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Morningside Campus/Limited Access

Effective immediately, access to the Morningside campus has been limited to students residing in residential buildings on campus (Carman, Furnald, John Jay, Hartley, Wallach, East Campus and Wien) and employees who provide essential services to campus buildings, labs and residential student life (for example, Dining, Public Safety, and building maintenance staff). Read More.
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Sarah Deborah Austern

at SPS Sarah...

  • Took courses from SPS and the Business School
  • Studied retailing leadership and entertainment marketing
  • Learned negotiation skills at SPS
  • Got an internship with Warner Music
  • Created digital campaigns
  • Completed her Masters in Copenhagen and landed a job…

Your route to a Masters Degree took an off-ramp at Columbia. How did that come about?

I always knew that Columbia was a highly ranked university, so I was very interested in studying there. I enrolled in the business certification program in fall 2012. I could choose classes from both the business school and SPS. At the business school, I studied retailing leadership and entertainment, and at SPS I took introduction to negotiation. After my semester at Columbia, I landed an internship at Warner Music. Things grew from there.

The internship sounds exciting. Tell us about it.

I worked on their online marketing in a group called D2C (digital to consumer). We created campaigns for our artists, such as Bruno Mars’s Unorthodox Jukebox. We also worked with a lot of technical developers to drive the best fan experience. Thanks to the internship, I later got a full-time job at Warner Music Group in London.

How did that come about?

I wrote my thesis for Copenhagen Business School on Warner Music and the digital development in the music industry. While in New York, I was able to interview key people, including Warner’s CEO. Today, I’m a CRM manager here in London. It’s a lot of fun.

What role did Columbia SPS play in your success?

I think Columbia attracts the most talented people in the world. The faculty is outstanding. In my case, it led to building a great network and preparing me for real life business cases. Where I am today is solely because I was a student at Columbia.

Additional Authors

Sarah Deborah Austern