By Tess Cea, Reporter

Edited by Jessica Ford, Editor

MOUNT BERRY, Ga. — Rette Solomon, a 5th-year senior at Berry College, created a new individualized major called Entrepreneurial Marketing.

The Entrepreneurial Marketing is a major largely based on the equestrian world. Majors in marketing, communications, and art, as well as a minor in entrepreneurship, combined to make this specific concentration. The major has evolved to represent the passions and desires of Solomon, and she now refers to it most commonly as “Equestrian Storytelling.”

Lifelong photography skills in addition to extensive involvement in the equestrian world are what drew her to creating the major for herself.

“I knew I wanted to do something specific,” Solomon said. “ I wanted to go into the equestrian world and be a visual storyteller so, based on those goals, I combined the marketing major, communications major, art major, and entrepreneurship minor all into one path of study.”

 Solomon had a clear idea of what she wanted her major to look like even before starting the approval process. Prior to figuring out what she wanted from her individualized concentration, advisors made sure there was not a pre-existing major available that already met these goals. There was not one, so Solomon set on the path to creating her own.

While the approval process may come across as difficult for some, Solomon knew what she wanted from the beginning. Her desire and understanding of her future career made this process easy.

Melissa Clark, a marketing professor at the Campbell School of Business, assisted Solomon in deciding what courses would go into the individualized concentration. Clark recalled the process being very smooth as Solomon had a specific end-goal in mind.

“Rette is very goal-oriented and knows herself and where she wants to be,” Clark said. “That makes it easy in a situation like designing your own major because she didn’t need a whole lot of direction.”

Creating an individualized concentration is not a frequent occurrence at Berry College. Only two to three proposals are approved each year by the board of deans. The proposal process is challenging as well. A required part of the process is that a student must write a list of learning outcomes to describe what they wish to achieve from creating an individualized major.   After doing this, Solomon proposed specific coursework and listed justifications for each, which explained the reasoning why a preexisting major was not enough.

The provost of Berry College, David Slade, elaborated on the approval process associated with creating an individualized major. Due to the process being uncommon, it is long and requires approval from multiple deans.

“You go through and propose the coursework, and have to have a narrative to justify it,” Slade said. “The dean’s council, which is made up of all the school deans, reviews it and they’re the ones to evaluate, give feedback, and ultimately either approve or not approve.”