Twists, turns and triumph: Penn Stater takes path from musical theater to MBA

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.” 

The Disney project, including costume fittings, shooting and recording, took about four months to complete. Because the ride was slated to open in 2021 but was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Collins was called back during the summer of 2022 to fill in some voiceover gaps as the opening date approached. The TRON Lightcycle / Run ride officially opened in April 2023. 

“While I was recording the updated voiceover pieces, Disney also asked me to do voiceover work for the soft opening of the ride — introducing various people, including actors from the TRON movies,” she said. “And to my surprise, I got invited to the soft opening, and I brought my parents. That was so cool.”  

As Collins continued to teach yoga, she began thinking about opening her own yoga studio franchise, and she knew she would need entrepreneurial skills, including getting buy-in from investors. Still, in February 2022 when her friend Rebecca Force, who is a Smeal MBA graduate, suggested Collins consider returning to Penn State to pursue an MBA, she initially shrugged it off.  

Said Force, “Faren and I have been friends — and Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority sisters — for years. Sometimes we think a person can have gifts in only one side of the brain, creative or analytical/academic. Faren transcends that idea — she is a talented artist and an entrepreneur, with strengths in the STEM subjects as well.  

“Like Faren, I know what it’s like to live as a creative while simultaneously having entrepreneurial ideas and aspirations,” continued Force, who is an ambassador for professional graduate programs at Smeal as well as a professional stylist. “In my first year of the MBA program at Smeal, I was so happy with my decision to return to school and pivot my career. So, during one of our text chats, I shared with Faren how much I enjoyed the program and what a life-changing decision it was for me, and that it might be something for her to consider.”  

Said Collins, “It took me about a month to realize Rebecca was right. I thought, if I’m going back to school, it’s going to be Penn State and it’s going to be Smeal. I have relied on that Penn State alumni community throughout my career.” 

Collins started the application process right away and was accepted in June for fall semester 2022.  

“We talked every step of the way about everything from interview prep to course expectations and what clothes to pack,” Force said. “Now she’s here and thriving!” 

“It’s crazy to think about,” Collins said. “My first year at Penn State I lived in North Halls, and the Smeal Business Building didn’t exist. Little did I know, when I would sit in Warnock Commons, enjoying the view, that 18 years later I would be in the Business Building, continuing to learn and grow in this new phase.”  

For Joy Mack, interim director of admissions for Smeal one-year master's programs, it was clear from their first meeting that she wanted to work with Collins.

“She is energic, personable, and has a drive to make connection with the people around her,” Mack said. “The drive to make connection with the Penn State network is a cornerstone of the Smeal experience, and it was evident that Faren would be an amazing addition to the MBA cohort. I’m not surprised that Disney saw the same qualities in Faren as I did. She is someone you want to partner with, someone you want to go into business with. Smeal is lucky to work with her and so is Disney!”  

While at Smeal, Collins has been implementing the skills and knowledge she’s gaining into building and growing the concept for her yoga studio. She will graduate with a concentration in marketing and a graduate certificate in corporate innovation and entrepreneurship, and she said she plans to move back to Los Angeles.

“I would love to get a remote job in company brand management while I am working on pushing out my studio,” she said. 

Collins said she credits her family, her faith and a particular Penn State professor for the success she’s had.

“Dr. Susan Russell, who was a professor in the musical theater program and who recently retired, changed my life,” she said. “The day of graduation, I went to her and told her I was scared about what would come next. She repeated to me what she would always say in class: ‘The plan is the plan, until the plan changes, and then that becomes the plan.’ That quote from that professor at this school is why I changed careers so many times and had the strength and confidence to do it. It’s okay to have a plan, but life does change, and there will be a new plan. I think it’s a powerful message about embracing change.” 

About the Bunton-Waller Scholarship program

Named in honor of Mildred Settle Bunton (class of 1932), recognized as the first African American woman to graduate from Penn State, and Calvin Hoffman Waller (class of 1904), believed to be Penn State’s first African American graduate, the Bunton-Waller Scholarship is given to students who enhance the broad and diverse student population at Penn State.