When people first meet Lilly deWildt ’27, they sometimes find her a bit reserved. After a while, though, she says people are sometimes surprised how driven she can be. 


“Even though people may not expect that from me when they first meet me, I definitely am someone that will put my head down and just get everything done,” deWildt remarks. That’s certainly true of her Syracuse education. She is in the Whitman Class of 2027 majoring in entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises at the Whitman School of Management, and is heading to Syracuse University College of Law in the fall as part of the accelerated 3+3 Whitman/Law program. 


“What brought me to Syracuse is definitely the program that I’m in right now,” deWildt says, “the ability to get undergrad and law school done in six years instead of seven.”  


deWildt established her interest in a legal career early on in life, through a mock trial competition in middle school. She aims to practice corporate law and appreciates how the entrepreneurship major has given her a holistic view of the creative side of business. She arrived on campus in the fall of 2024, already with transferrable credits under her belt from college classes she took during high school.  

Tangible outcomes 

deWildt’s favorite classes in the Whitman School have been with Assistant Teaching Professor Elizabeth Wimer. “I’ve taken five of her classes now, so I’ve had her every single semester since I’ve been on campus,” says deWildt. “I feel like she’s just really pushed me to, obviously go outside my comfort zone, be the best that I can be, but also she teaches in a way that’s experiential, and that allows me to actually have hands-on tangible outcomes.” 


For example, in Wimer’s course on entrepreneurial marketing, deWildt worked with SickFit, a sock company founded by an Army veteran who began designing socks to address her own foot-related issues. The class collaborated with the company on market activation, creating opportunities to interact with consumers like providing socks to Syracuse athletes and reporting their feedback to the company. 


“I can look at the end of the semester and be like, ‘Yes, I did that,’” deWildt says of the project. “There’s something physical that I can show people that I’ve done, so I feel like that’s been really impactful.” 

Out on a high note 

Before heading to Dineen Hall for law school, deWildt has one more adventure in the works. In May, she will travel across the Atlantic Ocean as part of the Kenya Immersion Experience. Led by Wimer, students on the trip spend a semester connecting with large and small Kenyan businesses before going to meet them for about a week.  


This year’s cohort for the Kenya trip includes ten undergrad students and two alumnae. deWildt is excited to meet with Ubuntu Education, an edtech company that provides tools for accessible education, as well as EY’s office in Nairobi. She is the trip’s donations coordinator, collecting items to share with business partners as the students travel the country learning about the Kenyan business ecosystem. 


As she looks to her next chapter, deWildt is eager to continue learning: “I know it’s going to be a lot of hard work, and I’ve prepared for that pretty much my whole life. … I’m just really excited to learn everything I can about law; I feel like it’s been a long time coming for me.” 


No doubt she will hit the ground running. 

By Suzi Morales