Jonalie Zamora
Marquette University’s College of Business Administration
“An ambitious artpreneur led by her inner child who brings whimsical dreams to life.”
Fun fact about yourself: I’ve been starting small art businesses since I was seven years old, when I sold my first product, the “Turbo-Charged Paper Airplane.” Years later, that same creative spark led me to design the viral Surprise Bouquet Blanket, an original crochet blanket that transforms into a bouquet! Since 2022, I’ve grown my crochet brand, Little Artsy Aloe, selling over 15,000 crochet patterns and products while building a business around capturing the joy in the little things.
Hometown: Milwaukee, Wisconsin
High School: St. Thomas More High School
Major: Marketing, Information Systems
Minor: N/A
Favorite Business Course: Introduction to Information Systems – INSY 3001
Extracurricular Activities, Community Work and Leadership Roles During College:
Urban Scholars Program
A scholarship awarded to students who demonstrate commitment to leadership in academics and service to their communities. Urban Scholars participate in frequent community service activities, such as the two provided below among others, throughout each semester while maintaining high academic standing.
Volunteering Activities
Urban Scholars Retreat Leader – Lead freshman retreat activities to communicate the program’s emphasis on honor, justice, academic excellence, and service to others.
Scholars’ Keepers – Mentored an underclassman Urban Scholar to provide guidance on their college journey regarding class selections, degree paths, resources, and the general college experience.
Coleman Foundation Award for exhibiting a strong passion for entrepreneurship and my dedication to selling crochet amigurumi and my involvement in Student-Made Marquette.
Brewed Ideas Challenge: 2nd Place Traditional Business Category and Alumni’s Choice
I placed second in a Shark Tank style pitch competition and received the Alumni’s Choice Award for my unique ideas and contagious optimism.
Student-Made Marquette
Student-Made Marquette is a student-led program that helps student artists and entrepreneurs sell their artwork. As a website manager, I connect students with helpful selling resources and act as an ambassador to promote and manage students’ products. As a creator myself, I also sell my crochet products and patterns through the program.
Kultura President
Kultura is a Filipino cultural dance group that competes in the annual Battle of the Bamboo competition in Chicago. As president, I select a Filipino folktale and design a performance around it. I research the origins behind the story and the region it’s from, then I choreograph and teach the dances associated with the story. I also design and create all the props and costumes for our performance, and I engage in fundraising to procure high-quality materials.
Other Orgs
I’m an active member in two cultural orgs, Bayanihan Student Organization and Vietnamese Student Organization, where I learn traditional cultural dances and promote their cultures. I’m also a member of Art Club, where I learn various art forms.
Little Artsy Aloe – Owner
I founded my own crochet design business, Little Artsy Aloe, where I sell handmade crochet products and original designs, such as the Surprise Bouquet Blanket pattern.
Where have you interned during your college career? Accenture, Milwaukee Office – Management Consultant
Where will you be working after graduation? Management Consultant – Accenture
Who is your favorite business professor? Dr. Terence Ow is my favorite business professor because he has invested in me from the very beginning. We met at an award ceremony in my freshman year, where I was the only freshman to receive an award. He encouraged me to take his Intro to Information Systems class, but also followed through in ensuring that I took it. Since then, he has offered me guidance and pushed me in directions I never knew existed, and I am a better person because of it. I sincerely believe that he sees the spark in students before they see it in themselves, and this is because he views students holistically as individuals with unique abilities. His genuine desire to watch students flourish and his passion for what he teaches sets him apart as from the rest of the world as an excellent teacher and mentor. As a plus, he also has a great sense of humor!
What is the biggest lesson you gained from studying business? The biggest lesson I’ve learned from studying business is that success relies on a healthy balance between thinking inside and outside of the box, rigid methodologies, and creative chaos. Some might think you need to choose one or the other, but success comes from the intersection of both! We can learn a lot from following the frameworks established by those before us, but businesses reach a unique level of success when they add twists to the frameworks that leverage their brand strengths and support their missions. In my case, as a crochet pattern designer, I tend to start with creative ideas. In order to bring those ideas to life, I need to know my way around crochet, which is rooted in more mathematical equations than one might think. By using my programming knowledge, I can plug in those equations to design my design process easier. You’d usually never think of crochet and programming code in the same sentence, but there’s something beautiful that emerges when you combine a systematic approach with the right amount of creativity.
What advice would you give to a student looking to major in a business-related field? Talk about your dreams! Many professors in the business fields have real-life experience on how to reach your goals and can provide invaluable advice and mentorship. Professors are happy to help you when they know what you hope to achieve! This is also a great way to network and sell yourself as a great candidate for the business world.
I’d also like to emphasize that being a business major does not mean you need to force yourself to fit into the boring suit-and-tie mold. When I started out, I worried that I would need to ditch my artsy interests to fit in. Nowadays, I know that fully embracing both my personal hobbies and my career makes me a unique and creative candidate that can bring more to the job than what already exists!
