Pillar 4: Student AI Literacy & Storytelling

AI Beyond Butler: Post-Graduate Experiences: Written by Sarah Miller

The first time I intentionally used a generative AI tool was during my junior year at Butler. I remember feeling hesitant, not necessarily about what AI could do, but about how I could use it in a responsible and authentic way. Just over a year and a half later, AI had become an important part of how I worked, designed, taught, communicated, and problem-solved after graduation. Butler gave me a foundation not only in the technical skills I would eventually use with AI, but also in critical thinking, communication, creativity, and problem-solving. My experiences after graduation gave me the opportunity to practice those skills in environments that were very different from the classroom.

AI in Design

During the summer of 2025, I spent two months as a UI/UX intern with MiAltar, a startup in Lisbon, Portugal. I had just graduated from Butler with a degree in Web Design & Development, and I was excited to gain hands-on experience in the field. My academic background had prepared me with UI/UX principles, design practices, and project management skills. However, I was quickly introduced to an AI tool that changed the way I approached the design and prototyping process: Lovable.dev.

With a prompt, I could quickly explore different layouts and possibilities, and those prototypes became conversation starters with the team. The most valuable part of the experience was learning how AI could bring people with different areas of expertise into the same conversation. I had more technical and UI/UX knowledge, while the co-founders brought their cultural knowledge, passion, and business experience. AI became a shared language for expressing ideas and turning creative visions into something we could all see, discuss, and refine.

AI as a Communication Tool

After finishing my internship in Lisbon, I spent the 2025–2026 academic year in Lyon, France, as an English Teaching Assistant with the U.S. Fulbright Program. With a strong background in French, I felt confident in my language skills and cultural knowledge when I arrived in France…then I had to navigate real life.

One of the biggest surprises of living abroad was realizing how different classroom French could be from the language I encountered in everyday situations. AI translation tools became one of the ways I navigated those moments. AI could help me understand what something meant, identify language I didn’t know, or help me formulate a response. but I still had to bring my own cultural awareness and judgment to the interaction.

This experience also changed the way I think about AI and language learning. I didn’t use it as a replacement for learning French. Instead, it gave me the support I needed to participate more fully in situations where my language skills were still developing.

AI in Teaching

As an English Teaching Assistant, I taught daily lessons to a range of high school students in Lyon. I brainstormed topics, researched ways to make them engaging, and designed activities for the students I worked with. That planning process gave me a strong foundation, but AI allowed me to take it one step further.

Tools such as ChatGPT became useful brainstorming partners. I could provide information about the students’ language levels, the topic I wanted to teach, the amount of time I had, and the type of activity I was hoping to create. AI could then help me brainstorm examples, discussion questions, vocabulary, and activities, but the output was never the finished lesson. The most useful AI-generated ideas were the ones I could evaluate and adapt based on what I actually knew about my students.

Overall Thoughts

It’s easy to talk about AI in terms of what it can produce, but my experiences after Butler have made me much more interested in what AI allows people to do. AI gave me more room to experiment with design ideas, communicate across language and cultural barriers, and adapt lessons for students. However, none of those outcomes came from AI alone. They came from the combination of technology, human expertise, creativity, curiosity, cultural awareness, and critical thinking.

Butler gave me the foundation to think critically and creatively. My experiences in Lisbon and Lyon gave me opportunities to apply those skills in completely new contexts. Now, working on the OEET team, I have the opportunity to help others think about what AI integration and education can look like for the next generation of Butler students.