Stephen Mitchell
Marquette University’s College of Business Administration
“An upbeat, joyful, friendly, caring guy, who’s always smiling and has never lost an argument.”
Fun fact about yourself: I enjoy building Legos in my free time and have a quite extensive collection that I am going to continue to grow.
Hometown: Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania
High School: Wilson High School
Major: Double major in Finance and Information Systems
Minor: N/A
Favorite Business Course: Business Law 3001 Legal and Ethical Environment
Extracurricular Activities, Community Work and Leadership Roles During College:
Extracurricular Activities: Marquette Men’s Basketball, The K1&Stewie Show (Podcast),
Leadership Roles: VP of Student Athlete Engagement Group (NCAA), Marquette University Athletics Board of Trustee Committee, VP of Student Athlete Advisory Council (Leader of DEI subcommittee), Leader on Marquette Men’s Basketball team
Community Work:
Reading with the Golden Eagles (Sharp Literacy) “Adopt a Classroom” – St. Catherine’s Elementary Class visits
Shopping with the Golden Eagles–Annual Christmas Service Project
WASA (Wisconsin Adaptive Sports Association) – Host wheelchair basketball
Served meals for homeless shelter (Thanksgiving) – Salvation Army
Milwaukee Juneteenth Day Parade volunteer
Hosted a free Back-to-School Basketball Camp on August 21, 2024, for children in my hometown community. This camp was not affiliated with any NIL deals and was solely focused on giving back, providing young athletes with skill development, mentorship, and an opportunity to engage in a positive and supportive environment before the school year begins.
School Awards and Honors:
2025 Outstanding Senior in Finance Award
2025 Big East Scholar-Athlete of the Year
2025 Outstanding Senior in Information Systems Award
Big East All-Academic team 2023-24, 2022-23, 2021-22
2023-24 College Sports Communicators Third Team Academic All-American
2024-2025 Finalist For Naismith Defensive Player Of The Year Among All NCAA Division 1 Basketball Players
Marquette University College of Business Administration Fall 2024 Dean’s List – College of Business Administration students are recognized by the dean as meeting Dean’s List requirements for the respective term if they complete at least 12 graded credits and have a minimum grade point average of 3.500.
I had a 4.0. Marquette Athletic Honor Roll-Fall 2024–recognized by the Vice President & Director of Athletics as meeting requirements for the respective term if they complete at least 12 graded credits and have a minimum grade point average of 3.0
Selected for Alpha Sigma Nu-Spring 2025–Alpha Sigma Nu honors students of Jesuit colleges and universities who distinguish themselves in scholarship, loyalty, and service. Student membership is conferred on not more than five percent of the junior and senior class. Candidates must rank in the top fifteen percent of their class (Induction March 2nd).
January 2025 Acceptance into Beta Gamma Sigma, the international honor society for students in business administration. Membership in Beta Gamma Sigma is the highest honor that the College of Business Administration and Graduate School of Management can bestow upon a student. Only business schools which are fully accredited by the AACSB International may have BGS chapters (Recognition will take place Sunday, April 6th, 2025)
Where have you interned during your college career? Research Intern for the Private Asset Management Team at Baird located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Where will you be working after graduation? I do not know yet. I want to play basketball as long as possible and then transition into the business world when I am done.
Who is your favorite business professor? This is a hard one because I’ve had a lot of great professors during my time at Marquette. If I had to choose one, however, I would choose Dr. Terrence Ow. Without Professor Ow, I would never have even thought about making information systems my second major. In the required course I had with him, he demonstrated a genuine care not only for my learning, but for me as well. When he brought up the possibility of making information systems my second major, I was excited because of the relationship we had developed. Since making that decision, I have had a few more classes with him and have gone to his office hours many times. He went out of his way to help me with a lot of things and our relationship has grown even stronger. He always has my best interests at heart and I am extremely grateful of him for that.
What is the biggest lesson you gained from studying business? The biggest lesson I gained from studying business is that it is okay to ask for help when I don’t understand something. Early in my business school career, I was reluctant to ask questions because I was around a bunch of unfamiliar people and I didn’t want to come across as being clueless or as a try-hard. I quickly realized, however, that the most important thing was understanding what was being taught, so I could do my best and get the most out of the class. This realization allowed me to thrive because I was no longer masking my insecurity. My professors Ialso made this easier because they were all willing to answer any questions I had.
