|
 |
Lane Pollack Vice President, |
|
As vice president of a small family-owned business, Lane Pollack-from the age of twelve or so-had helped her mom sell cloth dolls that she made in their home.
The Blue-Eyed Bear in Kemblesville, Pennsylvania is still going strong, but its vice president, holding a liberal arts degree from Wake Forest University, felt inadequate as an advisor to her mother, whose expertise lies in clothing design rather than business operations.
"I believe liberal arts degrees are good because they help you learn how to think," Lane says. But the defining moment in her undergraduate experience came during a 10-week business course in which she had enrolled to supplement her English and history majors. "I had always assumed I'd go to graduate school for something, and that course pretty much decided that it would be business," she remembers.
Straight out of college Lane landed a job at U.S. New & World Report as an editorial budget analyst, which provided a unique opportunity for an English major to enter the business world. Five years later she had advanced to the role of Editorial Business Manager, but Lane still wasn't sure she was on the right track. A brief stint in the Peace Corps (which she cut short to get married) left unsatisfied a bug to work in an underdeveloped country.
For Lane, Tomlinson's speech to the new MBA students really hit the nail on the head. "The reason I'm here is to find out what I really want to do," she says. "I've had great experiences so far, I've grown, I've had a lot of luck, but I haven't been really proactive in seeking out what I want to do." In addition to helping her mother grow the family business, Lane's fantasy is to start a non-profit organization that helps entrepreneurs create successful ventures in Latin America. "I'd like to be involved in micro-development from a real practical angle," she says.
For information on specific programs at the McCombs School, consult our contacts page. For media information, contact the Communications Director by phone at 512-471-3314 or by email at CommunicationsDirector@mccombs.utexas.edu.
