Introducing Austin Term A creative new Spring Term course brought students to Austin, Texas, for alumni mentorship, career exploration and literary analysis.

Kelsey Goodwin
June 5, 2025

Students participating in Austin Term this spring, co-taught by Associate Dean of Strategic Initiatives and Thomas H. Broadus Professor of English Genelle Gertz and Barnett Family Dean of Career and Professional Development Molly Steele ’04, became the first cohort to experience the course’s unique blend of literary analysis, career exploration, design thinking and mentorship – all centered around Mary Shelley’s classic novel, “Frankenstein.”

Gertz says Austin Term was specifically designed for students majoring in the humanities and tailored to their interests.

“The whole idea behind the course was to provide visibility to the arts and humanities,” Gertz says, adding that Austin, Texas, was chosen as a “creative, entrepreneurial city” where W&L alumni are working in a wide variety of career fields.

The course integrated literary study with real-world mentorship by W&L alumni living and working in Austin; Bailey Brilley ’18, Carolina Rubio Regalado ’22 and Kelly Nichols ’00 met with students to guide their final projects, share their own career journeys and ideate with students as they synthesized the course’s objectives into their own creative masterpieces. Students were asked to complete a final project inspired by “Frankenstein” and other course readings, with an emphasis on weaving in the skills of their mentors, creativity and career development. Along the way, students broadened their understanding of practical skills such as networking, project design and the variety of career paths available to arts and humanities majors. The idea for Austin Term grew out of a W&L Curriculum to Career Institute program with the American Association of Colleges and Universities that brought together multiple departments on campus, as well as Gertz’s Winter Term course, Having It All: Life, Literature and Career.

“That class is two-thirds literature and one-third professional development, with Molly leading the career-focused components,” Gertz says. “Those include everything from interpreting the Strong Interest Inventory and identifying career paths, to developing résumés and LinkedIn profiles, networking with alumni through mock Zoom sessions and even speed interviews in Career and Professional Development. We also guide students through conversations about accepting job offers and navigating the transition into their first full-time roles.”

For this course, Steele and Gertz developed a syllabus that tasked students with developing innovative final projects rooted in “Frankenstein’s” themes and shaped by a human-centered design framework drawn from texts such as “The Design of Everyday Things” by Don Norman and “Change by Design” by Tim Brown. Projects ranged from proposals for tech startups to public policy interventions. The course spent the first two weeks of the Spring Term on campus, preparing for a full week onsite with alumni in Texas. In Austin, students were hosted by alumni at their companies, participating in mentor meetings and industry tours throughout the week. Alumni mentors then joined the class on Zoom as students presented their final projects during the final week of the class.

“The final projects help students develop valuable soft skills in project management, strategic thinking and presentation, all qualities that today’s employers highly value,” Steele says. “Students can highlight these projects on their résumés to connect the dots between what they are learning in the classroom and how those skills are beneficial on the job.”

Brilley, a policy project manager for trust and safety at Google, says he jumped at the opportunity to get involved with the class as an alumni mentor.

“As someone who studied English — that was always my first love — and then ended up working in tech, I thought it would be great to get involved with a program that helps students see that you’re not limited to just working in academia as a student from the humanities, and that you can develop a broad range of skills and apply them to careers across the board,” Brilley says. “I’ve honestly found it inspiring in terms of reflecting on my own career. Working with the students helped me recenter what I enjoyed about my own work.”

Austin Term mentor Kelly Nichols ’00, a founding partner at Woollard Nichols Torres Consulting, a firm that specializes in consulting for social impact nonprofits, says she was intrigued to see how the course would work in practice and was impressed with how the students synthesized their coursework and conversations with her into their final presentations.

“The students’ projects totally blew me away,” says Nichols. “It was such a diverse group with such targeted interests, and they approached it all with creativity and a sense of humor. It was such a fun way for me to get to engage with current students.”

“My final project evolved into a portfolio for a fictional biotech venture, complete with a pitch deck, executive summary and mock financial documents,” says Gretchen Helitzer ’26, an English and accounting double major from Simsbury, Connecticut. “It’s a highly satirical, tongue-in-cheek take on how failure, especially moral failure, can be euphemized and rebranded in the language of innovation. It’s been a creative way to bring both of my majors together and think about the blurred lines between storytelling, ethics and business strategy.”

Helitzer says the course expanded her thinking about her future and career interests.

“This class has reshaped how I think about my future, while also providing a sense of comfort in the process,” Helitzer says. “It’s shown me that there’s no one ‘right’ path for someone with a humanities background, just a wide range of possibilities. After a site visit at a law firm, I’ve started seriously exploring law school, but I’m also more aware now of opportunities in consulting, start-ups and tech. What’s been most reassuring is realizing that creative and critical thinking, clear communication and ethical reflection are valuable skills across all those fields.”

Saaraim Nuñez ’27, a philosophy and politics double major from San Antonio, created a fictional consulting firm, Pathos Consulting Group, for his final project that focused on integrating Frankenstein’s creature into society.

“The idea was to explore how a modern consulting team might approach the challenge of reintegrating a being who has been misunderstood, abandoned and feared,” Nuñez says. “My proposal included possible strategies for housing, legal recognition, trauma-informed care, public sentiment campaigns and community engagement. Inspired by both the novel and my mentor, Kelly Nichols, the project gave me the chance to combine my passions with my career interests. It was the most creative and unique project I’ve worked on in college.”

English and accounting double major Lauren Shook ’27 says the success of the course was due to the strengths of its instructors.

“Dean Steele and Professor Gertz worked seamlessly together to make this course a success,” Shook says. “Dean Steele used her knowledge of career programming and networking to teach us how to find success in the real world. And Professor Gertz showed us how our humanities majors apply beyond the classroom and how they contribute to any career path we may choose.”

Regalado, a web strategist at IBM, says the interdisciplinary thinking and communications skills she acquired at W&L have proven advantageous in her current role, and that she is glad students are learning about how their strengths at W&L can translate into success in the tech industry or other fields they may not have considered initially.

“I appreciated being able to show students not only where I work, but also how I collaborate with others, and how the skills that I’ve learned at W&L have really given me an edge in this industry,” Regalado says.

Shook says having Regalado as her mentor helped her hone her communication and marketing skills as she developed her final project, a consulting framework based on the novel. She says the experience has affirmed her academic path.

“Although taking this class did not change my postgraduate goals, it has enhanced my motivations and understanding of my skill set,” Shook says. “I used to enjoy English as a way of pursuing my interests outside the business and accounting world. I now understand how English and accounting intersect and how I can leverage my humanities major to enhance my skill set in the business world.”

Austin native Lizeth Moctezuma ’27, an English and studio art double major, says she was encouraged to sign up for the class after a conversation with Gertz about choosing her major.

“I was really unsure of my decision given the stigma surrounding the humanities degrees in terms of their ‘usefulness,’ especially as a first-gen student,” Moctezuma says. “Professor Gertz recommended this course to me to see for myself the different applications after studying the humanities.”

Moctezuma says she appreciated the opportunity to experience a new side of her hometown and to interact with alumni doing inspiring work.

“I recommend this course to anyone who is wavering on whether they made the right decision to major or minor in the humanities,” Moctezuma says. “It is reassuring to see for yourself what extensive opportunities studying a humanities subject offers. A career is not meant to be a permanent placement, but a path of constant change and personal challenges: The alumni we met are living proof of it.”