As technology continues to reshape higher education and communication, the College of Communication & Information (CCI) is participating in conversations with some of the industry’s largest tech companies.

This past summer, two representatives of CCI brought their perspectives to Adobe and Google. Courtney Stokes, an Information Technology major selected for Adobe’s Student Insider Program, worked directly with Adobe teams to provide feedback on emerging creative tools while Dr. Paul Marty, a professor in the School of Information, represented FSU at Google gatherings focused on artificial intelligence (AI) and the future of higher education.

Although their experiences differed, both provided opportunities for CCI to contribute to conversations about how technology can be implemented in higher education.

“I felt really happy that I was able to represent Florida State, especially at one of the bigger technology companies,” Stokes said, who joined a cohort of students from institutions like Cornell University, Stanford University, and the University of Texas at Austin. “I talked about some of the different resources Florida State offers and how to market to our students.”

The program also placed Stokes in conversations with Adobe product managers and engineers to participate in product reviews and provide feedback from a student perspective.

“I think that networking is one of the most important things that you should do in order to get hired in the tech industries,” Stokes said. “There are great opportunities that our institution offers to get more connected, and I definitely value the networking skills alongside those technical skills needed to grow in the tech industry.”

Marty’s experience with Google similarly placed FSU in a national conversation about technology, though his focus was the broader relationship between artificial intelligence (AI) and higher education.

As a member of the 2026 Google GSV Higher Ed Leader Fellowship, Marty joined 30 academic leaders from across North America to discuss how AI is changing postsecondary education. The fellowship’s New York gathering was followed by Google’s Higher Ed Leader Series Conference, which brought together university presidents, provosts, and chancellors.

At the conference, Marty presented FSU’s use of Gemini Notebook, formerly NotebookLM, and demonstrated a notebook created by FAMU-FSU College of Engineering Assistant Professor Ralm Ricarte. The notebook uses course materials from Ricarte’s introductory thermodynamics course to provide students with an AI study tool grounded in what’s done in class.

For Marty, however, the discussions went beyond AI itself.

“We were there to talk about AI, but all anybody actually wanted to talk about is how do we restore the public trust in higher education,” Marty said. “How do we explain the value of a university education?”

Marty believes CCI is positioned to contribute to that discussion because of its focus on the relationship between people and technology. He says that as AI becomes more capable, understanding how people communicate and use technology will become increasingly important.

“That is the expertise that we are, in particular, looking for,” Marty said. “I think skills that the CCI students have give them a real leg up because they understand the human side of this equation.”

For students like Stokes, her message to the FSU community is to always pursue opportunities.

“I want to encourage everybody to apply for things, even if they don’t feel qualified or confident,” Stokes said. “They should apply because life-changing opportunities could be presented if they earn it.”