Whether your background is in communications, public policy, business, media, or another discipline, this Trek offers valuable insight into real-world career paths, practical networking experience, and a firsthand look at what it takes to drive a major professional sports organization. Spaces are limited, so reserve your spot to connect with fellow Yellow Jackets and explore your career possibilities!

Please complete the registration form to indicate your interest by Oct. 23 at 4:30 p.m. Note: Completing the form does not confirm your registration. Only 30 spots are available, and you will receive a follow-up email if your application is accepted. 

About the Artists

Nydia Blas is a visual artist who grew up in Ithaca, New York, and resides in Atlanta, Georgia. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Art and Visual Culture at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia. She has completed artist residencies at Constance Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts and The Center for Photography at Woodstock.

Her work has been commissioned by The New York Times, New York Magazine, The New Yorker, Time Magazine, Harper’s Bazaar, and more. Blas uses photography, collage, video, and books to explore themes of sexuality, intimacy, and her lived experience as a girl, woman, and mother. Blas is widely recognized for The Girls Who Spun Gold, a collection of images that resulted from a Girl Empowerment Group she founded after observing a lack of space and community for teen girls of African descent in Ithaca, N.Y. Her first major monograph Love You Came from Greatness (2025), is an exploration of one Ithaca-based Black family and its community across many generations. The book is also a formally rigorous examination of the taxonomy and syntax of family portraiture.

Joshua Dudley Greer is a photographer based in Atlanta, Georgia, where he teaches at Georgia State University. His work has appeared in The New York Times, The California Sunday Magazine, The Atlantic, PDN, Le Monde, The Georgia Review, GUP Magazine, and Oxford American. He has received grants from the Maryland State Arts Council, Tennessee Arts Commission, and the Aaron Siskind Foundation. He has published two monographs to date – Somewhere Along the Line (Kehrer Verlag, 2019) and The Makeshift City (GOST, 2024). His work is included in the permanent collections of the Harvard Art Museums, the Museum of Contemporary Photography, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, the New York Public Library, the Do Good Fund, and the High Museum of Art.

Yohanne Lamoulère, a photographer based in Marseille, France, graduated from the École nationale supérieure de photographie in Arles in 2004. Her preferred themes are urban peripheries and insularity in its multifaceted forms. She published Faux Bourgs (Le Bec en l’air) in 2018, a compilation of her series on Marseille. Her work has been featured in numerous exhibitions: MUCEM (Marseille), Portrait(s) festival (Vichy), Fondation Schneider (Wattwiller), ImageSingulières festival (Sète), Clervaux-Cité de l’image (Luxembourg), and is included in public and private collections (CNAP, BnF, Neuflize-OBC). A member of the collectives Tendance Floue and Zirlib, she released her first film, L’œil Noir, in 2025. 

Geoffroy Mathieu’s photography explores how environmental and political issues are made tangible in the landscapes. Through travel and immersion-based projects, he documents shifting territories, in-between spaces, and objects and actions that reveal resistances in the way in which places are used. His photography series are all pursued as poetic investigations, combining rigorous documentary research with a poetic approach to build situated narratives. He collaborates with associations, collectives, and researchers to circulate his images beyond the art world, support causes, and contribute to public debate on ecological care.

A graduate of the French Higher School of Photography (ENSP) in Arles, he lives and works in Marseille. He presents his works as publications (Actes Sud, Poursuite, Filigranes, Zoème, Wildproject, Building Books), solo or collective exhibitions, and, more recently, walked performances. He participated in the fourth edition of Regards du Grand Paris (2021), received the “Radioscopie of France” Major Photojournalism Commission (2022), and co-published Anti-installation with Jordi Ballesta (Building Books, 2023), supported by the French Center for Visual Arts (CNAP) publishing grant.

Blanche Lafuente is a French drummer and improviser. Trained in theater and jazz (DEM in jazz, 2018), she develops a body of work situated at the crossroads of rock, free jazz, traditional and electronic music, and performance. She is a founding member of the duo Qonicho Ah! and the trio NOUT (Jazz Migration 2021, Zenith Award 2023), and in 2025 she will launch Ganagobie, a project combining voice, dance, electronic music, and live performance. She regularly collaborates with large ensembles, notably Mats Gustafsson’s Fire! Orchestra and Kogoba Basigui by Eve Risser and Naïny Diabaté. Her work explores rhythm as a collective and sensorial force, linking music, bodies, and shared spaces.

Sponsored by: Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts; School of Modern Languages; School of Literature, Media and Communication; Georgia Tech Arts; Atlanta Global Study Center; School of Design; France-Atlanta; Villa Albertine x Consulat Général de France à Atlanta; City of Atlanta – Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs; Delta Airlines; Air France; Jade Fiducial. 
 

