Inside MPorium: Behind the Scenes with Brown

By: Alyssa Puentes

“You’re only as good as your team, so surround yourself with great people that you can learn from,” said Professor Rebecca Brown when asked what her piece of advice to students looking to find a career similar to MPorium, the student-run boutique she oversees at Marist. It’s a mantra that was not only clear by sitting in her warm, yet vibrantly full of personality office in Steel Plant, but one she truly lives by - as seen through her viewpoint of her students.  
“My second career is better than the first, but without the first, I couldn’t do the second,” Brown shared after reflecting on which she preferred - the former fashion industry occupation, or latter, the professor.  

After spending over 20 years in the fashion industry, previously as the Vice President of Merchandising for Nine West, there came a time in her life where change felt necessary for Brown. Despite enjoying her extremely hectic, yet exceptionally exciting career, she’s always wanted to teach. This year’s collection is entitled “Collegiate Core” - dedicated to encompassing the vintage aesthetic of university with a modern twist.

“All the stars aligned [this semester]...everything came together. The balance of the process [of opening] and executing it at the same time,” said Brown. It wasn’t hard to tell how passionate she truly is about her students, and the store as well.  

“MPorium encompasses all of my professional experience,” said Brown. Composed of various teams of different focuses, MPorium utilizes each asset within the first month of school to put together a grand opening. The product is glamorous, with new merchandise on display and a completely re-decorated store to showcase their efforts. Yet, it’s the copious amount of hard work and dedication outside of the classroom, that can be unnoticed at times.

“It all happens in those first four weeks. Coming up with the theme, products for that theme, visuals; it’s intense,” Brown reflected. “It truly is for the students. By allowing them to have ideas and a thought process to go with, and then is altered until we are all comfortable and it makes sense,” She said while reflecting on the grand opening process. Student leads, who are individuals within the class in charge of a certain area of focus (for example, the Buying Team or the Visual Team), are ones who are looking to eventually cap with the class and curate ideas for the grand opening. Currently, there are 2 students capping with MPorium this semester. “You have to learn to go from being somebody’s peer to their leader, and also a delegate,” she said.

“Every year, there’s at least a thousand students who have never even heard of MPorium,” Brown said in light of a new freshman class moving in every year to the Poughkeepsie campus. The first meeting with the students who cap with MPorium is where the tone is set for the grand opening. “The fall is really busy with family weekend, open houses, and alumni weekend. But the spring [theme] tends to stay up longer, and is up all summer…[I tell them] think about when you want to use which themes in the fall, or in the spring?” Brown explained.  

“All I’ve taught and everything they’ve been taught - it’s the right place, the right time, the right price and the right quantities,” Brown basked in reflection of this semester’s MPorium group.

Once a rough idea of what the theme should be, the class hits the ground running right on the first day of school. “We worked with the teams and presented the idea around this whole college old school vibe, they all did a super good job from all aspects,” Brown shared. “The visual team puts together mood boards, where each person on the team represents how they visualize this whole old school meets new school meets retro. They’re presented to the class, but in the meantime, the buying team is reviewing trends,” Brown continued. MPorium moves like water, and in this ocean of fashion and retail on a college campus, each moving part seemingly flows into each other throughout the time of the course. While one team may dedicate their class time to finance, the other is researching aspects of the MPorium customer.  

“It takes the energy, working together as a team, and teaching moments in there too,” Brown said while explaining what is it that makes all this go forward within just a month’s timeline. “In 4 weeks, we will get the store ready for the grand opening. That's ordering products, getting all the visuals done…and everyone needs to be trained,” Brown said. “It’s like an internship for credit, but real life experience that is such a huge resume builder for them.” 

“Every individual in the class has such an important role…I want people to challenge ideas or give their opinion,” Brown shared. Given that a significant pillar of the class is the experiential aspect of working in the store, it was more than evident how important Brown views student’s insight to help foster new ideas to make MPorium even better. “We try something, if it doesn’t work - we switch it up. It’s experiential, we have that luxury, given that it's a course in college…” said Brown. “Everything I use as a teaching moment. [Like asking] ‘What was your thought process?’ or, ‘Maybe if we tried it this way we can get a better result’. They are all just a really great group for trying new things,” Brown said.

Another aspect MPorium wanted to emphasize within this semester is widening their audience. MPorium will take Brand Ambassadors from applications posted on their websites, and with that, this semester’s focus was including athletes within the campaign, and creating genderless merchandise for students of every identity to shop freely at the boutique. Given that the theme for the fall is all about that vintage college style, it made the task of reaching a wider audience just a bit more easier.

“What’s most satisfactory is seeing all the cross functional teams work together and student’s visions coming to life,” Brown said. “You get out what you put into it. Being vocal with your student lead or myself, giving your opinion, and speaking up in class,” said Brown. “People make new friendships and meet people they have never met before,” she said.  

As stated by Brown earlier, she truly is surrounded by, “...great people you can learn from…”. No matter the question asked, I found her answers never failing to circle back to not only how positive, but how proud she was of her students this semester, which in essence, is one of the highlights of Marist College - that close knit, student-teacher relationships that are built.