Sam Carr
Financial Services Track
(Art History '08, University of Virginia)
“My parents taught me that a liberal arts education is one of the greatest gifts a person can be given,” says Memphis, Tenn., native Sam Carr (A&S ’08, M.S. in Commerce ’09). “They wanted me to really make the most of my time as an undergraduate.”
Carr, who describes himself as someone who “loves to learn,” seems to have done just that. He speaks fondly—and appreciatively—of his coursework as an art history major, commenting that it taught him how to conduct research, think analytically, and find patterns and trends across disparate times and cultures. In short, he says, his liberal arts education helped him “learn how to learn.”
But Carr, whose father and brother both work in finance, also has an interest in business—and now he’s brought his outstanding academic skills and intellectual curiosity to McIntire’s new M.S. in Commerce Program. A semester into the year-long program, he says his experience so far has been “fantastic.” Not only has he enjoyed setting his mind to foundational “real-world” skills and subjects like leadership, strategy, and effective communication, but he’s also relished the program’s uniquely cohesive curricular structure. “It’s so comprehensive and integrative,” he says. “It’s an entirely different experience from the subject-by-subject approach I was used to as an undergraduate.”
Carr, who’s chosen to follow the program’s Finance track, says he plans to use his business skills to seek a job that will allow him to combine his love of art and architecture with his business skills—something like preservation-minded development or even opening an art gallery. “I think with the business skills I’ll take from the M.S. in Commerce Program, I’ll be able to find something that’s really a good match with my interests,” he says.