Teddy Oshirak ’25 made the most of the liberal arts at Berry College. Initially interested in music, he chose to major in marketing — and got the best of both worlds.
“I found my freshman year that I wanted to keep music as a hobby and not as a career, because it's highly, highly competitive, and I didn't want something I loved to turn into a burden.” Teddy says. “I knew I wanted to do business since my freshman year, so it was honestly just a toss-up between marketing and management.”
Minoring in music, Teddy joined the fraternity Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, a campus organization founded to advance music in America. He connected with people who had similar interests and expanded his skill. He is currently a pianist in jazz band, a bass player in steel band, a piano accompanist for student recitals and the fraternity’s alumni relations officer. According to Teddy, playing the piano in a jazz band has been crucial to his growth as a musician.
“It’s probably been my greatest progression of skill,” Teddy says. “I guess I learned a lot from jazz band because growing up, I was classically trained, and for the first two years at Berry, I was classically trained, so joining a jazz band introduced me to new types of music that I was able to learn about and really get interested in.”
Teddy applied a similar discipline to studies in marketing and capped off his junior year with a month-long study abroad program through CIBMA Italy. A highlight was a course on global consumer marketing, where he studied current events and their effect on business. This class was heavily discussion based, which gave Teddy the chance to ask questions and broaden his knowledge of the topic. Beyond the classroom, days were spent traveling and visiting local businesses.
“I enjoy experiencing new cultures,” Teddy says. “I think it’s important in general for people’s growth and their opinions when they experience something different from what they have been doing for their entire life.”
With graduation around the corner, Teddy anticipates going into market research or online sales. He advises aspiring marketing majors at Berry to get involved on campus early in their college careers: “Definitely get closer to your professors. The business professors at Berry are well known and very qualified. They’re more than willing to help you, and the business department has many opportunities for you to gain real-world experiences.”
While building his business career, Teddy is sure to continue the self-exploration that music perpetuates. As jazz great and pianist Bill Evans said, “My creed for art in general is that it should enrich the soul; it should teach spirituality by showing a person a portion of himself that he would not discover otherwise … a part of yourself you never knew existed.”
Story by senior Abigail Dunagan
