Tyra Banks (Facebook)
Former supermodel Tyra Banks continues to expand her repertoire in her new role as a college professor. The “America’s Next Top Model” creator will begin teaching at Stanford University next spring. Her class will tackle personal branding.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Banks will be an instructor at the Ivy League university’s Graduate School of Business. In May, the TV personality will teach about 25 MBA students how to leverage new and old media to show their strengths. She’ll also give insight on how to manage the highs and lows of entrepreneurship.
Additionally, Banks’ course — titled Project You: Building and Extending Your Personal Brand — will educate pupils on how to take advantage of social media to enhance their brands. The mogul and Allison Kluger, professor and former television executive, will engage students with interactive assignments. One includes streaming portions of the class on Facebook Live. Another involves YouTube videos of presentations.
Prospective students already have an assignment before classes begin. They should make a one-and-a-half minute video on “who you are, what your personal brand is, and what you want it to be,” according to Stanford’s course bulletin.
Banks told WSJ she plans to have a strict teaching style.
“If I see somebody not paying attention, I’m gonna call on them,” she said.
The mother of one said that she will ban the use of phones in her class, unless students use them to “tweet something I’ve said.”
Banks’ foray as a Stanford professor flips the script on her last position at a prestigious university. The business woman previously took courses at Harvard University for an Owner/President Management extension program. She earned her certificate in 2012, according to Atlanta Black Star.
Following her course completion, Fortune reported she launched Tyra Beauty in 2014, where she currently serves as chief executive. Next in the pipeline is a reported stint on “Funded.” An investment show like ABC’s “Shark Tank,” the program will air on NBC and feature start-ups duking it out for business. Banks will act as a mentor.
