By Pablo J. Boczkowski, MSLCE Director
During spring break, students in the Master of Science in Leadership for Creative Enterprises (MSLCE) program participated in our annual trek to a media capital in the United States. Due to the growth of the program, students chose between two different destinations this year: Los Angeles and New York… No site would have been able to host thirty-six students plus staff at once!
This annual trek is a capstone experience in the program. It is the culmination of two quarters of preparation that includes coursework, visits to Chicago-area sites, and an array of professionals interactions within the monthly MSLCE speaker series, various courses, and campus events. It allows students to see the value of the hard and soft skills they learned during the fall and winter quarters in a broad spectrum of creative sector organizations. It is also an opportunity for the students to visualize themselves within these types of organizations.
The students began their journey several weeks before leaving Chicago. As part of the Professional Development course, they were divided into teams of six and each group was tasked with conducting background research on three of the sites they were going to visit. Students put the knowledge acquired in the classroom to work by looking into the key strategic, organizational, financial, and legal matters affecting each of the sites. Each team briefed the rest of the students at a special session that took place a week before departure, and their respective reports were compiled into 50-page dossiers that students could consult in preparation for a particular site.
Once in Los Angeles and New York, students heard from a wide range of alumni and professionals at organizations ranging from HBO and AMC Networks to The Museum of Modern Art and Christie’s, from Marvel Entertainment and Tristar Productions to Ogilvy & Mather and Jack Morton Worldwide, and from Creative Artists Agency and William Morris Endeavor to Facebook and Pandora. Whether it is television, film, fine arts, marketing, digital media or talent management, MSLCE students took advantage of their spring break to immerse themselves in life in the creative world.