Maddie Shannon
Wake Forest University School of Business
“Honest, driven, community-focused leader who turns initiative and compassion into meaningful impact.”
Fun fact about yourself: I am a huge Chicago Cubs fan!
Hometown: Charlotte, North Carolina
High School: Charlotte Latin School
Major: Business and Enterprise Management
Minor: Entrepreneurship
Favorite Business Course: Management Information Systems or Legal Environment of Business
Extracurricular Activities, Community Work and Leadership Roles During College:
- Beta Gamma Sigma Business Honors Society — Inductee (Spring 2025)
- Omicron Delta Kappa Leadership Honors Society — Inductee (Spring 2024)
- Alpha Kappa Psi Professional Business Fraternity — Inductee (Spring 2023); Alumni Relations Chair (Fall 2023); President (2025)
- Undergraduate Business Student Council — Events and Community Building Chair (Spring 2024–Present)
- Jam for Janey 3v3 Basketball Tournament Fundraiser — Founder and President (Spring 2024–Present)
- Women’s Club Basketball — Treasurer (Fall 2023–Present)
- Traditions Council — Selected Member (Fall 2022–Present)
- Kappa Delta Sorority — Member (Spring 2023–Present); Intramural Chair (Fall 2025–Present)
Where have you interned during your college career?
Amwins, Special Risk Underwriters Intern, Summer 2024
Barings, Corporate Accounting Intern, Summer 2025
Where will you be working after graduation? Barings, Corporate Finance & Operations Associate
Who is your favorite business professor? My favorite business professor is Professor Greg Pool. He teaches entrepreneurship, and his real-world experience makes his class incredibly engaging. In his course, we were tasked with creating our own entrepreneurial venture, and he pushed us out of our comfort zones by encouraging in-person customer discovery with local residents we didn’t know. While I was building a prototype for my Myers-Briggs-oriented guided journal, Professor Pool advised me to visit coffee shops around Winston-Salem to test whether the product would resonate. I’m now a teaching assistant for his course and hope to become an entrepreneur myself someday.
What is the biggest lesson you gained from studying business? The biggest lesson I’ve gained from studying business is that business is everywhere. After serving as president of the professional business fraternity Alpha Kappa Psi, I worked closely with underclassmen pursuing all kinds of paths—medical school, law school, the music industry, and investment banking—and what connected them all was business. No matter the field, networking and strong communication skills are essential and relevant to any career.
What advice would you give to a student looking to major in a business-related field? I would encourage any student considering a business-related major to leave as many doors open as possible. Students often box themselves into the preconception that they need to become an investment banker or a Big Four accountant. However, there are countless companies and career paths they’ll never discover if they narrow their focus too early. I chose to major in general business rather than finance or accounting because I wanted a more well-rounded business education, and I’m grateful for the opportunity to take uniquely required Wake Forest business courses like leadership, ethics, and professional development.
Looking back over your experience, what is the one thing you’d do differently in business school and why? Looking back on my experience, the one thing I would do differently is take better advantage of the career coaches at Wake Forest. The Wake Forest School of Business hires incredible experts, and I don’t think I fully utilized them throughout my internship and job search process. I’ve always been very proactive and heavily involved on campus, often taking the initiative to network, apply, and prepare on my own. While that independence helped me grow, I sometimes leaned too much on figuring things out myself instead of strategically using the resources that were readily available to me. In hindsight, combining my initiative with more intentional use of the career coaching team would have made the process even stronger.
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 my business school has integrated AI into the curriculum was through an Introduction to Consulting course I took this past fall that was co-taught with Deloitte. A GPS Consultant and Wake Forest alum, Grace Lyons, emphasized how crucial it is to know how to ask questions effectively when using AI and where to be specific within prompts. It was fascinating to see how consultants use artificial intelligence in their day-to-day work to solve problems. I’m grateful that many Wake Forest business courses are open to the use of AI and recognize that, in the real world, it’s a tool you’ll have at your disposal. Learning how to structure better prompts has made my AI outputs far more thorough and sophisticated, and it’s changed the way I approach problem-solving and research.
Which academic, extracurricular or personal achievement are you most proud of? I am most proud of founding Jam for Janey, a 3v3 basketball tournament fundraiser in honor of my best friend, Janey Thompson, who passed away in April 2024. Janey was not only my best friend at Wake Forest, but also my teammate on the club basketball team and a loyal, dedicated Deacon sports fan alongside me. We created the tournament to bring the undergraduate Wake Forest community together after experiencing this loss collectively, and the day itself was filled with laughter and connection across so many different organizations on campus—exactly what Janey would have wanted. My close friends and I were able to channel our grief into something positive, ultimately raising over $130,000 to endow a physics scholarship in her name. It was incredibly meaningful this past fall to meet the student who received the scholarship and see Janey’s legacy continue through them.
Which classmate do you most admire? I most admire my classmate Theo Berson. Theo is incredibly involved on campus and puts 100% into everything he does. Beyond that, he consistently encourages the people around him to do the same. He often pushes me to invest my time in what I’m truly passionate about and holds me accountable to live up to everything I’m capable of. Theo served as Executive Director of Hit the Bricks, Wake Forest’s largest philanthropic event, which raised over $350,000 this past fall. He also served under me as Vice President of Membership for Alpha Kappa Psi. Despite being so deeply involved across campus, he always makes time for others and still manages to execute everything he takes on at an incredibly high level.
Who would you most want to thank for your success? I would most want to thank my brother, Jack, because even though he’s younger than me, he’s been a huge source of inspiration for my success. On our weekly phone calls, he’s always asking what I’m up to, and I love getting to tell him about the new leadership roles I’m taking on or the events I’m planning for the organizations I’m involved in. Knowing that he’s genuinely interested in and proud of what I’m doing motivates me to keep pushing myself and making the most of every opportunity.
What are the top two items on your professional bucket list? The top two items on my professional bucket list both tie closely to my long-term goals.
First, I’ve always been passionate about travel, especially hotels and resorts—and I would love to own and operate a hotel in the United States someday once I have the experience and capital to invest in that entrepreneurial venture.
Second, since I’ll be working in accounting after graduation, I want to earn my CPA within my first two years at Barings. I plan to take the additional accounting courses needed to meet the hour requirement and then begin studying for the exams as soon as I’m eligible.
What made Maddie such an invaluable addition to the Class of 2026?
“Maddie stands out as one of those rare students who combines intellectual rigor with genuine curiosity and creativity, along with a deep generosity toward her peers. In class, she consistently engages at a high analytical level, not only mastering the technical material but also pushing discussions further by asking thoughtful, integrative questions. She has a strong ability to connect concepts across domains and to think in systems rather than in isolated pieces, which is a distinguishing strength in business education.
What makes Maddie especially impressive, however, is her initiative. She does not simply complete assignments to meet expectations. She looks for ways to deepen them, to apply ideas to real contexts, and to elevate the quality of team outcomes. Her contributions make group work stronger and class discussions richer.
She is also exceptionally detail-oriented and proactive. As my TA, she frequently works ahead and takes initiative on tasks I have not even formally assigned, anticipating what would be helpful and finding ways to make processes more efficient. That level of ownership and foresight is rare and speaks to both her intellectual maturity and her commitment to excellence.
Beyond her academic performance, Maddie brings professionalism, reliability, humility, and a quiet confidence that positively shapes the learning environment around her. She represents the kind of student who not only excels individually but also raises the standard for those around her.”
Victoria Reibenspiess
Assistant Professor
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