Faculty and staff are also welcome to learn how they can support students and get involved as reviewers!

The event will feature a moderated panel discussion followed by an open Q&A session where you can ask your pressing career questions. While tailored for students in the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts and the College of Design, this event is open to all majors interested in building a sustainability-focused career. Don't miss this opportunity to gain insider career advice and connect with leaders in the field!

How can students make the best use of their German language and intercultural communication skills? You can learn more about opportunities in the German program and hear from alumni and peers about study abroad programs and internships.

How is artificial intelligence changing the way knowledge is created? Examine AI's growing role in academic research, including how researchers use emerging tools to accelerate discovery, approach complex questions, and navigate the ethical and practical implications of AI-assisted scholarship.

Panelists

Sebastian Porsdam Mann, Assistant Professor CeBIL, University of Copenhagen

Sebastian Porsdam Mann is Assistant Professor at the University of Copenhagen’s Center for Advanced Studies in Bioscience Innovation Law. With training spanning philosophy, neuroscience, applied ethics, and international human rights law, his research examines how emerging technologies can advance scientific progress while navigating ethical and regulatory challenges. His work has directly explored generative AI in academic writing and idea generation, as well as AI's potential role in the future of academic peer review, positioning him to address both the opportunities and risks AI creates throughout the research process. 

Kevin Mills,  Head of Education and Government GTM, OpenAI

Kevin Mills is Head of Education and Government Go-to-Market at OpenAI, where his work focuses on expanding the responsible use of artificial intelligence across educational and public-sector institutions. His work includes initiatives supporting the adoption of AI tools in education, including ChatGPT Edu and partnerships focused on helping students, educators, and institutions develop practical experience using AI. He brings an industry perspective on how AI tools are moving from experimentation into real academic and institutional environments. 

Sarah H. Salter, Director of the Writing Program & Professor of Pedagogy, Emory University

Sarah H. Salter is a Teaching Professor and Director of the Writing Program at Emory University whose research focuses on American literature, periodical studies, collaboration, and digital humanities. Her scholarship has included interdisciplinary work using machine-learning methods to analyze the visual structures of historical newspapers, combining literary study, library science, and computational approaches. Her perspective brings an important humanities dimension to the conversation about how computational tools and AI are changing research methods, scholarly interpretation, writing, and knowledge production. 

Allegra Smith, Assistant Professor of Technical Communication, S School of Literature, Media, and Communication, Georgia Institute of Technology

Allegra Smith is an Assistant Professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Literature, Media, and Communication whose research examines technical and professional communication, digital technologies, user experience, access, and equity. Her teaching and research include work involving generative AI, digital communication, and undergraduate research, alongside extensive scholarship on how people interact with technology. She brings a valuable perspective on how AI is affecting research, writing, communication, pedagogy, and the experiences of the people using these emerging tools. 

🎥 M.S. GMC is a joint program between the School of Literature, Media, and Communication and the School of Modern Languages at Georgia Tech. This unique humanities program merges curricular offerings from both Schools and allows students to engage in advanced research and training that combines cross-cultural competence, language acquisition, and media and communications expertise with global and cultural research. Language concentrations include Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Russian, and Spanish.

🌎 The M.S. ALIS is one of the first professional master’s degrees in foreign language and cultural studies in the United States with concentrations in French, German, Japanese, and Spanish. This degree emphasizes real-world professional applications of language for a wide range of career paths, from communications and non-profit to business, engineering, and medicine in only 30 credit hours. The M.S. ALIS is also available as a five-year co-terminal B.S./M.S. for Georgia Tech B.S. ALIS majors.

What does creativity mean when machines can generate images, music, writing, and other forms of creative work? Explore how artificial intelligence is reshaping creative industries, changing the relationship between technology and human expression, and raising new questions around authorship, originality, labor, and the future of creative work.

As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly capable of conversation, companionship, and emotional responsiveness, what happens to our understanding of human connection? Unpack AI, empathy, intimacy, and relationships while considering what it means to form meaningful connections in an increasingly AI-mediated world.

The IAC Dinner with Alumni series offers a unique opportunity to hear about different career paths, gain insights from alumni experiences, ask questions, and build connections that can last beyond the dinner table.

RSVP to attend.

Guests will have the opportunity to connect with members of our community, hear inspiring stories, and celebrate the accomplishments of this year’s distinguished honorees. The cost to attend this year’s event is $25 per person, with all proceeds contributed to the Dean’s Scholarship Fund to support the next generation of Ivan Allen College students. Join us for an evening of celebration, connection, and recognition as we honor the incredible alumni who continue to make a difference across the world.