Stories & Updates

Before she ever joined Horn full-time, Sophia Cressman already felt right at home in the Venture Development Center as a Siegfried Fellow, a Delaware Innovation Fellow, and one of those friendly faces you just expect to see around the VDC. Now, as Program Coordinator for the Siegfried Fellows and the UD Coalition on Character Development, Sophia helps students grow as leaders through mentorship, meaningful conversations, and days that are anything but routine. If you’ve walked into the VDC lately, there’s a good chance you’ve been welcomed by Sophia from her front-corner office. Keep reading to learn what fuels her work, what she’s up to when she’s off the clock (spoiler: live music + beach days), and a fun fact you definitely won’t see coming.

This October, The Siegfried Group, LLP (Siegfried) and Horn Entrepreneurship at the University of Delaware (UD) honored Geoff Woods, author of #1 international bestseller The AI-Driven Leader and Founder of AI Leadership, with the 2025 Siegfried Award for Entrepreneurial Leadership. In a private dinner and award ceremony at Wilmington Country Club, Woods was celebrated for his groundbreaking approach to leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) as a thought partner and commitment to getting in the driver’s seat in a rapidly evolving digital landscape – learning and wielding the emerging technology to spark exponential progress.

What happens when an improv mindset meets real-world leadership? For the first EntreX Impact Talk, Leadership Delaware CEO Mike Eppehimer showed our students and educators how a simple phrase—“yes, and”—can transform teams, careers and communities.

The University of Delaware proudly welcomes the 2025–2026 Siegfried Fellows—the program’s largest and most diverse cohort since its inception five years ago. Drawn from across UD’s colleges and disciplines, these emerging leaders will spend the next ten months refining their capacity to Lead Change. Be Nimble. Cultivate Character.

The University of Delaware has been awarded a $699,258 Institutional Impact Grant from the Educating Character Initiative (ECI), part of the Program for Leadership and Character at Wake Forest University to launch a three-year, university-wide initiative focused on character development. The project, University of Delaware Coalition on Character Development: Advancing Flagship State Institutional Leadership, will create a strategic plan to align and elevate character development efforts across academic and co-curricular settings.

This academic year, the University of Delaware (UD) has taken bold steps toward coordinating character development across its undergraduate experience. With generous support from the Educating Character Initiative at Wake Forest University, UD was awarded a 12-month Capacity-Building Grant to conduct an institutional consensus of its leadership and character education efforts. The initiative is being led by Johann Ducharme, Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship and Faculty Director of the Siegfried Fellows, in collaboration with cross-campus leaders in Athletics, Student Life, and the Honors College.

The following events, funded by the ECI grant, stood out as milestones for this work—both capturing the energy, curiosity, and commitment of UD's faculty, staff, and students.

This semester, the Siegfried Fellows program brought two extraordinary leaders to campus: Vera Leung, Content and Creative Senior Director at the International Rescue Committee, and Jim Clifton, Chairman of Gallup. Both engagements offered transformative perspectives on leadership, creativity, and decision-making, leaving a lasting impact on students and faculty alike.

The 2025 UD Convening on Character Development brought together faculty, staff, administrators, and students from across the University of Delaware (UD) to engage in a meaningful and practical conversation on integrating character development into undergraduate education during a day-long conference held in the Audion on February 7.

The University of Delaware is set to host the inaugural UD Convening on Character Development on Friday, February 7, 2025, from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM at the Audion at STAR. This event aims to unite key campus stakeholders—including faculty, staff, administration, and student leaders—to advance initiatives focused on undergraduate character development. Registration is requested. Visit the event webpage for information on registration and agenda.