The Wisconsin Empathy Project Class Origin Story

For a recent university assignment, Emma Ly (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee) interviewed the founder of WEP, Jacqueline Stuhmiller. Her piece offers insight on the origins of our curriculum and current developments. Emma is also a student of the Spring 2026 WEP cohort. With her permission, we have shared her work. Thank you, Emma!

I chose to interview my Honors College professor, Jacqueline Stuhmiller. Although that is her full name, I will be referring to her as “Jas,” her nickname. Her home is Berkeley, California, but when she is in Milwaukee to teach, she stays in Whitefish Bay. She describes Milwaukee as an easy place to live, but it feels small compared to the San Francisco Bay Area–no surprise there!

Last semester, I took her Telling Tales class, and this semester, I am taking her Wisconsin Empathy Project class. The Wisconsin Empathy Project (WEP) is her own original course which she created during the 2020 elections when she noticed many people– especially students– develop a nihilistic view of the world. She compared these students to sponges. They seemed to absorb what they were hearing on the news, social media, their elders, and their peers, and they began to believe that the world was a terrible place.

Jas believes that the world is whatever we say it is. She stated that, “If we are hopeful, then the world is hopeful. If we see beauty, then the world is beautiful. If we are strong, then the world has strength. If we are helpless, then the world– what’s the point?” When she saw how hopeless her students were, she felt an incredible amount of love. She was determined to work with these young people and give them what she sees in the world: love and hope.

And so WEP was born. Jas teaches students to combat cynical or negative worldviews by extending our empathy for others. To extend our empathy for others doesn’t mean to “feel bad” or people; rather, it means to understand people that we may disagree with or have contempt for as generously as possible. When we are kind to people who may be unkind to us, chances are, they will also respond with kindness. When we learn how to be more empathetic towards others, it changes us and those we interact with, ultimately making the world a better place.

The first class she taught in 2021 didn’t want the work to end, so at the end of the semester, they created Artifacts of Us (AoU). It is a student organization that went all around Wisconsin, interviewing people from various different religions, educational, political, and cultural backgrounds in an effort to promote empathy within the larger Wisconsin community. They compiled these interviews and published them in both digital and physical mediums, and I am lucky enough to have received a physical copy!

When asked how she will continue to spread the mission of WEP, Jas stated that she and five former students of WEP and AoU are currently in the works of turning it into a non-profit and making it a course anyone across the campus could take. She also wants to further expand it to the entire UW System. Why? Because according to Jas, “Nursing, healthcare, teaching– I don’t care if you’re going into business. I don’t care if you’re just gonna be a person in the world.” She believes anyone and everyone should learn to extend their understanding and empathy to others if we want to make this world a better, more beautiful place.

This piece was written in February 2026.