Born to be a Bronco: finding pride in being a leader

KALAMAZOO, Mich.—There are many parts of Holly Jemkort’s college experience that she has found pride in. However, being able to say she is the first woman in her family to graduate with a bachelor’s degree has been something she has carried with her during the entirety of her time at Western Michigan University.

Majoring in advertising and promotion alongside leadership and business strategy, Jemkort has proven herself a leader. She has been able to explore the advertising world through a different perspective than others in her field with the efforts she has made to develop her leadership skills. From experiencing college during a global pandemic, to unpredictable roadblocks and being actively engaged on campus, Jemkort wants to share her life lessons with anyone who wants to listen.

“When I came to Western, I had no clue what I wanted to do as a future career,” she says. “I bounced around from wanting to do creative promotion for automotive advertising, to maybe dropping everything and picking up HR because being a teaching assistant made me realize how much I loved being around people.”

After all her various classroom experiences, Jemkort found her passions in advertising and leadership. A faculty member who she values as a mentor has been Dr. Karen Lancendorfer, who showed Jemkort how special advertising could be.

“Dr. Lancendorfer looked at my portfolio and told me how great of an ad major I’d be. She combined my love for being creative, planning, presenting, and analytical calculations in one major. I love being able to use my critical and creative skills in one field," Jemkort says.

Being innovative is an important characteristic in advertisers, and for Jemkort it is a skill that comes naturally. By being inquisitive and experimental, she is asking questions about the future of her field so she can get ahead of her future competitors.

“How can I as an emerging leader in this field create new and relevant content that is not over done and that falls within new cultural norms we are seeing?” she asks.

Another inspiration for her was her introductory business course, which became a vital motivator during her spring semester, during the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I learned that I’m going to hit roadblocks and be confused, but that’s okay and I’ll make it out in the end,” she says. “When we were sent home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, my professor emailed all his students to check on us, and that email was what inspired me to continue my academic education at WMU. From that moment on, I wanted to give other students that same inspiration.”

With the help of her mentors, Jemkort has grown into a strong leader on campus and in her internships. As a first-year experience co-facilitator and a Peer2Peer mentor, she is able to share her leadership skills with new students by using her past experiences to help others. Additionally, she was able to hone in her leadership abilities through her internship at Walgreens while working with district and regional managers.

In her leadership and business strategy courses, Jemkort has been offered the opportunity to present her group’s semester long pitch. Supported by the rest of her team, she led them to a successful end of the semester.

After all the hard work, dedication and teamwork with her leadership community, she was awarded the G.W. and Edna M. Haworth Principled Leadership Scholarship for her academic achievements.

“One of my biggest highlights at WMU has been winning my scholarship. In the end, I was rewarded with $5,000 in scholarship money for my efforts. The best part was having my fellow leadership and business strategy students and faculty, who are like family, to celebrate this moment with me,” she says.

For more WMU news, arts and events, visit WMU News online.