The 2024 Experiential Education Day (ExEd Day) at Marietta highlighted the outstanding work and real-world experiences of current students, who presented their summer internships, capstone projects, and education abroad experiences. The event, held throughout campus, was a vibrant celebration of academic and professional growth, where students showcased how their classroom learning has been enriched by hands-on work in their respective fields.
The event also attracted a special group of guests: local high school guidance counselors. The Office of Admission invited the counselors to attend the poster presentations, offering them a firsthand look at the caliber of work that Marietta students are doing and the robust support systems available to them throughout their academic journeys.
Alayna Francis ’26 (Irwin, Pennsylvania) focused her presentation on tennis legend Billie Jean King and her transformative impact on women’s sports. Francis's poster explored how King redefined leadership and paved the way for future generations of female athletes.
“She was able to transform women's leadership. So my abstract is Billie Jean King helped to engineer a path forward for women in sports using the transformational aspect of gender and leadership,” Francis said. “She allows for more representation, diversity, inclusion, and leadership roles for future athletes. Part of the way that she was able to help with these roles for future athletes was she founded the Women’s Tennis Association, which provided a new avenue for female tennis players to play professionally and keep doing what they want to do. And then she was also the first female commissioner, and through that, she was able to break through the glass ceiling by becoming the first female commissioner of a professional sport. So that was pretty big for her and her sport of tennis and for sports everywhere.”
In addition to her advocacy for equal pay in tennis, King’s legacy was cemented by her activism and advocacy for gender equality.
“While she was getting ready for her match against Bobby Riggs, she was also fighting for equal pay,” Francis said. “By threatening to boycott the 1973 U.S. Open unless they adopted equal pay for men and women, it became the first major tennis Grand Slam to have equal pay.”
Andrew Walsh ’27 (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), a Finance and Economics double-major with a minor in Leadership Studies, posed the question, “What makes Lionel Messi a Legendary Leader?” in his presentation.
“I applied his leadership to the Skills Approach we learned about,” Walsh says. “His leadership style is a little more unique because he's not very vocal He more so leads by his actions. So when you look at his Skills Approach, there are three key skills: technical, human and conceptual.”
McKenna Barks ’27 (Zanesville, Ohio), an Applied Biochemistry major with a minor in Leadership Studies, took a unique approach by integrating her passion for emergency medicine with leadership theory.
“I work in emergency medicine as a tech, so I incorporated the Team Leadership model into emergency medicine,” she said. “More than 50 percent of the adverse effects in the acute care setting are due to leadership problems.”
Barks used the Hill Model of Leadership to explore the roles of various leaders in an emergency setting. She demonstrated how leadership is distributed among experts in different fields—such as respiratory care and surgery—who step into leadership roles as needed.
“This also includes external leadership—your management, your EMS teams, and others—and internal leadership—how you facilitate a trauma bay, how you take a patient to surgery, how you can communicate and more,” Barks said.
Barks aims to pursue a career as a Physician Assistant or in hospital administration, and her presentation was an insightful exploration of how leadership frameworks can improve patient outcomes in high-pressure environments.
Matthew McAra ’27 (Clarksburg, West Virginia), who is majoring in Computer Science with minors in Leadership Studies and History, also offered a compelling presentation that combined his academic passions. McAra’s poster focused on the 34th U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower and how his leadership during World War II exemplifies authentic leadership.
“My presentation goes through his start of his military career all the way up to when he was Supreme Commander of Allied forces,” McAra said. "It goes through how he embodies that authentic leadership by working well with followers, keeping his ego in check, and inspiring others.”
McAra, who was initially interested in majoring in History, said the study of Eisenhower and World War II sparked his initial interest in the field.
“It was Eisenhower and World War II that got me into history, so this is an homage to what made me interested in history,” he said.
ExEd Day not only provided a platform for students to showcase their academic and professional accomplishments but also highlighted how Marietta fosters a learning environment that integrates theory and practice. By inviting local high school guidance counselors to witness the students’ achievements, the College aimed to demonstrate the rigorous academic and experiential opportunities available at MC.
The event underscored Marietta’s commitment to experiential education, offering students opportunities to engage with real-world challenges and prepare for successful careers in diverse fields — and for those experiences to be celebrated on campus so peers, as well as faculty and staff, can learn from them as well. It also reaffirmed the College's reputation as a nurturing academic community that empowers students to make a lasting impact on their respective disciplines.