Recent grad Alyssa Hochstetler, who earned a BFA in 2020, concentrating in painting and digital media, is now finishing up an MBA that focuses on marketing, and she’s looking toward a future in art. She is in the Create Path to the MBA program, studying strategic management and marketing. She also works in the Paul R. Jones Museum this semester after serving as a volunteer there. She used her digital media skills to make a video for the fall 2021 exhibition, Forward Movement: Selections from the Collection of Johnny and Allison Howze. Watch the video here.
As an undergrad, Hochstetler held a number of internships and part-time jobs. She worked as chief design and marketing officer for Comas Start-Up in Tuscaloosa, served as a data analyst in the College of Human & Environmental Sciences and as a marketing intern at a regional credit union in her home state of Indiana.
After graduation, during the summer of 2020, a local pitch competition led her to an entrepreneurship program at the Edge in Tuscaloosa and then she held a marketing internship at the international headquarters of an office furniture company in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Hochstetler said that while she got valuable experience from these positions, other work she was doing at the same time, like promoting STEAM education initiatives and producing virtual activity videos, she said, “made me realize the positive impacts of museums and nonprofits.” She decided to focus on a career in the arts.
With that in mind, Hochstetler is applying to grad programs in the UK for museum studies, art history or art management, as well as seeking a job in those areas. Her long-term goal is to work as a director or in a management position at a museum or nonprofit. “And down the line,” she said, “I would love to start a local arts center – that way, I can teach painting or piano lessons when I retire and provide a space for K-12 students to engage with the arts.”
For more information about The University of Alabama’s programs in studio art and art history, visit our Degree Programs page.