Tyra Banks to teach personal branding at university

CEBU, Philippines - Next year, after Rita Ora fills her shoes at “America’s Next Top Model,” media and beauty mogul Tyra Banks will help teach a business course for graduate students at Stanford University.

The class, called “Project You: Building and Extending your Personal Brand,” is run by management professor and former producer Allison Kluger, who tapped Banks as a co-lecturer after seeing the supermodel speak at an event for the university’s Stanford Women in Business organization.

Banks, who graduated from Harvard Business School’s Owner/President Management Program in 2012, will teach up to 25 M.B.A. students for a span of two weeks, according to The Wall Street Journal. Upon completion of “Project You,” students will create their own personal brand, know how to navigate on-air appearances and strategize long-term goals across several social media platforms.

Banks joins the ranks of a number of celebrities who have made a mark in academia: Kanye West has waxed poetic on art and design to students at Harvard, the Los Angeles Trade Technical College and the University of Oxford. Questlove has taught multiple courses on music at NYU —most recently, about Prince. James Franco, who somehow managed to acquire a handful of college degrees alongside his acting career, has spread his wisdom on film and writing at UCLA, University of Southern California, as well as NYU. This year, Angelina Jolie was named a visiting professor at the London School of Economics.

For the first class, which kicks off in April 2017, Stanford students are required to create a minute-and-a-half video about themselves, their personal brand and goals. (FREEMAN)