Max Leisten:
Welcome, everyone. I’m Max Leisten, and thank you for joining our webinar, Connecting Seamlessly: Inclusive Career Networking at Western Governors University. I’m thrilled to be joined by Robert and Michelle from WGU.

Before we dive in, a couple of housekeeping notes: Please introduce yourself in the chat—we’re all about community here. Feel free to ask questions during the session; we’ll address them at the end. If we don’t get to yours, we’ll follow up afterward. And yes, we are recording this and will share it within about 48 hours.

A quick word about Protopia: We started the company seven years ago with a simple question—why isn’t it easier for students and alumni to connect? Whether it’s advice about classes, careers, or just how to get started, those conversations should be simple. Your alma mater is the largest community you’ll ever belong to, and it should be easy to access that support.

Protopia was built to make networking and micro-mentoring simple and inclusive. We work with institutions of all sizes—10,000 alumni or 600,000+—to foster community-driven advice sharing. And we do it without adding another app. Instead, we use AI to match students’ questions to alumni who might be able to help. Those alumni are gently invited to respond, and if they’re interested, we make the connection easy and human.

We’re thrilled to be working with WGU, who launched with us last fall. Today, we’re excited to share their story. Robert, Michelle—thank you for being here.

Robert Sullivan:
Thanks for having us.

Max Leisten:
Let’s start with introductions.

Michelle Stepp:
I’m Michelle Stepp, Regional Alumni Network Manager at WGU, based in Nashville. I manage the Southeast region—from Tennessee to Florida and Mississippi to the Carolinas.

Robert Sullivan:
And I’m Robert Sullivan, based in Salt Lake City. I oversee alumni relations for WGU. As Michelle said, we have a regional team in place, and we also work from our home office. Michelle brings over 20 years of alumni relations experience, and I have about a decade. We’ve only had our team in place for just over a year.

Max Leisten:
For those who don’t know, Robert, tell us more about WGU.

Robert Sullivan:
WGU is the largest enrolled university in the U.S., with nearly 200,000 students. We were founded in the late ’90s by a group of governors—hence “Western Governors University.” We’re nonprofit, entirely online, and based on a competency model. We currently have more than 375,000 alumni and graduate students every day. We also host commencement ceremonies in seven cities across the country each year.

Our focus is helping students succeed in their careers while empowering alumni to give back and support the next generation.

Max Leisten:
Let’s talk about the problem you were trying to solve when you discovered Protopia.

Michelle Stepp:
I first heard about Protopia through webinars hosted by Chris Marshall, where they were a regular sponsor. I’d seen them several times and also knew Protopia had worked with WGU Labs. The problem we faced was scale—how do we deliver mentoring at scale with a small team and a huge alumni and student population?

We were looking for something that could run in the background, something automated that didn’t require a lot of headcount. Protopia was exactly what we needed, exactly when we needed it.

Robert Sullivan:
Absolutely. Anyone in this field has probably tried everything—from hand-matching in spreadsheets to third-party platforms requiring profiles and logins. None of that works at the scale we needed. We’re graduating around 5,000 students a month. That’s a lot of people looking for guidance. We knew traditional approaches couldn’t meet the demand.

Max Leisten:
You both mentioned trying everything. So what stood out about Protopia?

Michelle Stepp:
For me, it was the simplicity. A full mentoring relationship can be intimidating—for both the alum and the student. Protopia removes all that friction. You can answer just one question. That’s it. If you want to keep the conversation going, great. If not, you’ve still made a meaningful contribution. It puts the alum in the driver’s seat. They can decide how much they want to engage, without pressure.

Robert Sullivan:
The use of AI also stood out. WGU has always been an innovative place. We were founded on the idea of using the Internet to deliver education. So when we heard about using AI to power mentoring and connections—it made perfect sense.

Max Leisten:
Let’s talk about internal buy-in. How did you sell this idea?

Michelle Stepp:
I brought it to Robert and said, “We’ve got to do this.”

Robert Sullivan:
And we did. It was an easy decision. Even before we knew how well it would work, we saw that the setup was low-lift. The Protopia team handled most of the logistics. That made the internal pitch easier—we could test it without a major investment of time or resources. Once we did a soft launch, the results were immediate. Stakeholders saw the value right away and wanted to expand.

Max Leisten:
Were there concerns during the launch?

Robert Sullivan:
Yes—mainly data security and communication fatigue. We already contact alumni often, so we were cautious about over-communication. But those concerns were quickly resolved with Protopia’s support.

