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“H

ow could this be an opportunity for good?” asks Zac Schnell. He’s referring to the potential inherent in a smaller college. Just like the one he was appointed to run in January 2025; Pamlico Community College.

A small college, while not bursting with funding, can bear the risk of exploration, he explains. It can explore new education models, new technologies, and new programs in ways the bureaucracy a larger institution is unlikely to allow.

Pamlico Community College President Zac Schnell in his office.

Zac is exuberant, his enthusiasm infecting his speech, crafting phrases that might feel disingenuous coming from most others: “a lot of things are a learning opportunity” and “something that helps bring you joy” and “at the end of the day, most people are good.”

Zac Schnell is not just happy; he is jolly, joyful, and excited about the possibilities.

Hired as an instructor for environmental science in 2016, Zac established himself at PCC as a genial and forward-thinking educator. He uses magic tricks to keep his students’ attention. He is intrigued by AI, but does not have a social media presence. And he encourages his students to intentionally put down their phones and just exist for an hour without the distraction. Students return to thank him for that last one.

Zac points to map of Romblon Island in the Philippines where he spent his time in the Peace Corps.

Zac was hired the same year as then president Jim Ross, who served until 2024. When Ross stepped down, Michelle Krauss was named interim president. After her unexpected passing, Zac was appointed President of Pamlico Community College in 2025.

He was 36, the youngest Community College President in the country, and ready to explore the possibilities afforded by the opportunity.

Zac describes growing up in Wilmington, NC as part of a tight knit-family focused on community engagement. In his twenties he served in the Peace Corps. Those experiences have led him to want the college be more integrated with the community.

He had also began sowing seeds amongst his colleagues about AI, Artificial Intelligence, and what it could mean for education and the community, banking on a future where AI was accessible to everyone.

Zac’s office is decorated with remidners of his travels and interests.

However, Zac knew he could not do it alone. He needed the buy-in from his staff to help direct the next chapter at PCC.

“Putting community back in community college”

Zac asked for the goals and ideas they wanted the college to pursue. “I asked everybody to vote as to what we all find the most important for the top three,” he said. “Willingness to change was on there.”

Staff weren’t the only ones interested in a new path forward. Zac, as all new presidents are, was expected to introduce himself to the State Board of Education. During the few minutes he spent talking about himself and his goals, he told the Board that the educational system was in need of an upgrade.

“We need to start looking at new models of how we can do things and we need to start utilizing some of the technology aspects that we do not currently have to help make these improvements.” Zac spoke facing the Board, unable to see the audience of educators behind. Later on, a board member let him know that many, across a range of ages and experience, had been nodding in agreement.

Zac Schnell still teaches two classes in addition to his duties as President.

And so Zac and his staff have been slowly phasing in committees to drive the college’s community outreach and curriculums to incorporate AI into their courses and work development programs.

They want to move “from that old model of just sitting and listening to more of arriving and doing.” He gives the example of students creating a product, not just as an educational thought experiment, but actually building a sample product. “They can then take that to whomever and show, ‘look what I have done.’”

Zac proposes using students to help out local businesses. For example, if a local business asks for assistance for some part of their business, Zac proposes sending a group of students to help out. “Those students will learn way more by doing that and interacting with people and getting that ‘real-world experience.’” Applying learning strategies in an environment with an existing safety net – their courses and instructors at the college – students learn how to problem-solve and operate beyond the classroom with confidence.

Zac Schnell observing OSHA students during a communications exercise.

The end goal is for Pamlico Community College to help everyone in Pamlico County – “to put the community back in community college.”

“It’s more about what skills you have, what can you actually do to help your community, your business, your friends, whatever. And what can you do that helps find purpose for you. Ideally something that helps bring you joy.”

Zac is laying the groundwork to create a department within the college focused on community development. On his wishlist of offerings: a home for the non-profits of Pamlico County to gather and share ideas. “If you have those groups of people in close contact, working with each other and doing those things, imagine what it could become.”

