Announcements

II founder Tracy Boyer to join UNC’s 2012 MBA class

This post is also available in Spanish

You may have already seen my ecstatic tweets and Facebook updates, but I wanted to officially let everyone know that I was accepted into UNC’s prestigious MBA program.

Continually ranked as one of the top 20 business schools in the nation, I will have the opportunity to craft a future business strategy for multimedia from top leaders in the field. I will finish my current master’s program a semester early, and join the 2010 entering class of business students next fall at Kenan-Flagler.

In two years if all goes as planned, I will receive the first MBA/MSIS dual master’s degree given from Carolina.

This decision has been long-awaited, as I began studying for the GMAT when I returned home from reporting in Honduras this past summer. In the midst of six master’s courses, blogging daily on II, and attempting to retain some sense of a personal life, I wrote admissions essays, gathered recommendation letters, and kept my fingers crossed. Needless to say, my hard work paid off and I look forward to sharing my continued passion for multimedia and its business implications throughout my MBA/MSIS program.

Sadly, I ran away from the print journalism world because frankly it was depressing. You can’t innovate in an insecure and unstable industry. However, journalism is not going to die, and once people stop panicking they will realize that storytelling is an invaluable component of who we are. As MediaStorm founder Brian Storm said during a 2008 interview, “How can you kill something that people will do for free?”

He also made another excellent point that largely set me on my current path: Why aren’t more people breaking apart and doing the kind of work that he does at MediaStorm?

My undergraduate degree in multimedia journalism taught me the technical skills to tell a story using multiple media formats. My current master’s program in Information Science is teaching me about important concepts such as information retrieval, human-computer interaction, and interactive data visualization. I will now couple my current education with an MBA where I will construct a business plan, determine revenue streams, and learn to *hopefully* lead and innovate within the information technology field. Ideally, I aim to start my own company providing multimedia and interactive solutions for businesses, media agencies, and non-profit organizations.

I get chill bumps just reading the reasoning behind the MBA/MSIS degree: “This dual degree responds to the marketplace needs for high-tech managers with well-rounded, leading-edge business skills. This program uniquely prepares information entrepreneurs of the future and those seeking to take advantage of brand new career opportunities.”

A big thank you goes out to all of my mentors, friends and family for the continued support and encouragement. I now ask that you join me for the journey and see where it takes us!

Other posts that might interest you:

• Help needed determining master’s thesis topic
• Boyer publishes thesis findings analyzing retention and satisfaction of passive and interactive multimedia
• Boyer submits 2010 video application for Nicholas Kristof’s “Win a Trip” contest

© 2010 Innovative Interactivity (II).
Download II's Security Policy (PDF)