HWS AI Club: Frequently Asked Questions
Everything students ask before their first meeting — what the club is, what it costs, what you need to bring, and what the use-case library actually contains.
Questions and answers
What is the HWS AI Club?
HWS AI Club is a student-run organization at Hobart and William Smith Colleges that helps students of every major learn to use AI tools well, with hands-on workshops and a library of 840 AI use cases across all 42 majors.
Do I need coding experience to join?
No. The club is beginner-friendly and requires no coding or prior AI experience — just curiosity.
When and where does the HWS AI Club meet?
The club meets Every Sunday, 5-6 PM · Sanford Room at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. All majors and class years are welcome.
Is the HWS AI Club free to join?
Yes. The club is completely free, with no application required — just show up to a meeting.
What majors can join the HWS AI Club?
All 42 majors offered at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. The club's use-case library has 20 AI use cases tailored to each individual major.
Do I need a laptop or special software to join?
No special software — just a free account with a tool like ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini. Bringing a laptop helps, but it isn't required.
How do I join the HWS AI Club?
Join through the club's free Skool community at https://www.skool.com/hws-ai-club-7506. It is open to every HWS student for classroom material, discussion, and the events calendar; you can also come to a weekly meeting with no application.
Who runs the HWS AI Club?
The club was co-founded in August 2025 by Dominic Schimizzi and Zackary Hanna, and is run by a student officer team. It is a registered student organisation at Hobart and William Smith Colleges and is open to all students regardless of major or class year.
Do I have to come every week?
No. Meetings are drop-in — come to the ones that look useful and skip the rest. Nothing in the use-case library depends on having attended anything.
Is the use-case library only for HWS students?
The 840 use cases are written around the 42 majors offered at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, so the examples and terminology are specific to those programmes. Anyone can read and use them, but a student in a similarly-named major elsewhere will get more out of them than someone in a field HWS does not offer.
What is the difference between the Easy, Medium, and Hard ratings?
Easy means you can do it right now in one prompt with no setup — 420 of the 840 are rated this way. Medium means the output needs checking against your course material before you rely on it (252). Hard means it is project-scale work you should review with a professor or TA before it goes anywhere graded (168).
Does the club teach you to code?
Not primarily. The focus is on using AI tools well, which for most majors involves no code at all. Computer Science and the other quantitative majors do have code-specific use cases, but they are a minority of the library.
Still deciding?
Browse AI use cases for your major · Read about AI and coursework at HWS · Join the club