Making Quinlan a home
Jillian Cole, double majoring in International Business and Information Systems, is planning a career in data analytics.
St. Louis native Jillian Cole (BBA ’26) remembers exactly when she decided that Loyola’s Quinlan School of Business was the right choice for her. She was standing in the Schreiber Center during a campus visit and gazing at the Chicago skyline through the windows.
“It just felt right,” she says. “After meeting professors and learning about all that Quinlan offered, I knew that this was where I was called to be.”
Over the next four years, Cole excelled in school and her extracurriculars. In recognition of her impact, she was selected as the 2026 President’s Medallion recipient from the Quinlan School of Business.
Building new connections
Cole did not know anyone in the Loyola community when she arrived for college, but that didn’t stop her. At the beginning of every semester, Cole met with her professors and felt a great sense of welcome each time she stopped by their office hours.
“My parents have always taught me to always put myself out there,” Cole said. “It’s been an amazing way to not only get to know faculty and for them to know your face, but whenever there’s been an issue, it’s been easy to resolve it.”
She took a similar approach to her social life. As a Quinlan Business Honors student, she lived in Francis Hall on the same floor as other Business Honors students. Leaving their door open, she and her roommates pushed passed discomfort and made the effort to make friends.
“We were very much ‘what am I doing’ but at the same time, it’s worth it to be uncomfortable for a few minutes so that you can have these lifetime friends,” Cole said.
Embracing a challenge
Throughout her time at Quinlan, Cole felt pushed by faculty to make the most of her experience.
In her first visit to campus, Cole met with Amy Kyhos, who was the director of the Quinlan Business Honors program at the time. Cole was inspired by Kyhos’s leadership and as a senior, Cole worked her way up to president of the Quinlan Business Honors program.
In her first Quinlan class, Cole was challenged by Professor Lisa Gillespie.
“We left the class shell-shocked because it was everybody’s first class ever, but we were transformed by the end of freshman year,” Cole said. “You had to put in the work to earn the grade you wanted, but Professor Gillespie was always there to guide us if we needed help.”
Cole’s first major was international business, but she quickly added a second major after taking an information systems class with Professor Nenad Jukic.
“He made the material so interesting and so fun, and he encouraged me to add the second major when I went to talk to him about it,” Cole said. “The people here made the decision to come to Quinlan really easy and then helped me find my way.”
From college to career
Inspired by her classes and professors, Cole is pursuing a career in data analysis. In summer 2025, she leveraged connections in Quinlan to land an IT internship with Wabtec. In her role, she worked with spreadsheets, coding, user applications, and more.
“It was a really cool, full view picture of IT which really helped me narrow down what I want to do,” Cole said.
She’s now working her Quinlan connections and interviewing for her first post-college role.
In reflecting on her Quinlan journey, she urges students to take advantage of all the opportunities available to them.
“Quinlan is what you make of it. You’ve got to put yourself out there and do it. It’s hard, but it’s so worth it,” Cole said.