Your AI Coworker

Already using AI tools to streamline his own professional life, Zac encouraged his staff to explore its uses in their classrooms. It came as no surprise to those around him, Zac said, “‘cause I’ve been beating that drum since 2022.”

The inaugural AI Fest, April 16, introduced AI systems to students, residents, and local business owners.

Zac says he’s not trying to scrap the old models of education. Rather, he wants to bring them along as the world adapts to living, working, and learning with AI.

He agrees with North Carolina’s move to reduce students’ screen time in the classroom and a return to books. But he believes students should also be prepared to use AI tools in their work place, whether it’s in office, the field, or working in the trades.

“I’m not saying you have to change your life or anything, I’m just trying to inform you that these systems aren’t going away. Hence why we need to be aware about them, at a bare minimum.”

To that end, Pamlico Community College held its first AI Fest: two days geared toward introducing AI tools and their uses to high school students (day one) and to the community and small business owners (day two).

The Panel Discussion at AI Fest. Zac Schnell moderates. Instructors Ed King and Nikki Coutouzis with Katie Shorter of the Small Business Center.

The event featured three tracks: one for educators and administrators, one for small business owners, and one for general community interests. Each track offered three different hour-long seminars ranging from how to use AI as a coworker, to real-time AI demonstrations, to AI in the garden.

Participants heard from educators already using AI in their own professional workflows and as part of their daily lives. Their responses were overwhelmingly positive, some to the point of being dismissive of AI related anxiety.

Panel member Ed King, instructor of horticulture at PCC, took a different tone. “I love AI,” he said, “but as I told my group earlier, at the speed that AI is moving, we really need some roadblocks.” King said legislation was necessary, “so we can use it for certain things – I’ll say good versus evil.”

Discussions on ethical use of AI were spare, though some instructors included lists on how not to use AI in their presentations.

From the workshop session AI as a Colleague, acceptable ways to use AI.

This June, PCC launches their AI Basics course. Zac has included a section titled AI for Work, Ethics & Responsible Use. “There’s an entire section that’s just about ethics and responsibility use cases for it.”

Zac’s own use of AI, he says, is to take notes, summarize his schedule, and help organize his course curriculums. (Unlike most other college presidents, Zac still teaches a few classes.)

But he also has it create songs when demonstrating its use in front of audiences, as he did at an Oriental Rotary meeting in February.

This writer has pushed back in conversations with Zac on using AI for creative functions – writing, film, photography, music, art. Zac’s response is AI is a tool. The creativity, he says, comes in how it is used.

Zac does allow that AI should not be used for the bulk of a creative work.

Zac Schnell speaks to Rotary Club Members about AI Fest.

Zac says he hopes for a future “where we use these systems to help free up time so we can do more of what we want to do, rather than give ourselves more work.”

As far as Zac can tell, Pamlico Community College is at the forefront of AI education (outside use in specific fields) in North Carolina. The summer AI Basics course is being released as part of the continuing education department, meaning there is no earned credit for the course. That’s because the State educational system does not currently have an AI centric curriculum in place. Zac and his instructors are creating those courses, attempting to fill the gap.

With the tools AI provides, Zac says the students and the community will have “the same access that someone in, say in a major city school system has access to now, with these AI systems. This can literally help level the playing field if you’re willing to utilize and learn it.”

The young community college president has carved out an ambitious set of goals for Pamlico Community College including reintegrating the college with community businesses and introducing AI to everyone in Pamlico County. Much of it, he acknowledges, must be phased in, taking time and innovation to achieve.

Zac Schnell.

At the end of the day, Zac wants to help provide opportunity for students, for business owners, for all of the community. It’s up to each person what parts of that opportunity they choose to explore and accept.

“Everybody is responsible for their own choice,” says Zac. “In this case, it’s the same thing with the use case of AI. It is up to each individual person.”

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Story & photos by Allison DeWeese.

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Posted Monday April 27, 2026 by Allison DeWeese