Double Major To Pursue Masters Degree In Fashion In Rome

As the social media manager for Dominican Recreation Sports the past three years, Autumn Jordan ’23 has been able to apply the skills she has learned as a double major in business administration and graphic design to help the program grow.

Now it is her turn to grow and start her own business someday. Jordan has been accepted to the Rome Business School in Italy where she plans to pursue a degree in International Masters in Fashion Management.

“They have all my interests in one major,” says Jordan, who wants to launch her own clothing line and be involved in the marketing of it. “You take art classes. You take business classes. It’s the best mix.”

The decision to study in Rome validates Jordan’s decision to travel from her home in Virginia to attend Dominican University of California as a freshman. It’s all gone according to plan.

“My end goal was going out of the country, so I knew if I could go across the country and be OK then I’d be OK to go out of the country.”

Jordan chose Dominican based on its small size and sense of community. She declared business administration as her major because of the high job placement percentage in the Barowsky School of Business. Both of Jordan’s parents are business owners, and she started business classes in the Meadowbook Academy of Developing Entrepreneurs at Meadowbrook High School in North Chesterfield, Va.

Jordan was a go-getter from the beginning at Dominican. She volunteered to be a student ambassador in the Institute for Leadership Studies (ILS) for its lecture series and, during the second semester of her freshman year, Jordan was invited by Dr. Denise Lucy, business professor and founder and executive director of ILS, into a senior business class. “Ever since, Dr. Lucy has taken me under her wing,” Jordan says.

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That same semester Jordan took an art class in the School of Liberal Arts and Education with associate professor Steven Polacco then decided to take an additional one-unit art class in the summer. The experiences led Jordan to add Graphic Design as a second major.

After Jordan jumped into campus activities she was introduced to her “campus aunts” – Black Student Union (BSU) advisors Jessica Frazier ’11, director of Student Engagement, and Shanice Whittaker, associate director for Human Resources. With their support, Jordan took on leadership roles, eventually serving as BSU president. She was instrumental in creating the #BLM street logo in front of Guzman Hall on Acacia Avenue on campus. In addition, Jordan served as  president of the Barowsky Students Association and earned an internship position as director of student ambassadors for the ILS fall and spring  lecture series.

Plus, last year, Jordan joined Dominican Athletics’ new track and field program. She competes in the discus, shot put, and hammer and last month started to learn how to throw the javelin.

“I love being busy, but being a productive busy,” says Jordan, who has earned several scholarships at Dominican.

Being the social media manager for Dominican Rec Sports certainly keeps her busy. As an intern, she helped the program continue to thrive during the pandemic with the introduction of online events and created QR codes for its webpage. Jordan manages Rec Sports’ Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts. In fact, she grew Rec Sports’ social media presence on IG from 386 followers and an average account reach of 417 from the Fall of 2020 to 536 followers and an average account reach of 548.

“Autumn has an entrepreneurial spirit and that is what her biggest attribute is in this position. Her attitude toward the job has been incredible and I have seen her grow in every way possible,” says Matt Gaulding, manager of Dominican Rec Sports. “She has contributed to the program with her upbeat personality, loyalty to the job and always spreading the word about rec activities. She thinks outside the box and really has owned the program from the handoff three years ago.”

Jordan has been heavily involved in events such as Rec Sports’ Rec-Palooza and indoor rec volleyball, which attracts an average of 50 students each week, including some English as a Second Language (ESL) students on campus.

“Because our classes are different than theirs we don’t cross paths as much as I’d like, so Rec Sports is a good meeting point for us all to come together,” Jordan says. “We gain so much from our experiences together and I feel like that it’s one of the best ways for ESL students to learn English outside the classroom.”

Jordan is assisted in social media and communications by Emma Wuelfin, an educations studies major. Other Dominican students assisting Gaulding this spring are nursing majors Shivani Amin, Sachie O’Hara, and Ian Woo (Sunday Hikes), MS biology student Edgard Morazan (Golf Driving Range), BSMS occupational therapy student Amanda Raigosa and nursing major Shelby Thomason (Volleyball), OT major Catherine Saloman and nursing major Prilla Stevenson (Rock Climbing), psychology major Arturo Flore (Basketball), and nursing major Min Kang (eSports).

About 250 students, faculty, and staff at Dominican this spring are participating in Rec Sports activities on and off campus that range from standup paddleboarding at 101 Surf Sports to rock climbing at the Gravity Vault to ski/snowboarding day trip to Lake Tahoe.

The Rec Sports excursion to Boreal Mountain is tentatively scheduled for Saturday, March 18, leaving Conlan Center at 5:30 a.m. and returning at approximately 7:30 p.m. The cost, which includes transportation, is $50 per person. Rental fees are not included so participants are encouraged to bring their own ski/snowboarding gear plus food or money to purchase food.

A full schedule of activities is available on the Dominican Rec Sports webpage. Or visit Rec Sports’ Facebook (facebook.com/ducrecsports), Twitter (@DUC_RECsports), or Instagram (@DUC_RECsports) pages.