Come next May, former supermodel and mogul will make her teaching debut in a college classroom. Students in the M.B.A. program at Stanford University will be taking tips in personal branding from Tyra Banks, as she guests lectures a class on creating and protecting a personal brand for two weeks only.
Tyra, 42, will join Stanford lecturer Allison Kluger to teach 25 students how to use traditional and social media to their advantage and handle the peaks and valleys of business. Throughout the class, students will present their personal brands through YouTube, Facebook Live and local television.
According to the course description, the class is deemed Project You: Building and Extending your Personal Brand. Students will create their own specific image to support their brand, teach them how to navigate on-air exposure and help them create a long-term strategy for how to promote their personal brand.
Tyra’s newest role at Stanford, extends her reach into the business world. She currently serves as chief executive of TYRA BEAUTY, she’s an investor in millennial career site The Muse, and according to Variety, she’s set to serve as a mentor to entrepreneurs on a Shark Tank themed TV show titled Funded.
The class seems like it would be fun and lively, but Professor Banks says she’s not here for the foolery.
“If I see somebody not paying attention, I’m gonna call on them,” she told the Wall Street Journal. Apparently, this means students must keep off their phones.
Before becoming a business school instructor, Banks was a business school student. In 2011, she enrolled in an executive education program at Harvard Business School. During an interview with Fortune, Banks say she needs to the education in order to leave to take her business ventures to the next level of success.
“My career and my business has gotten to where it is because of my gut,” she said. In order to take my business to next level, for it to scale … to leave a true legacy… I needed the book smarts, I need the minds of those professors, I needed the education to get there. I do not think I could do it without the education.
