Undergrad Shares Her One-of-a-Kind UMD Experience

Being a Maryland Terrapin is something that runs in the family for Helen Feng ’24. But as a business marketing and studio art double major at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, Feng is making the most of her own experience.

Following in the footsteps of her father and brother, the Germantown, Md.-native says when she applied to UMD she sought a major that aligned with her strengths. That led her to Maryland Smith. And from day one on campus, she hit the ground running by pursuing one of her childhood passions as a member of the UMD Cheerleading team.

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in her freshman season being canceled, but there was still much to learn during that time, says Feng, including figuring out how to balance extracurricular activities and her studies.

“It was definitely challenging, but it pushed me in a way where I could grow quickly and be disciplined,” Feng says. “The environment was also really fun to be in because it was fast-paced. I just learned a lot of good habits and lessons that I knew would carry on after college.”

According to Feng, she also took some time at UMD to figure out exactly how she wanted to structure her coursework. That included finding ways to work in another passion from her upbringing – art.

“I really enjoy it because it flexes different parts of my brain and keeps me balanced. In my business classes, I'm listening and taking in information. But in art I'm physically painting or carving, which requires a whole different skill set as well as a lot of patience,” says Feng. “It's nice to have that variety throughout my school days.”

Feng identified two ways she could incorporate art into her UMD experience. Outside of the classroom, she served as a Stamp Student Union Gallery Docent working part-time at the front desk, helping bolster the gallery’s social media presence and even assisting in the curating process for a number of exhibitions.

In the classroom, Feng is a member of Maryland Smith’s Strategic Design and Innovation Fellows, a two-year interdisciplinary program open to marketing and studio art design majors that challenges students to develop creative business solutions and learn prevalent marketing strategies and design techniques.

The program is part of Maryland Smith’s greater efforts toward helping students to take part in differentiated learning opportunities and enabling them to better address the complex, multi-faceted issues of today’s business environment.

The experience has been invaluable so far, Feng says, getting comprehensive instruction with technical skills including UX/UI design and Adobe Suite programs like Photoshop and InDesign, as well as gaining real-world experience by building a portfolio through helping clients enhance their branding and marketing strategies.  

“We're just learning a lot about how design can play a role in the bigger picture of marketing and business,” says Feng. “I think the Design Fellows program for a lot of people, including me, enhances the marketing major by making you think in a different way.”

Those lessons are already being put into practice through her various other roles and extracurricular activities on campus. Feng currently serves as the vice president of content within the UMD Real Estate Club and spent the fall 2022 semester as an undergraduate social media intern for Maryland Smith’s Office of Marketing Communications.

And it’s opening doors for her future as well. During the spring 2023 semester, Feng will be representing Maryland Smith abroad through the Maryland-in-Rome program which features a curriculum focused on business, marketing and design.

Upon her arrival from her Rome experience, Feng says she won’t have a lot of time to unpack her bags because she’s heading to New York this summer for a marketing internship with IBM.

“I definitely want to work in marketing and I’m really excited to be in New York because I would love to live there in the future,” says Feng. “The most important thing for me is that I want to be able to use my creative side and be really innovative in whatever my job might be.”

Right now, Feng says she’s focused on experiencing as much as she can during her time as an undergraduate student. For anyone else who, like her, has other interests outside of business Feng encourages them to explore them and see where they might lead.

“UMD has so many different opportunities and if you’re interested in something, chances are you could find it,” says Feng. “Try to get a wide range of experiences because I believe that helped me keep my life balanced and it will definitely help others figure out what they want to do.”

Check out a day in the life of Helen Feng at UMD on YouTube.