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Where Are They Now? 5 Questions with MSLCE Alum Aleksa Narbutaitis

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What is your current role(s)/project(s) and what are your responsibilities?

I’m currently the Creative Director at the Chicago-based personal branding and creative services agency, SimplyBe. Agency. I was hire #1, and my CEO and I have built the company from two to eight full time staff over the past two years. My core responsibilities as Creative Director are to oversee all of our company’s as well as all of our clients’ visual brands, and to partner with our strategy team to lead our visual branding projects including full brand style guide and website creation. My job is essentially to make sure that our clients’ value props are always being communicated and supported by the visual components of their brands. (more…)

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Categories: Student Profiles

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Students Learn How to Organize Creative Ideas into Successful Enterprises in Jennifer Kim-Matsuzawa’s and Allison Henry’s Business Models Class

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By Joshua Baggett

Harnessing creative energy into a thriving business requires an understanding of the underlying framework that supports and sustains various business ventures. During the Winter 2019 quarter, Jennifer Kim-Matsuzawa’s and Allison Henry’s “Business Models” class offered MSLCE students an in-depth overview of the key elements businesses need to meet growth, hit profitability targets, and bring an enterprise to scale. (more…)

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Jay Yang is Making Time for Inspiration

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By Miya Williams Fayne

Jay Yang plans to develop and distribute creative programming for the Korean audience. The Seoul, Korea native has worked in television for 14 years but after noticing changes in the media industry she decided to return to academia to learn more about audiences and new media. “I sensed cataclysmic transformation,” she said. “I want to be a media market leader.” (more…)

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Learning By Doing: Cultural Non-Profit Organizations with Larissa Buchholz

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By Brenna C. Cronin

With an emphasis on strategic planning, understanding boards and governance, and the role of executive leadership in nonprofit organizations, Professor Larissa Buchholz led our cohort through an intensive nonprofit leadership training course this winter quarter. Deep dives into volunteer management, the role of social media, audience development, fundraising, and corporate partnerships, paired with dynamic case studies, rounded out our 10-week series. (more…)

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New York’s Non-Profit Theatres Come Together for Annual Internship Fair

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By Joshua Baggett

Each year in early March, dozens of New York’s non-profit theatres gather for a meet and greet with students looking to land an internship in arts administration. The annual event, hosted by the theatre advocacy organization Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York (or A.R.T. for short), connects students of all backgrounds with over 50 organizations actively seeking to hire interns for a wide variety of roles. I had the chance to attend the event this year and found it to be a valuable resource for my internship search. (more…)

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Categories: Industry Immersion

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Visiting “The View”: Exploring the Northwestern Externship Program (NEXT) in NYC

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By ALYSSA HOLCOMB

Being a member of the “Purple Mafia” certainly has its perks… More than that, staying involved in the Northwestern community provides many opportunities to network with and learn from some of the university’s most prominent alumni.
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Categories: Professional Experience

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MSLCE Students Look Inward, Learn to Define Leadership with Professor Brenda Booth

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by Thomas Wall

On the first day of Professor Brenda Ellington Booth’s Personal Leadership Insights course, a simple question was posed to the class: what is leadership?

As students in a master’s program called “Leadership for Creative Enterprises,” it’s a question that we hadn’t yet taken the time to truly consider. Professor Booth asked us to see the forest for the trees when, to this point in the program, we had been focused primarily on the trees themselves: specific projects, deadlines, assignments, and due dates. This curriculum is specifically set up to help us develop both leadership skills and enhance our knowledge of the creative industries. So, upon finishing the fall quarter with Professor Jacob Smith’s Understanding the Creative Industries, it follows perfectly that the winter quarter would begin with an introspective and reflective dive to define leadership itself. (more…)

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Economics for Creatives

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By Claudia Encinas

There seems to be a rumour going around that creative minds and numbers don’t mix, and we are therefore afraid to even think about financial aspect of our various pursuits. Professor Cory Sandrock, however, proved to us that that isn’t always the case during his Economics of Creative Enterprises course for the MSLCE program. (more…)

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Programming and Product Building Across Platforms with Kenny Miller of Disney/ABC Television

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By ALYSSA HOLCOMB

Seasoned digital programmer, platform builder, and NU alumnus Kenny Miller joined students and moderator/MSLCE faculty member AJ Christian for an engaging and insightful chat on “making, sharing and learning” the changes in television in the digital era.
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“Crunch Time”: MSLCE Students Get Hiring Advice From Panel Of Creative Industry Employers

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By Joshua Baggett

As the winter quarter begins to wind down, most of us in the MSLCE cohort are still in the throes of internship application season. With the average student’s application list reaching anywhere from 20-30 internships, the process can often feel like you’ve gotten lost in a one-sided game of Marco/Polo. To help demystify the hiring process, the program recently arranged a panel event with a few industry professionals who offered some great advice on how to be a standout applicant. The session was moderated by Jonah Zeiger (Associate Director of EPICS) and included Becky Schultz (Director of Marketing and Communication) from Music Box Films, Dayna Calkins (Senior Account Executive of Public Relations) and Whitney Rhodes (Senior Account Executive of Marketing) from Carol Fox and Associates. While the panel offered a breadth of information on best application practices, the conversation had a special focus on application tips and interview prep. (more…)

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