This fall, Aleta Brown ’17 will start a graduate program in entrepreneurship in the arts at SUNY Purchase, where she intends to learn the skills necessary to realizing her dream of founding an interdisciplinary arts non-profit.
“I chose this program because it covers the interdisciplinary business and administrative aspects of starting and running a nonprofit, from seminars on accounting and finance to marketing in the arts,” she explained. “It will also give me plenty of opportunities to continue performing and collaborating with artists in multiple disciplines.
Major: Interdisciplinary Studies
Hometown: Rochester, N.Y.
High school: Brighton High School
Like many of her peers, Brown came to college with clear academic and career aspirations but changed plans after a transformative educational experience. For Brown, a combination of music and communication courses eclipsed her goal of graduating as a pre-med chemistry major.
“I completely shifted my long-term goals to arts focused endeavors,” she said. “I took classes on the history of jazz and a digital arts workshop, and I exposed myself to new disciplines I ended up loving.” After spending a semester interning at a music company through the College’s New York City program, she created an interdisciplinary major: international communication and media studies, while spending much of her time singing for the choir, the jazz band and the Kirkland quintet.
At Hamilton, Brown emphasized that the College nurtured her desire to create opportunities and programs that would not otherwise exist. During her senior year, Brown co-founded SMART, the College’s Sexual Misconduct and Assault Reform Taskforce, and co-chaired its programming committee.
“All of these experiences gave me the ability to see my own potential and that I can create my own plan in life,” she remarked. After creating both an interdisciplinary major and a critically important organization on campus, Brown intends to take on greater challenges by creating her own non-profit company for interdisciplinary arts. To do this, she will waste no time in sharpening these already strong trailblazing skills with SUNY Purchase’s graduate program.