UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — For Faren Collins, coming back to Penn State as a Smeal MBA student — after finding success as an actress, dancer, designer and model — was like coming home, she said.
“It’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made,” she said. “I’m here on the campus where I grew up, on a new journey in business.”
Collins, a Bunton-Waller Scholar, is enrolled in Smeal’s full-time resident master of business administration program and slated to graduate in May 2024.
She made her way back to Penn State after getting her undergraduate degree in musical theater at the University in 2008, and the business knowledge she’s acquiring at Smeal will help her realize her goal: to open a yoga studio franchise.
The path Collins has taken since graduating with a musical theater degree to pursuing her MBA is full of twists and turns, ups and downs.
After graduation she moved to New York and started auditioning for roles in Broadway shows while also doing some print modeling. “It was hard,” she said. “I was living in New York on my own, trying to make it, getting so close to landing roles. I was starting to burn out, so I took a break and went back home to Atlanta.”
While recharging with her family at home, Collins made a connection through a modeling agency with the Boston Celtics. She auditioned for their dance team, was chosen, and ended up staying for three years.
Collins then moved to Los Angeles in 2014, hired an agent, and landed some television acting gigs, including commercials and series. While in LA she also developed a passion for yoga and began teaching in a prestigious yoga studio. In February 2018, while she was immersed in teaching yoga and looking at acting as “more of a hobby,” she got a message from her agent about a casting call.
“I think they called it a ‘robot project,’” she said. “They didn’t identify the company, which is standard procedure in the industry — I wouldn’t know what the company was until, or if, I got the gig.”
At the time, Collins didn’t take the audition seriously. “My agent encouraged me to do it, so I agreed, but I didn’t prepare well – which is not something I recommend! I had a three-page script I was supposed to memorize, and I just didn’t do it. I went in and went completely off script,” she said, laughing. “I made it all up, and then they asked if I could stick around and try again. I said, ‘I’m sorry, but I actually have to go teach a yoga class.’ That experience was a turning point for me. It showed me where my priorities lie.”
Six months later, Collins learned the name of that anonymous company: She received an email from Disney, informing her they wanted to book her for voiceover work for a 50th anniversary ride at Disney World. “I was shocked,” she said. “I had pretty much forgotten about that audition.”
Collins accepted the offer, which entailed doing voiceover work and an introductory video for the new TRON Lightcycle / Run ride at Disney World, based on the TRON movies.
Her character, called "The Siren," appears in the ride’s preshow, instructing visitors about the ride. “The context is that I’m getting you ready for battle,” she said. “You’re essentially entering a digitized world, and you hear my voice navigating you through the ride.”