Meet Our Graduates: The Graduate School

The College of Charleston continues to attract graduate students whose work spans a wide range of disciplines, from public history to emerging areas of technology and applied research. At the College of Charleston Graduate School, students work closely with faculty and community partners to turn ideas and research into real-world impact. 

This year, we highlight three graduate students whose experiences reflect the breadth of graduate study at the College and the range of paths it can support. 

What CofC Graduate School Graduates are Doing Next

Through graduate-level study, Kayla Blanchard (M.A. ’26) explored the intersection of archival preservation and public storytelling. Her graduate work centered on making history more accessible, visible and usable beyond the archive. 

“My time at CofC has prepared me for my next step by helping me grow into both a stronger researcher and a more confident public historian,” she says. 

Throughout the program, she focused on public history, archival research and digital humanities, which uses digital tools to preserve, analyze and share historical and cultural materials. 

Blanchard worked closely with the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture, contributing to archival processing and digitization efforts aimed at expanding access to historically significant collections. Through this work, she helped prepare materials for both research and public use, supporting broader efforts to preserve and share African American history in the Lowcountry. 

“My work at the Avery Research Center and in digital humanities has given me hands-on experience with archives, metadata and making history more accessible to the public,” she says. 

Her work consistently brought academic research into conversation with community engagement, particularly through projects rooted in Lowcountry history, including a digital history exhibit on the 1893 Sea Islands Hurricane and recovery efforts. She also processed additional archival collections for the Lowcountry Digital Library, extending access to historical materials across digital platforms. 

Beyond her archival and digital work, she helped plan and execute a public history forum in collaboration with The Post and Courier and the Jewish Studies Center.  

During her time at the College of Charleston, she received multiple competitive fellowships, including the Karen Chambers Fellowship from the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture, the Wayne Patterson Fellowship from the Graduate School, a Principal’s Fellowship and the Humanities and Social Sciences Student Research and Travel Award. 

Blanchard has accepted a position as the lead archivist and program manager at an international cultural organization.

She says, “Altogether, my experiences at the College have given me the skills and confidence to continue working in public history and archival spaces.” 

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More than a decade after graduating as part of the inaugural Computing in the Arts class, Matt Cruse ’12 (EMBA ’26) returned to the College of Charleston to join the first Executive MBA cohort. 

Today, Cruse serves as manager of unified operations at Blackbaud. While his career ultimately took him into IT operations leadership, he traces much of his professional foundation back to his undergraduate experience. 

“That degree was a great marriage of a few paths in my life that finally converged,” he says. “When I arrived at the College, I worked in the theatre program, mostly in set design and construction, but I’d always loved computers and technology, too. Computing in the Arts sat right at that intersection of design and technical work, which I found compelling.” 

The combination of technical knowledge and creative problem-solving he developed through his undergraduate program served him well. As his responsibilities grew, he recognized an opportunity to strengthen his understanding of business strategy, finance and organizational leadership. 

Initially, Cruse struggled to find an MBA program that was the right fit until he came across a LinkedIn post from Seaton Brown ’09, executive director of graduate admissions and marketing, announcing the College’s new EMBA program.  

“An 18-month, cohort-based, hybrid program checked almost every box I had,” he says. “There was a personal layer to it, too. I’d known Seaton since my first week on campus as an undergraduate when he was a student worker. I also loved the idea of returning to my alma mater for a second inaugural degree.” 

For Cruse, one of the most meaningful aspects of the program was the cohort experience. 

“Learning as an adult alongside cohort-mates who were all working professionals was unlike anything I’d encountered before, with real mutual respect and, more than that, a sense of co-creation as peers,” he says. “That’s not something you can replicate any other way.” 

Cruse, who received both the Excellence in Experiential Learning Award and the Outstanding Student Award during his time in the program, also credits the faculty with shaping his experience. “I learned an enormous amount from all of them, professionally and personally,” he says. 

He plans to continue in his current role, applying lessons from the classroom to operational leadership and organizational transformation. The program broadened his perspective and strengthened his ability to communicate across business contexts and engage with different areas of the organization. 

“I firmly believe that several of the opportunities I’ve been lucky enough to have over the last six to nine months are a direct result of pursuing this degree,” he says. 

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For Kirk Truax (M.S. ’26), a career focused on data and automation began with a simple observation: When systems work better, people can focus on what matters most. 

Before pursuing graduate study at the College of Charleston, Truax served eight years in the Navy as a surface warfare officer and later a radiation health officer. In both roles, he managed data-intensive administrative systems where efficiency directly affected day-to-day operations. 

“As a surface warfare officer, the better I got at admin, the more sleep my team and I could get,” he says. “That naturally pushed me toward automation.” 

By the time he completed his military service, Truax had developed what he describes as “a strange but genuine passion for making government systems more efficient.” That interest ultimately led him to the College of Charleston, where he focused on software engineering, data systems and artificial intelligence. 

“I decided to pursue my master’s to improve my chances of building a career around the kind of work I enjoy most: data and automation,” he says. “CofC was the clear choice.” 

One of the defining experiences of his time at the College was discovering the Model Context Protocol (MCP) shortly after its release. Often described as the USB-C for AI systems, MCP provides a standardized way for large language models to connect with external software and data sources. Truax built much of his 2025 graduate work around the technology, leading a first-place win at HarborHack, Charleston’s annual technology and innovation competition. 

“CofC helped me turn curiosity into practical work,” he says. “It gave me the space to explore new ideas, build real systems and grow into the next stage of my career.” 

During his time at the College, Truax was awarded a Principal’s Fellowship, though he chose to use military education benefits through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. 

Post-graduation, he continues his work as a senior full stack developer with Ignite Digital Services, where he builds AI and machine learning systems. Through his graduate studies, Truax deepened his knowledge of data systems, automation and emerging AI technologies, strengthening a career focused on solving real-world challenges through technology. 

Graduate Study Leads to Real-World Impact 

As these graduates move into the next phase of their careers, their experiences reflect the range of opportunities available through graduate study at the College of Charleston. Each student demonstrates how advanced study can be applied in meaningful, real-world contexts. 

Through close work with faculty, hands-on learning and engagement with professional communities, the Graduate School continues to support students in turning academic inquiries into practical impact across disciplines.