by Olivia Ding
Conversations between students and industry practitioners ran late into the evening, in classrooms last winter. By spring, students had polished their work and unveiled it to wowed audiences at Screen Summit. Summer brought the payoff: confident graduates landing at TikTok, Amazon, KUOW and beyond. Come fall, the orientation room at Mary Gates Hall ran out of chairs. 149 new students – by far the largest cohort in Comm Lead history.
This is 2025 at Comm Lead. A whole year made up of colorful fragments like these.
Learning at Scale: When Expertise Becomes Accessible
Connects 2025 was more than a typical conference. In March, Communication Leadership opened its doors to the world.
Over 1,000 professionals joined online to participate in the program’s flagship free learning event. Faculty and industry experts came together around a single urgent question:
“What is the one idea that marketing and communication professionals must focus on right now?”
The speakers didn’t offer simple answers. Jonathan Jordan of Edelman examined the current state of trust. Melissa Schwartz of Democracy Forward unpacked how internal communications shape workplace culture. Beatriz Cardoso Guimarães of Interbrand shared research on understanding Latino audiences. Sian Wu of Resource Media made the case for why narratives matter more than ever. For 90 minutes, the conversation moved beyond trends, and touched something real.
The design of Connects was intentional. Moderated by faculty and intentionally structured with quick polls, reflection activities, and extended Q&A, the event created space for participants to think together, rather than simply consume information. Attendees were offered the chance to earn a digital badge by reflecting on what they learned, but hundreds of participants did more than that. They sat with complexity. They asked harder questions. They connected with others navigating the same challenges.
That’s what accessible thought leadership looks like.
Empowering Professionals: Learning to Lead with AI
After a successful pilot in 2024, Comm Lead’s AI short course returned in early 2025, and working professionals immediately asked for more. By fall, we offered it a third time, updated with new insights based on what faculty had learned. Over 70 professionals registered across the 2025 offerings alone, far more than we expected.
But this wasn’t a course about learning tools for their own sake. Sam Tang and Dr. Lara Bradshaw designed it around the actual problems professionals face: Ethical policies. Authentic content at scale. Teams who don’t know how to think about AI yet.
“This course didn’t just teach tools,” a senior communications manager said afterward. “It prepared me to guide my team on how to use AI responsibly.” A government strategist put it differently: “The assignments aligned perfectly with what I do at work. I left with pieces I can actually use.”
That’s the difference between theory and transformation.
Student Success Stories: From Cohort 24 to the Real World
Cohort 24 walked into the job market with confidence. Monica Hua landed at TikTok as a Category Management Intern, analyzing data and shaping product strategies for TikTok Shop, where she discovered that every marketplace operates by its own logic. “My biggest learning has been realizing how nuanced each category is,” she explained. “This pushed me to think more critically instead of applying a one-size-fits-all strategy.”
How did Comm Lead prepare her? Partly through a mandatory networking class that made her uncomfortable in the best way.
“I learned how to ask meaningful questions, actively listen to people’s stories, and build genuine connections,” Monica said.
And partly through technical skills that transferred directly. “The data storytelling I gained here supported my work at TikTok. I became more confident in transforming insights into narratives.”
Cohort 24 isn’t just at TikTok. They’re at the City of Seattle. Skylight Social. NAMI. IntelliPro Group and so on. Each one building real portfolios, learning how the world actually works.
Coming In: What the Newest Cohort is Learning
For the newest students, the learning looks a little different but feels just as real. Matthew Dyer arrived at Comm Lead worried that AI would replace him.
“Before starting the program, I was pretty against using AI at all. I thought it meant cheating or losing your authentic voice,” he said.
Then something shifted. “As I started learning how to use it on purpose, I realized the work still comes from me. The ideas, the direction, the tone, that’s all mine. AI just helps me get the human part out more clearly.”
What surprised him most was the diversity of his cohort.
“Even in the corporate world, you don’t always get an environment that supports open, honest dialogue the way an academic space does. I grew up in a small town in Michigan, and now I’m surrounded by peers who openly share their stories as international students,” he said. “Understanding their journeys has given me insights I never would have gotten otherwise.”
Xiaolan Yao came from overseas expecting theory. She found practice instead.
“What surprised me most was how practical and human-centered the program is…I didn’t expect so many opportunities to work on real-world projects with real clients,” she said.
The bigger shift came in how she thinks now. “My biggest aha moment was realizing that strong communication isn’t about having the loudest voice. It’s about designing systems and spaces where people actually want to participate.”
Ella Lau came to be a student and became so much more. In her first quarter, she’s already served as an event coordinator, a student ambassador, a even a choir leader. In December, she performed Dancing Queen with the Comm Lead Choir in front of a crowd of over a hundred at First Friday.
“The warm applause and group memories we shared together made me realize how powerful shared experiences can be.”
In her Audio Storytelling class, surrounded by classmates exploring everything from cultural differences to fan culture, something clicked. “I truly felt that my ideas were seen and heard, and that sense of support extends to everything I do here. From my very first day, my colleagues reminded me that I belong.”
In a program of 275 students backed by over 1,300 alumni, belonging isn’t automatic. It’s built, moment by moment, through people choosing to see each other.
Work That Matters: Real Projects, Real Impact
Behind the scenes, students were doing more than learning about communication. They were doing the work itself.
