When Ashley Zingillioglu walked into the Mid-Atlantic Popular and American Culture Association (MAPACA) conference in 2024 as an undergraduate student at Monmouth University, she didn’t expect her presentation to spark a chain of events that would lead to wider recognition. Yet, just a year later, she stood on stage in Philadelphia accepting the Daniel Walden Prize—the well-regarded regional honor that celebrates outstanding student scholarship in popular culture studies. For Zingillioglu, the award was more than a personal achievement; it was a validation of a project that began as an undergraduate thesis and has since evolved into a mission to transform learning for students on the autism spectrum.
Her project, “Talking with Friends,” is an interactive social story designed to help middle school students with autism develop essential communication skills. Social stories, originally developed by Carol Gray, are short, structured narratives that teach learners how to navigate everyday social situations. Zingillioglu’s innovation is to usher this concept into the digital age—creating a dynamic, multimedia experience where students actively engage with choices and receive real-time feedback.
“I learned to see the importance of learner agency—how students often respond more strongly to educational tools that are dynamic and engaging,” she said. “Static narratives are simply not as motivating.”
The idea took root during her time at Monmouth, where Ashley majored in English with a concentration in creative writing and minored in computer science, general management, and communication sciences and disorders. While working in the university’s speech pathology labs, she noticed a glaring gap: digital learning tools for middle school students with autism were scarce. Determined to address this need, she pitched an independent research project to her advisor and began building a proof-of-concept. That prototype would later earn her invitations to present at regional and national conferences—and ultimately, the Walden Prize.
But her story didn’t stop there. In fact, the award marked the beginning of a new chapter at Penn GSE, where she enrolled in the Learning Sciences and Technologies (LST) program to take her work to the next level.
“I needed to be in a learning environment that would equip me with the knowledge, skills, and tools to turn my prototype into a fully scalable product,” she said. “Hence, I chose Penn GSE’s Learning Sciences and Technologies program because I wanted to join a community that approaches education through research, design, and innovation.”
Today, Zingillioglu is not only refining her prototype but also embedding it in a rigorous research framework. Courses like “Foundations of Teaching and Learning” have helped her analyze socio-communication challenges faced by students with autism, grounding her design in evidence-based theory. Upcoming classes in applied research and artificial intelligence promise to deepen her technical expertise and expand the possibilities for her project.
She envisions “Talking with Friends” evolving into an AI-supported platform, so it can adapt to individual learners’ needs in real time. To help grow those skills, Zingillioglu is starting a research assistantship in the spring with Yasmin Kafai, the Lori and Michael Milken President’s Distinguished Professor, which will include prototyping AI tools designed to support student learning. She will also begin work with Assistant Professor Seiji Isotani’s Artificial Intelligence in Education Lab (AIED), the first of its kind at Penn GSE.
Her entrepreneurial spirit has found fertile ground at Penn GSE, too. As founder and product lead of “Talking with Friends,” she is part of Venture Lab’s VIP Incubator Program, where she receives targeted feedback on customer discovery and market research. She’s also active in the Wharton Entrepreneurship Club and the People Analytics Conference team, gaining insights into human-centered design and early-stage venture building. These experiences, combined with Penn GSE’s interdisciplinary approach, are shaping her into a leader at the intersection of education, technology, and innovation.
Looking ahead, Zingillioglu plans to apply for the Wharton Innovation Fund and accelerator programs like Pennovation Works to finance development and bring her product into real classrooms. Long term, she hopes to work in educational technology or gaming, where she can continue to design tools that make learning more inclusive and engaging.
The work, she said, is deeply personal—and profoundly collaborative.
“This story is not just about what I have done,” she said, attributing her success to support from her middle and high school teachers in Ridgefield, New Jersey, her mentors at Monmouth, her community at Penn—from her LST classmates to her Venture Lab colleagues—and her family. “It is a story about the people and communities who believed in me and invested time in fueling my growth, which cumulatively made it possible for me to continue pursuing my passions at Penn.”
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