I felt ready for the MA in Creative Enterprise Leadership program in the Bolz Center for Arts Administration for several years. After learning about the MA opportunity in 2019, I knew that this program would help me find and pursue my passions. Yet it wasn’t always this way; if you were to have told me during my senior year of high school that I’d be spending six straight years living in Wisconsin, I could have hardly pointed to it on a map.
My name is Abraham Fleischman. Originally from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, I am a Double Badger – recently graduating from the Wisconsin School of Business this past Spring where I double-majored in International Business and Management & Human Resources.
Before beginning school at the University of Wisconsin, I deferred my admission to serve as a Corps Member at City Year Milwaukee. As the Civic Engagement Coordinator on my school team, I was responsible for organizing community outreach events such as Global Youth Service Day, Make A Difference Day, and a city-wide MLK Day mural project. In addition, assisting in a 7th-grade classroom at Hopkins Lloyd Community School, an extremely underserved school in an at-risk community, I supported students who were chronically absent, often had behavioral issues, or needed classwork help primarily in math and English. Transitioning from high school graduation in June to living with college graduates and paying my own rent in August was a steep learning curve, one that most 18-year-olds don’t go through. In ways, this experience had me leapfrog college to then return with a better understanding and clarity of what I wanted to focus on while at UW. I observed what life was like on the other side of the classroom; being a teacher made me appreciate the value of education and the effort that I had to put in as a student. This was a pivotal moment in my academic career as I came away with a new perspective on how to approach learning and what to gain out of my undergraduate (and now graduate) career beyond just a paper with a degree.
I have had an interest in the creative arts and event management my entire life but found a passion in art-business during the summer of 2018 while studying abroad in Paris. It was during this period that I took a course focused on the paradoxes of luxury brand management. I was so enthralled with the idea of the business side of the art world that I immediately began looking into internship opportunities for the next year. This led me to an internship with Christie’s Auction House in 2019, an experience that opened my eyes to the vastness of the term “the arts.” After returning from that internship to start my Junior year, I actively learned more about the program and even began taking entrepreneurship classes that are included in the curriculum as electives.
Pursuing a Master’s in Art & Creative Enterprise Leadership through the Bolz Center will enable me to engage as an effective leader in the world of community and cultural events. The opportunity to utilize my business experience while still applying my creative skills excites me. Applying what I am studying to the in-the-field experiences will reinforce the educational aspects while contributing to arts organizations. This is an industry and career path I am committed to following, and I am excited about taking on a leadership role in the future. This Master’s program is an integral step in helping me get started on a path to success.
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