COLUMBIA, Mo.: After a week of handling merchandise worth millions at the 2012 PGA Championship, Stephens College graduate Caroline Sheridan decided that fashion goes beyond designer clothes or labels.
“From a sporting side,” Sheridan told the Columbia Missourian, I mean, it’s huge.”
During a seven-week internship with the PGA, Sheridan worked with 34 vendors, meshing her studies in fashion marketing and management with her passion for golf.
“It was just like a dream come true,” she said. “To be able to blend the two together and find something that really was a great fit.”
After graduating two years ago, Sheridan continued to work in the sports fashion industry. She’s now full time with the PGA in its merchandising and membership offices, dealing with big-name wholesalers such as Nike and Under Armour on a regular basis.
“I felt very prepared from what I learned at Stephens,” Sheridan said. “It really teaches and leads us to a path of what we will be doing for the next four years.”
Sheridan and others in the School of Design at Stephens say the collaborative, trade-based courses led by a staff of industry professionals prepare them well for the rapidly changing fashion business.
In December, the program was ranked among some of the top 50 fashion schools in the world.
Students can choose to specialize in fashion communication, marketing and management, or design and product development. In each, students learn a variety of skills, from writing business plans to making shoes.
These skills prepare students for jobs as technical or associate designers with brands such as Rebecca Taylor, or to develop their own companies and labels. Some venture into media or public relations professions as event planners, staff writers and graphic designers. Others serve the business side of fashion as brand and customer service analysts or merchandisers.
As a member merchandising account executive for PGA, Sheridan said one of her most useful classes was a retail math course that taught her how to negotiate and talk business with clients.
“I am constantly speaking with wholesalers on a national and global level,” Sheridan said. “It has given me the foundation for everything that I do from a day-to-day basis.”
Beyond the core classes, students can refine a career path with electives such as “Crafting Sustainable Community.” Each year, students in this course use materials, from plastic bags to takeout boxes, to create dresses that promote breast cancer awareness.-AP
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