Months after a TikTok featuring his Quad dorm room went viral, College sophomore Marcus Hirschman won a six-figure sponsorship on a reality series.
Hirschman, who uses the pseudonym Marcus Quinn on social media, was one of six students invited to compete in Xfinity’s vertical reality show “Best in Class” for a chance to win a $100,000 brand deal. The show, which concluded on Sept. 10, was designed specifically for college influencers on Instagram and TikTok.
The latest phase of Hirschman’s social media journey began when he recorded the process of decorating his 80-square-foot room upon arriving at Penn.
“I’m a big believer that your space is kind of an extension to who you are,” Hirschman said in an interview, explaining that he started arranging the dorm by “prioritizing functionality” and then “went crazy on aesthetics.”
“During New Student Orientation, people would know me as the small dorm guy just because there were photos circulating of my dorm,” he added.
Hirschman, who began creating online content at 9 years old, achieved campus recognition early on. Near the end of his first year that extended beyond Penn’s campus when a TikTok video of his dorm went viral — receiving over one million views. Later in the summer, he was offered a spot in the vertical reality competition.
“When this opportunity ultimately arose, I could not believe it,” Hirschman said. “Everything happened so quickly.”
The show filmed over four days on a set in New Jersey and brought together six young content creators from different universities to compete in social media challenges.
Each five-minute episode followed the contestants teaming up to create videos on a specific topic. The end of each episode concluded with the host, influencer Katie Feeney, announcing the winning video.
Director Zane, whose team executed the production, emphasized the significance of the undertaking in an interview.
“They were competing for a $100,000 Xfinity deal here,” he said. “The stakes are as high as they get.”
Zane was “extremely impressed” by the competitors’ performances despite the pressure they faced, adding that he “did not expect six students who have never been on a big production like this to handle it so well.”
In the fourth episode, Hirschman worked with contestant Trenton Sandler to create a cooking video.
“I think it actually really worked out that we got paired up for that because neither of us had any clue how to cook,” Sandler said in an interview. “Instead of one person just taking over, we struggled through it together.”
He explained that the relationship between competitors was friendly and supportive, saying that the six “became really good friends in just a couple of days.”
Mackenzie Fullam, another of the show’s contestants, wrote in a statement that she “clicked instantly” with Hirschman, adding that “there’s never a moment where he doesn’t make me laugh.”
Hirschman noted that one difficulty of being on the show was anticipating the reactions of people he knew.
“There was a ‘get ready with me’ challenge, and in that challenge, I put on blue lipstick and this fluffy coat,” he explained. “During the whole entire process of filming that challenge, I felt a little insecure and nervous about what people back home would think.”
The reception from his friends and family, however, was “overwhelmingly positive.”
“When he was announced as the winner, I couldn’t have been happier for him,” Fullam wrote.
As part of his sponsorship, Hirschman will continue to work alongside Xfinity for the upcoming months.
He explained that winning the sponsorship has “opened up so many new opportunities” for him to work with Xfinity.
“I never considered myself a consistent content creator before the show,” he said. “Now, I feel like winning has given me the motivation to post more frequently and pursue this mini-career on the side.”
While he admitted that it can be challenging to manage content creation alongside academic responsibilities, Hirschman said that “making videos doesn’t feel like a job most of the time.”
Back on campus, he has not experienced “backlash,” although he noted the presence of “some sort of stigma” around student influencers at Penn.
“I have felt this discourse firsthand, and it can be discouraging at times,” Hirschman added. “But for me, social media has always been a place for me to share my love for the things I do.”
