Earlier this week I have myself a lovely drive up to the great city of Oshkosh, Wisconsin – to visit a college campus I’ve grown quite familiar with, yet had never been to in-person until this week.
Over at Wisconsin Music Ventures I’ve been grateful to UW-Oshkosh for supplying me with most of my part-time staff. The university has an excellent four-year music industry degree program that really prepares students for music business specifically, in ways that many other campuses just haven’t gotten to yet.
Most of the employees working with me started as interns, and have stuck around as part-timers since then. I’ll have another intern from them, this summer.
Since the very first intern I started working with from UW-O started up with me, right at the time of COVID-19’s beginnings in spring of 2020, I have had a chance to visit with the school on occasions – virtually, but never in-person. Now, I can say that’s changed.
I’ve often worked with Nathan Edwards, their head of audio production, when coordinating speaking engagements as well as interns. It was a delight to see him in the flesh, as well as a classroom full of eager music industry students.
I spoke on the founding of WMV, getting and growing through COVID, why we’re set-up as an LLC as opposed to a non-profit, how podcasts helped to build the foundation of what I do, and networking in music. I always incorporate images from events along the way.
There were excellent follow-up questions; I could tell students were paying attention and that they understood the subject matter. I hope that they might come away with some new knowledge, maybe inspiration. I know that I’m always inspired by the students I get to visit with, each time I’m in their classrooms.