal arts colleges in the country,” he said. “I will continue to support the school in any way I can.”��

Featured image: Don Allman ’74, photo provided by subject.

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Dennis credits the education he received at 69ֱ�� for providing him with the skills he needed to thrive, no matter the job. “My ability to transition through different roles at different companies with different people was built on an architecture that began with a liberal arts education,” he said. “It teaches you how to go into an environment that is foreign to you, communicate effectively, build relationships, and think critically. Those are all tools that help you succeed.”��

Wooster drew Dennis in because he knew he could receive a world-class education while continuing his athletic career. He played basketball for two years and ran track all four. He also was a member of the Black Student Association and the Men of Harambee. His experiences with these teams and groups taught him how to connect and work with others. “I’m a Philadelphian, so moving to a small college town like Wooster gave me the opportunity to engage with people from a variety of backgrounds, including international students,” said Dennis, who majored in English and economics. “It made me curious about people and the experiences they had that were perhaps different from mine.”��

Dennis began his career as a management consultant and has steadily moved up the ranks over the years. As he began taking on more leadership responsibilities, he found that he relied more and more on the interpersonal skills he developed at Wooster.��

“Leaders must be able to listen for understanding and listen with empathy. They must have the ability to coach and accept coaching,” he said. “The most important thing is to be your authentic self. We all come from different backgrounds and have different perspectives on things, and when we add that to the mix, it becomes a more diverse and inclusive collaboration of ideas. That authenticity and collaboration unlocks potential and ultimately is how innovation occurs.”��

Whether serving as director of enterprise applications, senior vice president of learning and leader development, or chief diversity, equity, and inclusion officer—all titles he has held throughout his career—Dennis strives to lead with humility and motivate his teams to perform at their highest level. “There is an accountability to those who choose to follow you. I do think that’s a choice,” he said. “People are looking for inspiration. They’re looking for someone to follow who has a vision for a way forward and a plan for how to achieve it. What’s implied in leadership is that we’re going somewhere. We’re leading to something or somewhere or some outcome. People are paying attention to what you do and what you say, and they will choose to follow you if they believe that you are genuine in your approach to taking them somewhere.”��

In his current role, Dennis is leading his team to drive positive change in the community. His position is, in many ways, his dream job. “I believe I have the best job in the bank,” Dennis said. “I wake up every day with the opportunity to ensure that communities are sustainable for years to come. My work aligns very closely with my personal passion of looking out for people and ensuring that all people have fair and equitable access to the resources they need to live their lives to the fullest.”��

For Dennis, that includes access to higher education. He thinks liberal arts colleges in particular are more important today than they have ever been.��

“Employers value the skills that the liberal arts education supports, including critical thinking, communication, curiosity, and self-awareness,” he said. “Those are all things that are in high demand in today’s world, and things that 69ֱ�� and other liberal arts universities are best suited to deliver.”��

Featured image: Donald Dennis ’86, photo provided by subject.

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“I loved the people and the culture,” Wilds said of that first summer. “The work was fascinating, and I realized I could focus in on this tiny niche industry. Did I think I would eventually become CEO? Absolutely not.”��

Wilds wasn’t sure what she wanted to study when she initially arrived at Wooster. She had stuttered as a child and was interested in learning more about speech-language pathology, so she decided to take an introduction to communication sciences and disorders class the second semester of her first year, in 1996. “The professor was Dr. Jim Rea, and I simply fell in love with the subject,” she said. “It was kind of dumb luck that I stumbled into both the class and the major.”��

When it came time to determine the focus of her Independent Study, Wilds again felt drawn to PRC. She decided to compare two different AAC systems, one developed by PRC and one by a different company. She interviewed three people with cerebral palsy who used the PRC system and three who used the other system to determine how much they were saying and how long it took them to do so. The individuals who used the PRC system spoke more words in less time. She later presented her research at a conference.��

After graduating in 1997, Wilds earned her master’s degree in speech-language pathology from Purdue University. Stuttering still interested her at the time, and she was working toward a career as a professor/researcher. However, an opportunity to move to New Zealand and work as an early intervention therapist right after graduate school was too good to pass up. One of the first children she saw was a young girl with cerebral palsy who had a PRC device, but her family didn’t know how to use it. “I’m generally not one for signs, but I couldn’t ignore that one,” Wilds said.��

Wilds began working as a consultant for PRC a few years after returning to the United States. She earned her MBA from Eastern Illinois University in 2017 and transitioned to marketing and product development at PRC after moving back to Wooster in 2018. She helped lead the merger of PRC and Saltillo Corporation, leading to what is now PRC-Saltillo. In 2022, she became chief operating officer, and in January 2025, she took the helm as CEO.��

In 2025, PRC-Saltillo had 325 employees in the United States as well as almost 100 employees at its subsidiaries in Australia, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Wilds believes her time at Wooster helped prepare her for her current position overseeing the company.��

“Wooster prepared me more technically than I would’ve imagined,” she said. “It offered me opportunities for leadership in different ways, from leading the band on the field as drum major for two years to helping underclassmen get ready for a presentation. Wooster also fostered my curiosity, and I think curiosity breeds leadership. When you’re curious, you naturally ask questions and show interest, and that shapes the direction that you’re moving. People see that and want to be a part of it.”��

Wilds embraces a collaborative leadership style that is solutions-driven and people-focused. She also sees it as important for leaders to have strong personal values. “My values are curiosity, humor, independence, and authenticity,” she said. “They align nicely with our company’s values, which are trust, respect, integrity, and mission. We believe in profit with a purpose. Communication is the essence of humanity, and our work allows us to do good in the world for the most vulnerable individuals.”��

Wilds encourages aspiring leaders to stay curious and follow that curiosity with actions. “Don’t focus on an end goal 10 years down the line,” she said. “Focus instead on the next best thing, or the next right thing, or the next interesting thing. That will keep you engaged and moving forward.”��

Featured image: Sarah Wilds ’97, photo provided by subject

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“If I didn’t have Wooster’s liberal arts education, I probably would have stayed in this box and continued studying business, which is what I originally came to America to study,” shared Upadhyay.

Born and raised in Nepal, Upadhyay attended the College after experiencing firsthand the political protests and unrest in his country. “I started college in Nepal and there were a lot of strikes, and I felt like I was wasting my time,” Upadhyay expressed. “I’m really glad I attended Wooster, because it was pretty much at the forefront of recruiting international students in the 1980s, so I had a lot of good friends internationally.”

Upadhyay’s experience taking theatre and literature classes at Wooster opened him up to the world of creative writing, in which he received his master’s degree at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. As an English professor at Indiana University Bloomington, Upadhyay draws inspiration from the teaching styles of his Wooster professors to his students, notably from I.S. mentor Ray McCall, former English professor and two-term chair of the department. He also expressed the encouragement of professors in the natural sciences, communications, and religious studies departments provided a well-rounded education that he carried to his professional career.

“I learned the value of critical thinking at Wooster and how to apply that skill to higher disciplines. I tell my students that, even in their fiction writing, which is what I mostly teach, they’re applying a lot of critical thinking skills. There’s a level of analysis that you miss without that thinking, and Wooster taught me that,” said Upadhyay.

Upadhyay hopes that Darkmotherland, while centered on a corrupt authoritarian government, invites deep reflection on powerful individuals in any country. “I hope there’s a sense of how universal our experiences are despite us being in different countries and having different cultures and religions,” said Upadhyay. “We all have similar aspirations and want good things for ourselves, our families, and friends.

Featured image: Samrat Upadhyay ’87, photo provided by subject

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