Max Leisten:
Tell me more about how you brought in campus partners.

Robert Sullivan:
We started small, working with advisors and our career services team to promote the platform to students. Since engagement is driven by student questions, we needed to ensure awareness among that group. As results came in, we were able to share them across the university—including in a town hall with all 9,000 employees. That sparked even more interest.

Max Leisten:
Michelle, how did alumni and students respond?

Michelle Stepp:
The feedback has been incredible. Alumni say it just feels good to help. Students and prospective students have been equally enthusiastic. And we’ve even had staff, like program mentors, use the platform to ask alumni for advice they can pass on.

The matches have been so precise. We’ve seen requests like “I want to speak with someone at JPMorgan in this state,” and Protopia delivers. That kind of targeting would take our team hours—if not days.

Max Leisten:
What about leadership?

Robert Sullivan:
They were impressed early. One of our first matches came from an Amazon employee who used internal lingo—something we wouldn’t have understood. Within a day, five alumni from Amazon responded using the same language. That really showcased the power of relevant, authentic connections and got leadership excited about scaling it.

Max Leisten:
How are you measuring success?

Robert Sullivan:
We track two key metrics: questions asked and responses given. Right now, we’re averaging about four questions and six responses per day. It might sound small, but when you think about that level of meaningful alumni engagement happening daily, it’s huge. Our goal is to double or triple that over the next year.

Michelle Stepp:
We’re also seeing a lot of profile updates and employment data—really valuable for our advancement and employer engagement teams. And when we see a particularly helpful response, we often invite that alum to speak on a webinar or get involved in other ways.

Max Leisten:
How does this support fundraising?

Robert Sullivan:
We’re in the process of activating that now. When a donor engages through Protopia, our advancement team gets notified. It’s a great time to follow up while they’re already feeling positive about the institution. We’re also working on integrating this into other departments—like enrollment and career services—based on who’s engaging and how.

Michelle Stepp:
We’ve had prospective students reach out with questions and receive incredibly detailed responses. That has a huge impact on their decision-making. One student told us he couldn’t believe an alum took the time to share so much about their journey—and that sealed the deal for his enrollment.

Max Leisten:
How much work is this for your team?

Robert Sullivan:
Honestly, very little. The setup required a bit of coordination with IT and our data team, but after that, it’s minimal. We review the questions and responses to ensure quality, but it’s totally manageable with our existing staff—even with over 400,000 alumni.

Michelle Stepp:
And reviewing those interactions gives us valuable insights—like trending topics or needs we can address with new resources or webinars. It’s been an unexpected bonus.

Max Leisten:
What advice would you give someone considering Protopia?

Michelle Stepp:
Do it yesterday. It’s such a light lift, and the impact is immediate. I managed it at the beginning, and it was simple. You just have to make space for it—and you won’t regret it.

Robert Sullivan:
Agreed. I’ve recommended Protopia to many peers. The return on investment—both in time and dollars—is incredibly high. You see results right away. The key is making sure you also invest in promoting it to students, since their questions drive the engagement.

Max Leisten:
How did you handle concerns about data quality?

Robert Sullivan:
Our data isn’t perfect—we’re a new department, and our records are still being cleaned. But Protopia worked with what we had and made it work. Even with incomplete or outdated data, we’ve seen amazing results.

Michelle Stepp:
Alumni are even asking how they can opt in to answer questions. We’re building a group of super volunteers who want to help even more actively.

Max Leisten:
People really do want to help—if you make it easy. Final question: what surprised you the most?

Michelle Stepp:
The depth of alumni responses. Some of them write full, step-by-step plans. They offer phone numbers, LinkedIn profiles, even to meet over Teams. It’s beyond anything I expected.

Robert Sullivan:
For me, it’s the precision. I tried building matching algorithms years ago, and even with small groups, it was hard. Protopia does it instantly and at scale. That level of personalization, powered by AI, is still mind-blowing.

Max Leisten:
Thank you both. I never get tired of seeing these human connections unfold. It’s why we built Protopia—to make it easier to give and get help. Thank you for being great partners and for sharing your story.

Michelle Stepp:
Thanks for having us. I’ll talk about Protopia anytime—it continues to blow me away.

Max Leisten:
Thanks to everyone who joined. We’ll share the recording, and if you’d like to open up your own community to these kinds of interactions, we’d love to talk. Your alumni want to help. Your students need support. Protopia makes it simple, scalable, and human.

Take care, and see you next time.