Through Comm Lead Consulting, 63 students volunteered their skills across disciplines. They worked on 58 communication projects spanning video, social media, UX, and branding with 37 local businesses and organizations in 2025. In the process, they contributed over 4,000 volunteer hours and built real portfolios with real stakes.
This is where theory becomes practice: A Seattle nonprofit depends on a student’s video. A local business makes decisions based on student research. The portfolio piece being built right now through these Consultancy projects is the one that will be shown in next year’s job interview.
The impact extended beyond Consulting. Throughout the year, special workshops created space for different kinds of learning. The Future-Ready Leader Series brought alumni together with Andrea Zeller of Google and Laura Porto Stockwell of tmrw + tmrw to explore how to navigate ambiguity in leadership, examine emerging possibilities, and practice hands-on strategies for uncertain times.
Participants praised the sessions for their practical, engaging approach. The workshops exemplified why in-person learning matters — creating spaces where curious people could think differently about the future together, not just sit through forgettable lectures.
Seeing Your Own Work: Screen Summit and Beyond
Screen Summit proved something essential about community. When Marley Monetta walked in with her documentary, True Dawgs, she was terrified.
“I’m an INFP. I had never shared any of my projects outside of the classroom. My biggest fear was potentially winning an award because that would mean getting up in front of people,” she said. She’d often joked with her cohort about needing a pump-up playlist just to get herself to events like this.
But something happened in that physical space.
“Moving around in a physical space like that, you walk away having learned 100 new things. Each of us has different passions and expertise.” When she won the Matt Chan Award for Storytelling, it wasn’t about the trophy. “Many colleagues in the room had listened to me discuss the project throughout the year. They understood what this meant to me and got to celebrate it with me.”
The 90-minute documentary about gun violence that she produced will go to festivals next year. Through AHSHAY, the nonprofit that funded the work, it will spark conversations in communities where it matters most.
The other winners kept building too. Mia Lyu, Liz Wang, and Cissy Zhao for their design work Hue. Gisela Casa Madrid for the transmedia story Landless Nation. Katy Wicks, Amrine White, and Yağızhan Yavuz for their Brooks Running campaign that spoke to LGBTQ+ audiences. Brinda Joshi, Chia-Hua Hsu, Kayla Moani Huitt, Tabitha Han, and Yuechen Lu for EcoQuest.
Behind every award is a person who learned something about themselves. About what they’re capable of. About what happens when a community believes in you.
Paying It Forward: The Cycle Deepens
On December 5th, alumni returned to December First Friday. Biying Wu, a User Experience Researcher at TikTok. KC Sun, a UX Designer at Amazon. Chiquita Wright, who founded Our PR. And Naomi Vettath, a UX Designer who has spent the year in mentoring conversations with current students.
First Friday is where current students, alumni, and faculty gather just to be together. No sales pitch. Just high-top tables and conversations that spill across cohorts and years.
What struck Naomi most was how the program’s core strength had endured. “What stood out was how confidently students are navigating ambiguity. That’s something Comm Lead has always done well. Students are still being encouraged to explore, question, and articulate their own paths rather than aim for a single right outcome.”
But she also noticed something new.
“Students are grappling with questions that really matter right now: AI’s role in communication work, navigating cultural contexts in a polarized media landscape, making sense of career paths that didn’t exist five years ago. The program isn’t just keeping up with trends. It’s creating space for students to think critically about shifts happening in real time.”
When Naomi was a student, her advisors at the Consultancy, Susan MacLaren and Alex Stonehill, showed her something. They had high standards. But they paired those standards with genuine care. They led by example, creating connections and opportunities. They encouraged her to trust her instincts and take risks.
Now, she’s paying that forward. “I try to be transparent about non-linear careers, share practical decision-making frameworks, and make myself available as a sounding board rather than positioning myself as an expert. If I can help students feel less alone in the uncertainty, or give them courage to try something unconventional, that feels like the best way to honor what was given to me.”
That’s the cycle that First Friday embodies. Students don’t graduate and disappear. They come back. They mentor. They hire. They build the next chapter alongside the people they learned from. The cycle doesn’t end. It deepens.
Building for a World in Motion
At the end of 2025, Comm Lead is larger and more ambitious than ever. But size isn’t the point. What matters is how the program evolves.
The market shifts constantly. AI reshapes what communication professionals need to know. Students arrive with new questions. The program listens. This winter, Comm Lead launched new courses like Foundations of Documentary Storytelling and Product Marketing. New feedback from students and alumni shapes what comes next.
This is how impact sustains itself. Comm Lead doesn’t wait for the world to change and then respond. It examines the evolving landscape, anticipates what professionals will need, and builds courses that meet that moment. It prepares each cohort not just for jobs as they exist today, but for a world of work that hasn’t fully arrived yet.
The alumni network keeps growing. Current students keep rising to challenges they didn’t expect. New cohorts arrive ready to think more critically than the ones before them. And mentors like Naomi come back to guide the next generation through the same uncertainties they once faced.
That momentum doesn’t happen by accident. It’s built by a community that stays curious enough to evolve, intentional enough to prepare students for the unknown, and connected enough to keep showing each other the way forward.
University of Washington
Department of Communication