Aislinn Bevill, who hails from Darien, Conn., will be graduating with Magna Cum Laude honors and is a Business and Enterprise Management (BEM) major with a minor in Art History.
“BEM allowed me to develop a strong foundation in finance, accounting and technology that I can continue to grow upon as I enter the workforce,” she said. “I think Wake [Forest] in general has prepared me to go out into the world and work to my greatest ability.”
Since entering the business school and declaring BEM as her major, Bevill chose a concentration in marketing.
“I knew I wanted to study the world of business, but I was not convinced that I wanted to dedicate myself to just finance or accounting,” Bevill said. “Marketing was very interesting to me, and I wanted to have the ability to decide my own path and dabble in a little bit of everything before homing in on one specific topic.”
As part of her concentration, Bevill has taken a wide range of marketing-based courses, ranging from brand management to marketing analytics and sports marketing. Doing so enabled her to explore a multitude of different career paths, and ultimately land an internship with Frito-Lay in Dallas during the past summer.
“There is a lot of analytic work that goes into marketing,” she explained. “A lot of people think that marketing is just the creative side of things, but understanding the analytics provided me a deeper understanding and gave me an advantage over other interns that I worked with.”
Bevill attributes this advantage to Jia Li, the professor who taught her marketing analytics class. “Dr. Li really pushed us to establish such a strong foundation,” Bevill said.
Bevill’s hard work paid off when she was offered a job with Frito-Lay upon her graduation at the company’s White Plains, New York office.
Bevill also has a deep interest in art, which led her to declare an Art History minor. One of her favorite experiences from the past four years was studying at Casa Artom, Wake Forest’s house situated on Venice’s Grand Canal.
After taking classes during the spring semester of her freshman year, she studied abroad during the summer and gained valuable experience in applying classroom concepts to the real world.
“Studying at Casa Artom showed me just how globally connected Wake [Forest] is,” Bevill said. “Being able to walk around Venice and see one of the most beautiful pieces of property, with its Wake Forest plaque mounted on the wall, it was really special. With such great professors there, my experience there was really awesome.”
Being able to pick up a minor in a discipline that interested her was one of the best features of the BEM program, Bevill says. “You can pick up a minor without feeling overloaded, I really appreciated the contrast between my business and art history education.”
Wake Forest absolutely lived up to the hype for Bevill, who was sold on the school the moment she stepped onto the campus.
“I remember my first tour, it was pouring rain and I was still blown away. Even on its worst day, I knew I would love Wake [Forest],” she said.
What really stood out was her tour guide’s explanation of what the student body at Wake Forest was like: a school of “social nerds.” “That’s something I can definitely identify with,” she said.
The last four years have been filled with long days and nights as Bevill has continuously put in the necessary work to thrive at Wake Forest.
“Work forest is no joke. Having the grit to stay up until three a.m., to make sure you really understand something, it can be a grind,” she said.
Throughout the years, however, Bevill has always found the time to give back. During the past couple years, she has volunteered with the Breast Cancer Fashion Show and with Project Pumpkin.
In addition to these volunteer roles, Bevill is a member of the sorority Kappa Kappa Gamma, and she served as the vice president during the past year.
“This was a great leadership role, it allowed me to connect with other students and help younger girls developing connections,” she said.
As vice president, she was tasked with ensuring that members upheld the necessary academic standing by providing access to tutors and helping members develop other connections around campus. In addition to her work with the sorority, she has also been involved with Spoon University, a marketing platform with a focus on food.
When asked about graduating, Bevill had mixed emotions, “obviously it is heartbreaking with all the uncertainty right now, and I am so sad to leave this place. In a way, though, I am ready to leave campus because Wake has prepared me so well for the real world.”
