What is the gesture Program?
gesture reimagines what college and career preparation can be. Change isn’t optional, it’s already here. As the landscape shifts, gesture offers a new approach to preparing for the future of both college and work.
This four-year intellectual and professional experience combines hands-on internships, academic innovation, and AI training to create a radically new model. Students move through a connected sequence of academic and real-world experiences built around our core pillars: mission, challenge, and story.
Unlike traditional programs, gesture places foundational emphasis on AI fluency for non-technical students because in this new world of work, it’s fluency, not mastery, that will define adaptability and employability.
How does it work?
- A standalone start-up within which students will gain work experience as interns.
- A new learning model of self-directed intellectual growth.
- Explicit focus on creating AI generalists to prepare our students for the real world of work.
Graduates of gesture leave not only with a degree, but with real-world experience, digital fluency, and a strong support network.
Year 1: Foundation
The first year centers on academic exploration and an introduction to gesture. Students begin building their academic community within a supportive cohort. As interns, they train together and are introduced to gesture’s core pillars: mission, challenge, and story - the foundation for everything that follows.
Year 2: Specialization
Students begin to focus on a specific area of academic interest related to their intended degree, supported by small-group faculty mentoring. From this year forward, they participate in a year-long, student-led, faculty-mentored academic community each year. Internship placements become more specialized - focusing on areas such as marketing, programming, or production - allowing students to begin developing targeted, domain-specific expertise.
Year 3: Application
Students choose a subject area of focus for their degree and begin self-guided tutorial work with faculty, taking increasing responsibility for their intellectual growth. Within their faculty-led academic community, students launch an applied group project and showcase professional development. Internship roles expand into higher domain responsibilities based on experience, preparing students for more advanced work.
Year 4: Realization
Students continue their tutorial work and are paired with an individual faculty mentor for a culminating project. Within their academic community, they find peer support for elevating individualized work. Students aren’t just responsible for their own development, but for contributing to a shared culture of learning. As interns and within their academic community, they take on leadership roles and deepen their ability to articulate an integrated professional and intellectual story.
Why AI, and Why Now?
We’re not just facing new tools — we’re facing a whole new way of working, learning, and being. AI is reshaping every industry, and it’s doing it faster than education can keep up. Students entering college today will graduate into jobs, technologies, and ethical challenges we can’t fully predict.
But one thing is clear: those who understand AI will be at a distinct advantage. This isn’t about coding. It’s about learning to think with AI, question it, and use it to solve real problems. The students who can do that, regardless of their major, will be the ones who thrive.
How to Join
College Edge Access
ARTSCI 150D: AI, Learning, and Early Career
You can explore gesture through a College Edge course designed just for first-year students. Available only to students enrolled in a 5-credit College Edge course. This course is ideal for students who want a deeper introduction to gesture, early career, and the role of AI in learning, storytelling, and real-world problem-solving. This non-technical course focuses on building AI fluency.
Stay in Touch
College Edge will not be the only opportunity to get involved with gesture. To hear about opportunities, updates, and how to join during your first year at UW, sign up on our Stay in Touch form and choose “gesture Program” as your topic of interest.
Questions?
gesture@uw.edu
Credits:
gesture