What advice would you give to a student looking to major in a business-related field? I would tell the student to develop genuine relationships with professors. A lot of the professors have been in industry and have a lot of connections that they can use to help you. If you have a real relationship with the professor, it will be easier to ask for help if you don’t understand something or if life happens and you need an accommodation on a test or assignment. It’ll also just be more of an enjoyable experience if you know and can talk to these professors about things beyond schoolwork. The main ways to develop these relationships is through going to class, participating in class, and speaking with them before or after class.
Looking back over your experience, what is the one thing you’d do differently in business school and why? One thing I would do differently is get to know more of my peers. Although I think I was able to get to know a decent amount of my classmates, I feel like I could’ve formed more relationships. I think it is good to get to know people especially people who go to the same school and are studying the same thing as me. A lot of my classmates will most likely go on to be successful in their careers and I think these connections down the line could be important.
What is one way that your business school has integrated AI into your programming? What is one insight you gained from using AI? One way that business school integrated AI into the programming is through a class called Emerging Technologies. In this class, we learned a lot about AI and even learned how to create our own large language model. One insight I gained was how one AI search requires a crazy amount of energy. This made me think about how sustainable AI is and its ethical use. One useful thing I also learned about is AI hallucinations. Because AI tries to predict the next word based on previous words, it can give wrong information. After learning this, I started doing the same search multiple times to make sure I am getting the correct feedback to whatever I’m searching for.
Which academic, extracurricular or personal achievement are you most proud of? The thing I am most proud of is the positive impact I’ve had on people during my time here. Personal awards and achievements only impact my life. I’ve been able to share the joy, heart and spirit that God has blessed me with to impact many people’s lives. My life also is positively impacted by this because it has allowed me to find and work towards fulfilling my purpose, rather than chasing awards and recognition.
Which classmate do you most admire? My classmate I admire most is Cameron Brown. I admire him because we have taken a lot of classes together over the four years we’ve been at Marquette. He is on the basketball team as well, so he also has had to find ways to balance all the hours and travel that that requires with school. He has also helped me plenty of times when there have been things that I didn’t understand in a class that we shared. Whether it was a homework assignment, class assignment, or preparation for an upcoming test, he was always someone I could go to for help. In addition, we have spent countless hours together figuring out things that neither of us understood on our own. I also admire him because he was always on time and participates in class. I would not have had the success I’ve had in college without him, so not only do I admire him, I am also extremely grateful for him.
Who would you most want to thank for your success? I would most want to thank Jesus for my success. I would not be here without Him; I would not be blessed with an incredible family and incredible friends without Him; I would not have the joyful and loving spirit I have without Him; I would not have been able to make it through times of adversity without Him; and I would not have been able to overcome times of doubt and fear without Him. This list could go on forever and that’s because there are so many aspects of life that have brought me to where I am at today and made me who I am today. At times, I’ve lost hope, but Jesus has never allowed me to lose belief in myself and the positive impact I can have on others, which is why I’ve always been able to keep moving forward and reach moments of success despite moments of failure.
What are the top two items on your professional bucket list? I want to own my own Ccmpany. I want to impact people’s lives in a positive way on a large scale.
What made Stevie such an invaluable addition to the Class of 2025?
“When I think of the Marquette Business senior class of 2025, the one student who comes to my mind is Stevie Mitchell. I am confident that many of my peers will come to the same conclusion. Stevie is a double major in information systems and finance, but to many of the students, he is also the heart and soul of Marquette Golden Eagles basketball.
Stevie is humble and an intellectually curious student. His competitive spirit on the court is also evident in the classroom. Stevie excels in the business curriculum with a GPA close to a perfect 4.0. He enjoys the rigorous coursework in information systems that requires him to be able to code several different languages, including Python, C#, and in PHP for various courses across several semesters. As part of his capstone class in information systems, he was part of a team that created a prototype system on Salesforce for the Treasure Chest Foundation, a nonprofit organization that works with donors and hospitals to provide toys and gifts. His deliverables were of the highest quality. Stevie is always highly engaged.
He pays rigorous attention to details to solve problems in programming; as an example, he put in copious amounts of work analyzing his opponents’ tendencies, which allowed him to create turnovers for his team. His classmates at Marquette marvel at his commitment and excellence in coursework. Stevie is an also unspoken role model for our students as a minority pursuing a STEM-based major in information systems.
For his efforts, Stevie Mitchell has been BIG EAST all-academic for several seasons and is one of this year’s 15 finalists for the Naismith national defensive player of the year. Balancing both of these commitments at the highest level is commendable. He is one of the best business students I’ve ever taught.”
Dr. Terence Thong-Hwee Ow
Professor of Information Systems, Analytics and Supply Chain Management
Wipfli Fellow in Artificial Intelligence
Marquette University
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