By Sylvia A. Bolls
Jhonell Campbell doesn’t have to worry about finding a job when she graduates from college later this month.
The Towson University senior earned a full-time job with 1st Mariner Bank by winning Towson’s 2015 edition of the College of Business and Economics contest, The Associate.
“My professor encouraged me to enter into the competition,” Campbell said. “After looking into the program, I thought it would be a great opportunity to challenge myself and experience some professional growth.”
Campbell won the competition by coming up with a business plan designed to increase client engagement and education for 1st Mariner Bank in downtown Baltimore.
The plan envisions a space in the bank where customers can learn about finances. The space includes 10 to 12 tablets and an interactive screen for demos. Her plan also calls for reducing the number of teller stations to make room for interactive technology that would attract customers into the bank.
Campbell entered The Associate after being nominated and later applied electronically through a video application on Youtube.
Calling herself a dreamer, believer and achiever, Campbell used this tagline throughout the competition.
“The tagline, ‘dreamer, believer and achiever’ best summarizes my attitude and ability to achieve success in all that I do,” Campbell said. “Success may not always happen immediately, but I persevere through failure until I achieve my goal.”
Founded in 2005, The Associate is Towson’s version of NBC’s hit TV show, The Apprentice.
The Associate is held each spring and provides eight graduating seniors in the College of Business and Economics an opportunity to showcase their business skills by coming up with different plans for businesses around Baltimore.
“Each of the students are all so talented, but we each had something unique to offer,” Campbell said.
Alongside being a full-time student majoring in business administration with a concentration in legal studies, Campbell is a third-year resident assistant for Tubman House, a student ambassador team leader for University Enrollment Marketing and an historian for Alpha Kappa Psi.
“I made sacrifices because I spent limited time with friends and my family members,” Campbell said. “I just feel relieved to have my life back.”
“I see her as superwoman,” said Chantel Charles, a junior and fellow resident assistant at Tubman House. “She maintained a strict schedule to create events for her floor, work shifts, finish schoolwork and come up with different projects once a week for The Associate.”
In a recent 2014 study conducted by aftercollege.com, 83 percent of college students don’t have a job lined up after college.
Starting at 1st Mariner Bank on June 8, Campbell will be continuing her education after graduating from Towson. She will be attending the University of Maryland’s Baltimore School of Law with a concentration in corporate law.
“All I want to be is well fed and well travelled,” Campbell said. “As of now, I can graduate from Towson and luckily say I have a job lined up for me.”