Looking back over your experience, what is the one thing you’d do differently in business school and why? I wish I attended more events. The business school provided many networking opportunities and panels to learn from industry experts, but I often convinced myself that I wasn’t prepared for these events. Had I gone sooner, I believe I would’ve gained more experience and fascinating insights into the business world that you can’t learn in a classroom. Relationships are possibly the most valuable asset in building a career, so it’s better to build a network as soon as possible!
What is one way that your business school has integrated AI into your programming? What is one insight you gained from using AI? In my Information Systems classes, we’ve often visited the topic of how AI is being used today and how it will change the future of how businesses operate. We’ve been given the opportunity to learn how to apply AI in different contexts, such as the business world, to aid our own goals. One particularly interesting insight that I’ve learned is that the value of implementing AI isn’t simply completing repetitive and data-heavy tasks to save humans the trouble. AI is most valuable when humans think critically about how to delegate tasks to an AI to fully transform and enhance the way they complete their work. AI can be used as advisors to identify our shortfalls or patterns that humans would struggle to identify on our own. By challenging AI to do things that are simply unachievable by human hands, we can reach new heights.
Which academic, extracurricular or personal achievement are you most proud of? The extracurricular achievement I’m most proud of was directing a performance called The Legend of the Sampaguita as president of Kultura. That performance was the culmination of three years of researching, planning, designing, and ultimately, dreaming. I had only a month and a half to put the ambitious performance together, and I spent many long nights on-campus either teaching dances to my performers or sewing costumes that I funded myself. The Legend of the Sampaguita was truly a passion project from the bottom of my heart, and I can’t describe the joy I felt onstage when I learned our performance won 3rd place at Battle of the Bamboo, a rigorous cultural storytelling dance competition in which we were always the smallest competing school. Through the whole process, I learned the art of project management and people coordination, forged lifelong friendships, and made enough memories to last me a lifetime.
Which classmate do you most admire? The classmate I admire most is Jose Rojo. Jose and I have been friends since our freshman year, and I’ve always admired his dedication and ambition. Whenever I see him, he is almost always hard at work on his accounting studies. He is also incredibly supportive and down-to-earth, and he’s offered a lot of guidance to our underclassmen friends. He is a man who is paving his own path, and I’m excited for what his future has in store.
Who would you most want to thank for your success? I would like to thank my dad for my success. Growing up, he taught me how important it was to stay resilient in the face of adversity. He is the kind of person who looks at a problem and says, “I can fix this myself,” a behavior that I have learned from him. He taught me how to break down problems and seek out solutions, albeit sometimes unconventional. He also worked so hard to ensure that I’d have a good education and always hoped I’d rise above him. He didn’t always understand my ideas, but he’s always chosen to trust in my ideas and support me through and through. I wouldn’t be where I am today without my dad’s support, and for that, I’m forever grateful.
What are the top two items on your professional bucket list?
- Establish a scholarship fund for non-traditional students in the business school.
- Publish a book full of my crochet patterns that also teaches artists the principles of crochet design.
What made Jonalie such an invaluable addition to the Class of 2026?
“Few would have noticed Jonalie, an Urban Milwaukee Scholar, when she arrived on campus as a freshman. In the four years since, Jonalie has made an undeniable mark at Marquette University. Jonalie is a first-generation degree-seeking student in her family. She came to Marquette with an entrepreneurial mind full of ideas stemming from her skills in designing and love of creating. She crochets novelties such as baskets and flowers and sells them on the Student-Made Marquette online platform. Very often she can be spotted with one of her unique designs. She has also made several podcasts at Marquette sharing her successful journey of creating and selling goods with students. She has channeled her creative entrepreneurial mind to pursue a double major in marketing and information systems. She explained to me that an inquisitive and open mind, understanding customer needs and attention to detail are the same traits you need whether you design a crochet basket or an information system.
Those who have worked with Jonalie described her as a hardworking and inclusive leader. She believes in everyone on her team and approaches every idea with the goal of understanding its potential. Her background and involvement in many cultural groups provides the perspective that large contributions can come over time, and encouraging small, positive ideas in the beginning can lead to bigger and bolder ideas in the future. The care and consideration Jonalie brings to each component of a project — from concept to design to prototype implementation — shows her leadership, teamwork and unrelenting drive to succeed.
To name just a few standout accolades, Jonalie is the president of culture club Kultura, involved in the Information Technology Student Organization, the second-place winner in the Brewed Ideas Challenge (a Shark Tank-style pitch competition) and the recipient of the Coleman Foundation Award for entrepreneurship service and leadership. Jonalie has embraced everything that Marquette Business has provided. Coupled with her near perfect grades and accepted career offer as a management consulting analyst at Accenture, the sky is the limit for Jonalie. This award is truly deserving for one of Marquette’s best and brightest business undergraduate students.”
Dr. Terence Thong-Hwee Ow
Professor of Information Systems and Business Analytics
Wipfli Fellow in Artificial Intelligence
Marquette University
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