When I started in the McIntire School of Commerce last fall, one of my first assignments was to work with a partner and somehow improve the Admissions Office's process of reaching out to prospective students. My partner and I decided to focus on how the Admissions Office could better reach out to the artistic community at UVA, including students involved in theater organizations, dance troupes, and art clubs. As we worked on this assignment, it occurred to me (as it had several times throughout the Comm School application process) that I could count on one hand the number of friends I knew from arts groups that were applying to the Comm School.
This bothered and perplexed me, and I tried to evaluate my interests in the context of my friends' interests and the interests that the Comm School caters to best. I was interested in concentrating in Marketing and Management and applying for the Advertising and Digital Media track, which from my view is probably the "artsiest" path you could possibly take in the Comm School. And still, plenty of people who don't consider themselves overly interested in the arts are probably doing the exact same Comm courseload that I am. I also have plenty of non-Comm friends who are interested in careers in media, marketing, or administration of some kind, all fields that the Comm School can prepare you for in some capacity.
However, I realized pretty early on in my Comm career that there aren't many resources, broadly speaking, devoted to reaching prospective students that aren't interested in finance or consulting. Those are the two "career pillars," so to speak, that Comm students are most known for, and if you're in the Comm School you'll probably get a funny look if you tell a classmate that you haven't applied to any of the "big four" companies with application deadlines in September. But when I was applying to Comm, I felt like all of the students at info sessions and panels had the exact same experiences and perspectives on the Comm School, and I couldn't really relate to any of them.
Comm, and business school in general, certainly has some barriers to entry for many artsy, creative people. There is a lot of structure to your 3rd year ICE classes, there is a LOT of group work, and you might have to learn business concepts that don't relate to your interests at all. But I really wish that more UVA students involved in the arts felt like they, like me, could have a home in the Comm School. And more importantly, that their perspective would be valued by fellow Comm students and professors.
Creative experiences, such as collaborating with a group on a theatrical production, or designing Facebook profile pictures, are not that different from the skills required to concept and execute a marketing campaign in the Comm School. My creative capacities were pushed to the limit in my third-year group projects. I wish that others like me who love thinking creatively were attracted to what the Comm School has to offer because I believe that participating in the arts is great training for business school. Performing gets you used to standing and speaking convincingly in front of a crowd, which is essentially what presenting for business is like. Performing in the arts also prepares you for the notion that it's not necessarily what you say in front of a crowd that matters, but how you say it because the audience doesn't know what you were SUPPOSED to say.
My mission this year is to encourage any artsy people I know who are remotely interested in applying to the Comm school to do so because Comm could stand to diversify its portfolio of students while it tells us to diversify our future portfolio of stocks. "Commerce" as a whole is not an industry per se, but rather it is an administrative framework that encompasses all types of industries. And this includes artistic and creative enterprises.
What started out as an exercise for my third-year Strategy and Systems class has evolved into a proclamation. UVA, it's time to fully embrace the business school potential of our artistic student communities. Let's evolve the Comm school's image to better encompass students who don't see themselves working at a major bank or consulting firm right after graduation. I'm not saying the Comm school needs to double in size, but I'd love to see a few more singers, actors, and artists in each 250-300 person grade. Whether this means having more targeted prospective student panels, having specific "arts ambassadors" in Comm who advocate for this sort of thing, or making a new Comm CIO specifically devoted to arts and business, I'm not sure. But I do feel that the vibrancy of the UVA arts community and the practicality of the Comm School curriculum should not be mutually exclusive.
