We are excited to introduce our Student Voices series where we host student conversations focused on generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) usage, learning outside the classroom experiences, personal learning journeys, and career aspirations at Illinois.
Written by: Duchara Moody, CITL Intern
CITL Fellow: Shawn Hampton (Associate Director at the Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center)
Students from across the state of Illinois, and beyond had the opportunity to attend the Annual Black & Latinx 2026 Summit at the I-Hotel and Conference Center. The Summit brought students, community, and staff from all intersections into a shared space to learn outside the classroom and connect, through an intentional understanding of the traumas that communities of color in the United States have faced, historically and contemporarily, while taking cognizant strides to heal our collective wounds. The theme for this year's Black & Latinx Summit was "Cultivating Joy - Celebrating the Light in Community". To start off this amazing event, we began in community over breakfast with a welcome from the Black and Latinx Planning Committee from the Bruce D. Nesbitt African American Cultural Center and La Casa Cultural Latina and a dynamic musical performance from Mariachi Alma de la Universidad de Illinois. Read the full article here: Celebrating the Light in Community
In this inaugural episode, Dulf and our student guests focus on the use of GenAI in their courses and career aspirations.
Our guests include Arted Gjata (BSLAS in Integrative Biology) and Foziea Garada (BS in Computer Science). Watch for shoutouts to courses that have integrated GenAI projects, from Chem 332 to CS 341 (Teaching Professor Lawrence Angrave) to IE 421(Clinical Professor David Lariviere)
This episode dives deep into Conversations with students about their use of Gen AI in their educational journeys, personal lives,
and career preparations.
Daisy Castro (Middle Grade Education / Social Science) shares insights about how Gen AI is impacting K12 education.
Bruktawit Yigzaw (Advertising + Studio Art / Minor Informatics) considers how Gen AI is impacting designers and artists.
Abby Brown (Psychology (Industrial/Organizational) / Minor Leadership Studies) discusses how impactful GenAI might be to her own field of Human Resources.
In our Student Voices #3 Dulf Vincent Genis explores GenAI use with two graduate teaching assistants at Illinois, Ryan Ziegler (Computer Science) and Eva Lam Redondo (Latin American and Caribbean Studies).
Video 3.A explores the use of Gen AI for research and teaching, with both our guests confident that they can now identify student “work” that is fully AI generated. Importantly, Ryan shares his concern that courses still offering assignments that are “GPTable” will lead to some students taking a path where they will not “get any value out of that assignment.”
In CITL's Student Voices #3B: Social and Global Impacts of Gen AI Dulf Vincent Genis explores GenAI use with two graduate teaching assistants at Illinois, Ryan Ziegler (Computer Science) and Eva Lam Redondo (Latin American and Caribbean Studies). In this video, Eva leads a discussion around the democratizing potential of technologies such as Gen AI and universal WiFi infrastructure, with hopes for enhancing digital literacy and equity around the world.
In our Student Voices #3C, Dulf Vincent Genis chats with two graduate teaching assistants at Illinois, Ryan Ziegler (Computer Science) and Eva Lam Redondo (Latin American and Caribbean Studies), who offer tips for success for new undergraduate students.
Not surprisingly, networking and getting out and exposing oneself to new courses and people are highly rated. Eva shares a wonderful tip that every student should find a person to “relate to . . . a person you want to be like . . . and a person you can just hang out with.”
Is Gen AI helping students prepare for success? In this episode of Student Voices #4, we dive into a fascinating conversation with three U. of I. students who are putting Gen AI to the test in their studies, research, and careers. They're using Gen AI in ways you might not expect: as a study partner, as a teaching assistant, and even as a debate sparring partner. But they're also hitting roadblocks where Gen AI just doesn't quite cut it.
Ivan Akonya (Engineering + Transportation) doesn't just accept Gen AI’s answers he challenges it to think like a professor. He is skeptical of its tendency to oversimplify but recognizes that his future transportation career will certainly involve using Gen AI to assist with massive transportation datasets.
Delancy Xiao (Liberal Arts Science + Communications) uses Gen AI to generate quiz questions and discussion prompts, but when it comes to creativity, especially poetry, she finds Gen AI is not that inspiring.
Rahsmika Kolleri (Gies College of Business + Tech Management) uses Gen AI to refine her communication skills, break down case studies, and even level up her LinkedIn Learning courses. But when it comes to brainstorming original ideas or doing math, she's keeping Gen AI at arm’s-length.
Bonus tip from our host, Dulf Vincent Genis: Do you want to supercharge your study sessions? Feed Gen AI your study guides and worksheets and watch it generate even more learning materials.
When we hear directly from our students it’s clear that many of them maintain a complex relationship with AI, choosing when and when not to utilize it for coursework. In this episode our student host Dulf Vincent Genis interviews Aseem Patra (Statistics | Minor: Computer Science) and Ava Marginean (Political Science – International Relations) and highlighting concerns, hesitations and a few positive tips on using AI for their academic work.
In student voices #5B, Dulf Genis continues the conversation with Aseem Patra (Statistics | Minor: Computer Science), exploring how AI can help for daily tasks, cooking, and hobbies. Aseem uses AI assistance for his workout plans, but prefers to find his own recipes, explaining that “This computer didn’t eat nothin’.” Similarly, Aseem is also a bit old school and prefers to find her own recipes. The interview concludes with a very human discussion of student workloads and strategies for staying productive and academically successful.
In student voices #5C, Dulf Genis continues the conversation with Ava Marginean (Political Science – International Relations), exploring how AI assists her with understanding the complex topics in her studies and staying organized as a student athlete, president of an RSO, and daily tasks as a college student. This interview concludes with a new perspective on navigating student workloads, finding your passion, and staying academically successful.
In this student voices panel, we had two graduate students, Jeremy Samuel and Kristelle Dela Cruz, provide their own perspectives on Gen AI. Dulf Genis (CITL Intern) led an informative conversation with about student's Gen AI use in their educational journeys, personal lives, and career preparations.
During the Fall Into AI 2025 series, Alfredo Martinez (CITL Intern) led an informative roundtable conversation about the use of Gen AI in students' educational journeys, personal lives, and career preparations. Several students joined this discussion to share how they use Gen AI as a study tool, remain aware of AI's environmental impacts in society, and build AI skills for career preparations.
In this dynamic conversation with Sree Lakshmi Venda (CITL) and Arham Shah (Industrial Engineering), Arham shared how the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign gave him the chance to carve out his own educational journey as a third generation Illini and participate in the Cozad Venture Creation Program in 2025 to launch his startup kWh.
