Morgan Gilmore ’25
Morgan Gilmore ’25 went from skeptical to impressed in under 48 hours.
As president of Denison’s Pre-Med Association, Gilmore wanted to expand her group’s alumni network. She was searching for doctors who might participate in panel discussions, be receptive to student shadows, and offer insight into their profession.
Through contacts at the Knowlton Center for Career Exploration, she learned about Ask a Denisonian, an online platform that connects students and alums. Gilmore provided requisite information and entered some keywords before submitting her query during winter break 2023.
“I couldn’t believe it,” said the biology and Spanish double major. “I got 10 responses within a couple of days.”
Since its summer of 2023 launch, Ask A Denisonian has received more than 700 career-related questions that have been answered by more than 1,000 alums. Graduates can also make use of the network, and roughly one-third of the questions come from alums.
The online engagements can lead to phone conversations, meetups, additional connections, and other opportunities.
Gilmore’s pre-med group has hosted several panel discussions featuring Denison alums from the medical profession. In the spring of 2024, she spent 20 hours shadowing Dr. Carrie Barnes-Mullett ’99, a Columbus, Ohio, pediatrician. Barnes-Mullett also agreed to appear on a career center podcast.
The Ask a Denisonian tool has been a game changer in connecting students with Denison’s more than 30,000 alums, said Melanie Murphy, director of career communities and coaching at the Knowlton Center.
“We could sit here and tell students to have long conversations with alumni, but it’s really daunting to reach out to them cold,” Murphy said. “Students don’t want to do that. Ask a Denisonian allows them to reach a whole body of alumni in their field of interest. The students start getting responses and think, ‘This isn’t so scary.’ It’s made a real impact.”
How it works
When Max Leisten began talking to universities about developing software for tools like Ask A Denisonian, he heard a common complaint: It’s difficult to get students and alums to engage. Leisten, CEO and founder of Protopia, created a platform that makes it easy for students to ask for career advice and convenient for alumni to respond.
The AI-driven technology funnels questions to alums who are best suited to answer them.
The Knowlton Center shows students how to craft good questions and provides them with examples. Including career interests, majors, and extracurricular activities increases the likelihood of a good match, as does adding keywords such as companies, locations, expertise, and industries.
Caro Crowder ’25
Keywords helped unite Caro Crowder ’25, an environmental studies major, with Kristine Perry ’10, an attorney at the Environmental Law Institute, while the student was interning in Washington, D.C. After spending an afternoon with Crowder, the attorney connected them with another Denison alum, Megan Fleming ’10, a supervisory biologist for the Environmental Protection Agency.
Overall, Crowder made four direct and two indirect connections through Ask A Deninsonian. Secondary connections become common once alums get to know the student.
“I got a lot out of Denison, and it set me up for success,” Perry said. “It’s very important to pay it back. I’m always happy to meet with students if they are in the D.C. area.”
Perry likes that Ask A Denisonian questions come directly to her email. There are no additional usernames or logins to memorize and no need to install an app.
“The average professional uses something like 35 apps a day,” Leisten said. “I thought, ‘Why add No. 36?’”
Satisfied customer
Anytime Leisten meets with a new university regarding his product, he asks about the relationship between the career center and the alumni and family engagement department. It needs to be strong for good results.
“I hold up Denison as a best-in-class case study,” Leisten said. “Denison’s partnership is what many institutions are aspiring to reach.”
Patrick Gavin ’26
Students including Patrick Gavin ’26 are reaping the rewards. Gavin is a student leader for the Big Red Connections Pre-Orientation program, and last summer, the Knowlton Center asked him to promote Ask a Denisonian to incoming students.
Unfamiliar with the program, the economics major decided to test it himself. He inquired about internship opportunities in Chicago, Columbus, and his hometown of Tampa.
Gavin connected with Ann Shaler ’87, a Tampa Bay market executive at Bank of America. The conversation went so well that Shaler introduced him to Scott Curtis ’84, who connected Gavin to a campus recruiter for the Raymond James 2024 Sophomore Showcase in St. Petersburg, Florida.
“I wish my two children had a program like Ask a Denisonian,” Shaler said. “Instead of a cold call, you have a warm handoff. I really like the platform. I’ve now connected with three Denison students.”
Attending the showcase expanded Gavin’s network and granted him an early application for Raymond James internships next summer.
Gavin is not only an Ask a Denisonian pitchman. He’s now a satisfied customer.
“I tell all my friends on campus about it,” he said.