Big Blue by Way of Burundi

Stephie Morene Niyomwungere, Class of 2023, is ready to graduate from Millikin this spring. A Digital Media Marketing major in the Tabor School of Business, Stephie’s experiences with Performance Learning through her classes, internships and student-run ventures have helped her earn a job opportunity in New York with Google, which will start after she graduates. 

Stephie came to Decatur from Burundi in East Africa. She found Millikin through a friend of her father and was excited to study in the United States. Even though she intended to study Biology when she first arrived, it was her father’s success in business that inspired her to pursue a business degree at Millikin. Quickly, Stephie realized how much she loved her business classes in Tabor.

Stephie said that one of her current classes is acting as a consulting agency to a client located in Mexico who wants to expand into the U.S. Their research and advising will help the client plan and create a strategy for the future of his company.

While at Millikin, Stephie has kept busy by taking advantage of as many opportunities as possible on campus. “Millikin helped me find myself and what I like to do. There are so many skills, whether professional or personal skills, that I didn’t have before Millikin,” Stephie said.

During her sophomore year, she became a Residential, Academic and Peer Mentor, and she is also involved with the African Student Organization and the International Student Organization. Additionally, she is a Senior Consultant for the student-run venture, Millikin Tabor Consulting, and President of Tabor Business Club.

These experiences are what Stephie says led to her success during her summer internship in Chicago with CDW LLC, a technology company headquartered in Lincolnshire, Ill. In her role as a Technical Sales Intern, she worked alongside the sales team and performed market research for clients.

Throughout her internship, Stephie developed a project about supply diversity, which she describes as facilitating opportunities for small businesses to work with large businesses. “I was selected among over 200 students for the opportunity to present my project to the CEO,” she said. "I had a really great experience at my internship, and I feel like Millikin had a great deal to do with that."

The Performance Learning opportunities she gained during her four years at Millikin provided Stephie with the skills and confidence to apply for a position at Google. She said that, while the hiring process was stressful because of the highly competitive environment, she’s confident that she will succeed in the position because she already has experience performing the work that she will be doing in New York with Google.

Though she feels fully prepared to graduate and is looking forward to her move to New York, she knows she will miss the school where she spent the last four years. “I’m so used to Millikin and the life I have here with my friends and my professors. I’ve made some really awesome connections,” she said.