The Enterprise Program at Michigan Tech, with its twenty-five year history of empowering students to bring their ideas to life through hands-on, team-based projects, has now expanded into the world of publishing, communication, and storytelling with the creation of Ink & Ore. This new Enterprise team, advised by Holly Hassel, professor of composition and director of the Composition Program and M. Bartley Seigel, associate professor of humanities and director of the Michigan Tech Writing Center is a unique opportunity for students. It is designed not only to enhance their communication skills but also to nurture their creativity and leadership, allowing them to play a significant role in shaping campus culture.
The inspiration for Ink & Ore grew from Michigan Tech’s launch of the new Essential Education program, which emphasizes skills such as reflection, contextual communication, and evaluation of information.
“Ink & Ore is grounded in the principle that students learn best by doing. As writers, editors, and collaborators, they play a central role in shaping publications that contribute meaningfully to Michigan Tech’s intellectual and cultural life. This team provides students with a chance to excel as innovative storytellers, editors, communicators, and project managers in a rapidly evolving media landscape.”
While Michigan Tech is widely recognized for its strength in the STEM fields, the creation of Ink & Ore offers students a unique opportunity to pair their technical expertise with communication skills that are increasingly vital in today’s workplace. “There is no reason that MTU cannot also be the place where our engineers, scientists, and computing professionals don’t also read, analyze, write, and think in creative and critical ways as communicators,” the advisors noted. By developing experiences in writing, editing, design, and publishing, the team addresses a gap in the Enterprise Program and creates a space for students across disciplines to practice essential skills that technology alone cannot replace.
Students who join Ink & Ore will be at the heart of producing and shaping major campus publications. The team will contribute to Paw Prints: The Michigan Tech Journal of First-Year Writing, the long-standing student newspaper The Lode, and a new literary magazine currently in development. Seigel, who has a particular passion for student publishing, expressed his excitement about advising the team: “This Enterprise offers students the rare opportunity to develop their voices as writers, editors, and communicators while also gaining practical, real-world experience in project management, design, and teamwork. The Lode, in particular, is Michigan Tech’s oldest registered student organization, founded in 1921, and it’s kind of thrilling to be a part of that tradition, to carry that forward, and to think about how to better support students as they create similar publications to enrich their experience of Michigan Tech’s unique intellectual and cultural life.”
For Hassel, advising Ink & Ore connects directly to her professional background in editing scholarly journals and collaborative writing projects. “The process of creating knowledge and working together with researchers and writers is, I think, the most energizing part of teaching writing. More than being a corrector or grader, I think that writing teachers are co-creators of knowledge—and that mentoring students to see themselves as authors who have voices, ideas, and knowledge is a path to the future in the era of Generative AI.” She sees Ink & Ore as a space where students can come to view themselves as active participants in knowledge-making, while also helping others across campus to recognize their own potential as writers.
The benefits of joining Ink & Ore extend beyond the publications themselves. By taking on responsibilities such as editing, design, project management, and outreach, students will gain hands-on experience that directly translates into career readiness. As the advisors emphasized, the professional world is increasingly automating routine tasks, but ‘this leaves those dimensions of the employment landscape that only human thinkers and writers can do—assess a communication situation, anticipate readers and listeners’ needs, respond thoughtfully and empathetically to problems.’ Through Ink & Ore, students learn how to take ideas from draft to finished piece, work side by side with teammates, and share their voices with the community. Along the way, they gain the confidence and skills that make a difference in any career path.
This new Enterprise also holds significance for Michigan Tech as a whole. By strengthening student voices and fostering a publishing culture, Ink & Ore makes campus life richer and reminds everyone that Michigan Tech is a place where technical know-how and creative expression belong together. Hassel believes this is an opportunity to make Tech “a destination for developing students with superior technical skills as well as superior communication and rhetorical skills.” In doing so, the team not only prepares graduates for success in a rapidly changing workplace but also enriches campus culture by creating spaces for dialogue, creativity, and reflection.
Looking ahead, the advisors are eager to see how the team will evolve under student leadership. Seigel put it simply: “Almost all of our initial ideas, from the name on down, we came up with those. But once we put this into the hands of students, oh, the places it might go!” Hassel echoed this excitement, noting that the foundation for this team is already in place through existing publications and student leaders ready to take charge. Together, they see Ink & Ore growing into a fully established, student-led publishing enterprise with a reputation for excellence, innovation, and impact across campus and beyond.
Ink & Ore is more than just a new team—it’s a statement that communication, creativity, and human-centered expertise are essential complements to technical skill. For Michigan Tech students, it is an invitation to step into the role of writer, editor, and communicator, to contribute to the university’s cultural life, and to graduate with experiences that set them apart in any career path.
“This collaborative effort will, we hope, create a culture of intellectual and creative exchange on campus.”
For more information about how to get involved with Ink & Ore, please contact the Enterprise Program by emailing enterprise@mtu.edu.
About the Enterprise Program
Michigan Tech’s Enterprise Program offers students a unique, hands-on learning experience that goes beyond the classroom. With more than 25+ Enterprise teams spanning disciplines such as engineering, business, computing, and science, students collaborate on real-world projects sponsored by industry and government partners. Enterprise students develop technical expertise, leadership skills, and teamwork experience—preparing them for success in their careers. Many teams work on cutting-edge innovations, from automotive and aerospace to sustainability and emerging technologies.
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