SPOTLIGHT ON IMPACT: Student Success In Professor Jeremy Short’s social entrepreneurship course, students don’t just learn about social impact – they make it. This semester, Erin McSweeney, a senior majoring in interdisciplinary art and design studies (IADS), raised over $1,000 via GoFundMe to support Genesis Women’s Shelter, a Dallas-based nonprofit that serves women and children who’ve experienced domestic violence. Erin’s road to UNT was anything but conventional. After beginning college at Northern Arizona University in 2008, financial hardship forced her to leave. She spent over a decade working in the hospitality industry. When the pandemic disrupted that career path, she pivoted – first with a ceramics apprenticeship in 2021 and then full-time study in the arts. Now 35, Erin is a non-traditional transfer student who balances coursework with caregiving for her mother who has early-onset Alzheimer’s. Despite all these challenges, she has earned spots on both the President’s and Dean’s Lists and is on track to graduate in spring 2026. “UNT has helped me move from being unsure of my capability to someone with real self confidence,” Erin says. “I now see that I not only have a seat at the table – I have the power to bring others with me.”
Erin McSweeny and her partner, John Campbell, preparing class clay at their community studio in Garland, Texas.
Professor Jeremy Short, G. Brint Ryan Chair in Entrepreneurship, is ranked among the TOP 500 SCHOLARS IN THE U.S. in business management by research.com .
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