Richard W. Rodriguez
For some, career success follows a straight line. For others, it’s a winding road that leads back to the classroom.
Across industries, professionals are stepping away from the workforce — if they need to — to sharpen their skills, expand their networks, and open new doors through graduate education.
The motivations vary: career pivot or growth, eyeing a promotion, or a lifelong ambition to learn.
Whatever the reason, they all share the belief that learning doesn’t end with a diploma and that the right education can be a springboard to something greater.
These are their stories, and they didn’t have to look far. With options aplenty in Fort Worth, Arlington, Dallas, and Denton, opportunities were well within reach.
After a 10-year career in the National Football League helping offenses advance the football and score touchdowns, 6-foot-4, 330-pound Marshall Newhouse wanted firm footing in deciding what he wanted to do with the rest of his life.
He had been involved in angel investing, including advising for Techstars Fort Worth, and venture capital funds. He was learning the business and networking.
“I had a mind to maybe transition that into a role [in finance],” he says from his home in Austin. “Business School has fostered some of that, but I think business school was, for me, to give myself the space to pivot and figure out what I really, really want to do.”
Newhouse, 35, will graduate in May from his alma mater’s Neeley School of Business with an Executive MBA, an 18-month program for professionals.
He is going there on an NFL tuition reimbursement program designed to help players either finish their undergraduate degree or, for guys like Newhouse, in graduate school.
After doing some investigating and scouting a variety of schools, Newhouse believed the EMBA program was a better fit for him, even though he’s not in, say, a managerial position in corporate America.
“Was I in a managerial position in a corporate America? No, but I consider my NFL experience as work experience,” he says. “I've been on boards and invested, so I think it was a better fit. And then also, scheduling. It’s a full-time program, but we meet every other weekend. So, there are days in between that I can pursue opportunities. I think that was the biggest draw for me.”
Newhouse played at TCU from 2006-09. He graduated with a degree in advertising public relations — now called strategic communications — from the Bob Schieffer College of Communication.
The Lake Highlands native went on to a well-traveled, 10-year career in the NFL with Green Bay, Cincinnati, the New York Giants, Oakland Raiders, Buffalo Bills, Carolina Panthers, New England Patriots, and Tennessee Titans.
He made it out intact.
“Relatively,” he says. “I made it out OK.”
Broadcasting is an endeavor that looks promising for him. Newhouse has done on-air analysis for both NFL and college games, including radio broadcasts of TCU football games. He has also done an NFL pregame show with Trey Wingo on DraftKings, as well as an NFL broadcasting bootcamp in Los Angeles.
He has the voice and personality.
“I think it's lent itself for my career, trying to communicate and be a, for lack of better terms, a personality and someone who brings value and a lot of enjoyment to the game of football.”
First in the Series: "From the Shores of Haiti to the Halls of UTA."