By Jane Wu ‘20
Victoria Rovin ‘81 will be the commencement speaker for this year’s graduation. She visited Canterbury on April 20th and joined the annual Women of Canterbury dinner. She met with The Tabard staff before the dinner, and although she wouldn’t give away a sneak peek ito her commencement speech, she did share the amazing story of her career.
Although she graduated from Georgetown University with a major in psychology and attended graduate school for marketing communications, after 13 years in the advertising field she ended up with a successful theater career in New York.
“I was three months at a job I hated,” she said. “The culture there was very sour. I would walk to work feeling very depressed. One day I walked in and just quit.”
She had no immediate job prospects, so she decided to do something she had always thought about doing: putting on a small cabaret show. On a whim, she auditioned for a part in the traveling company for The Music Man, and landed a part. She spent the next year and a half playing theaters all over the country. It was right after 9/11. Touring the country at that point in time gave her a unique look at the country.
“‘The Music Man’ celebrates America,” she said. “I was happy to be a part of cheering people up.”
She later landed a part in the touring company of Grease, and also Sweeney Todd. Her career took off. She has been working in the theater ever since and never thought of going back to advertising. She also has a successful career doing voice overs, and spent seven seasons on the hit cable TV series “Nurse Jackie”.
The arc of her career defies the odds. Rather than trying for a career in theater, and then eventually moving into something more stable, Veronica did the opposite. After years in a successful advertising career, she transitioned into a successful theater career.
Although she was active in musical theater both at Canterbury and Georgetown, she never seriously considered theater as a career choice.
“I decided to study economics. I thought that was a smart choice,” she said. “Turned out I hated it. And I wasn’t very good at it.”
She switched to psychology, which she loved. She decided to pursue a Master’s in Marketing Communications, where she thought her background in psychology would be useful. She found she enjoyed advertising, and worked for a variety of boutique ad agencies in New York City. Until she took that fateful job.
Quitting a job without any immediate job prospects requires a strong dose of courage. But Veronica has never had to second guess the decision she made when she just walked in one morning and quit.
“Sometimes risks are necessary,” she said. “It’s important to not stay in something that is making you miserable. You never know what the next thing is going to be. Sometimes taking a risk is your best option.”
Stand by for what promises to be a captivating commencement speech.
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