Ashley Morani’s time at the Comm School is a testament to her dedication, resilience, leadership, and care for others.
Her academic experiences as a Finance and Marketing concentrator with tracks in Business Analytics and Strategic Brand Consulting & Communications have prepared her for starting strong in her professional life and for taking on her next educational challenge. It’s the ultimate result of what began as a merchandise internship in the summer of 2024 at Dick’s Sporting Goods in Pittsburgh, PA, where she worked in the company’s merchandise allocation and replenishment area.
She’s set to return to Dick’s Sporting Goods in a remote position for a 15-month rotation until being placed on a specific team within its enterprise analytics development program but finding that forthcoming position was no easy task.
As she couldn’t see herself continuing in merchandise, she decided to seek out other opportunities when she wasn’t given an offer that supported her desire to shift to the company’s technology wing.
“To transition into the other department, I had to go through rounds of interviews to make sure I had the knowledge needed. In August 2024, after I returned from that internship to start my fourth year, I practiced, but unfortunately, I didn’t receive the offer. It was just heartbreaking to me,” she shares. Morani had to restart her job search and the entire recruitment process, a difficult one to be sure, but one she says was made infinitely less painful by repeat visits to Commerce Career Services. To better prepare herself for the area she was interested in, she also made the decision to pursue an M.S. in Data Science application at UVA.
Then, while looking on LinkedIn one day, she had a lucky find. Morani noticed that one of the recruiters at Dick’s Sporting Goods posted about an open position in their analytics development program. She decided to humble herself and reapply. She reached out to a few recruiters she met during her summer internship who helped her secure necessary interviews. Morani got the job, and as a result, she’ll be working remotely—and completing the graduate degree through the School of Data Science online as well.
“I still like the creativity of marketing, specifically generating ideas and using platforms, so analytics is the happy medium, using a lot of numbers and running different programs but also being really creative in structuring the data,” she says. “With data, you have to discover the patterns. It’s like a treasure hunt.”
Entrepreneurial Beginnings and Academic Motivation
Morani’s passion for business began during high school, when she was a 15-year-old self-starter venturing into retail. She discovered an opportunity to purchase and resell discounted clothing, a venture that ignited her startup spirit.
“I would perform retail arbitrage through the eBay platform,” she says. “I’d buy clothes that were discounted heavily that the retailer was trying to move. Then I’d sell them for a slight markup to the consumer, but still below retail. Throughout high school, that exposed me to business principles that I wasn’t necessarily learning in school, but through math and other courses, I was able to figure it out as I went.” Her enterprise, Ashley’s Closet, shaped her initial understanding of market dynamics and laid the groundwork for her academic pursuits at McIntire.
Though she originally thought she’d study commercial law and eventually go to law school, she was swayed to look into the Comm School after an inspiring insight from alumnus Josh Johnson (McIntire ’02, Law ’05).
“He shared details about how his McIntire education helps him stand out from other attorneys because he brings what he learned to work with him every single day,” says Morani. “That really convinced me that I needed to go here.”
Once at the Comm School, Morani flourished further in the Entrepreneurship Minor. As a second-year student, she took an eye-opening class with Professor Eric Martin, his Managing Innovation course. What she learned incorporated emerging technologies like ChatGPT when it was first made available, but many of the lessons connected directly to her retail reselling business as well.
In the minor’s capstone course this spring, her final project, developed in collaboration with her teammates, aimed to bridge the gap between student organizations and businesses by employing social media influencer strategies.
“We’re able to give these student organizations free products for their events, but also give the businesses new data, content, and more. We’ve had a few events, and it’s been super successful,” she says, noting that they’ve already collaborated with prebiotic soda Olipop, plant protein bar company Mezcla, and Reign energy drink. “It’s been so cool to learn about the space, how it operates, and about some inefficiencies that we can hopefully fix.”
Leading on Grounds and Off
Another area where Morani has been focused in her fourth year is through Professor Carrie Heilman’s Promotions two-semester course. As one of two class account executives in Promotions, she has been a key part of her team, applying her insights to coordinate the larger team efforts behind their push toward competing in the annual AAF’s National Student Advertising Competition. It’s quite an intense role.
The pair of “AE” students oversees the entire Promotions project and manages it, while the rest of the class enters into respective committees, such as planning and research, creative, digital, and media budget. “I was excited to be selected as one of the account executives by the class because that allowed me to touch everything and assist everyone,” she says. Yet holding that position also means she has an outsized amount of personal relationships to maintain and has had to develop tactful and purposeful leadership skills in order to keep the entire project moving.
“As an account executive, we have to attend every committee meeting. And so each committee has two meetings a week,” she explains, detailing how she and her fellow class AE split the 12 weekly hourlong meetings between them. “It’s a huge time commitment, but as we’re finishing up the product and about to deliver it, it’s a great feeling to see what it was when we started and now what it has become,” Morani says proudly.
Beyond her academic and entrepreneurial pursuits, Morani’s dedication to community extends into empowerment as a board member of Her Sports, a Charlottesville-based nonprofit dedicated to supporting underprivileged girls in sports. Her involvement, which began with making contributions from profits from her eBay clothing business and by attending their outreach events, evolved into a leadership role on its finance committee.
As an avid intramural basketball, innertube water polo, and pickleball player, she explains that the organization’s mission to give girls more opportunity and access to sports rings true. One of Her Sports’ initiatives, the Hustle Academy program, focuses on educating girls about nutrition and wellness, combining athletic and holistic development—a cause close to Morani’s heart.
Morani’s time at McIntire and involvement with Her Sports demonstrate a deep capacity to leverage her skills for broader community good. That business acumen coupled with her desire to make a meaningful impact will no doubt be a boon for her future employer in the near future and in years to come.
