FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – Fresno State students got a taste of the professional world Thursday. The university hosted TASTE 2025: a mentorship event connecting students with industry professionals. TASTE stands for Take a Student to Lunch, and it focuses on those in communication fields.  This year, 81 mentors paired with 81 students to give them professional advice and encouragement. Fresno State Junior Isabella Cawley connected with Central Unified School District Public Information Officer Johnathon Burrows. Members of KSEE24/CBS47 even got to mentor a few students. Burrows says the goal is to give them “the opportunity to interact with us, us build that relationship and tell them about the work that we do, just so that they get another picture of folks who are working in communications in the Central Valley.” The event was not only for the students’ benefit. AI Strategist Tori Terhune game a presentation on harnessing AI in the professional world. She says it can help to write better emails, do more thorough research and speed up daily tasks. However, she says you will only get out of AI what you put in. “The more you treat AI like a human, the more human responses you're going to get,” Terhune said. She says people shouldn’t treat software like ChatGPT as the end-all be-all of knowledge. Instead, she says people should depend on AI as they would a squirrel. “A lot of people are really afraid that AI is going to come in like take your job or make you, you know, obsolete. But instead, what I really encourage people to think about AI as just a tool,” Terhune said. She says nothing beats human ability, but she thinks human ability will only increase through harnessing AI. “I think she's right. Like, this technology, this stuff is never going to go away. So it will only benefit us if we learn about it and can tailor it to use it better for us,” Cawley said. ...read more read less