Marquette senior named a 2026 Poets & Quants Best & Brightest Business Major

Jonalie Zamora, a senior studying marketing and information systems, was named a 2026 Best & Brightest Business Major by Poets&Quants For Undergrads. She joins a list of 100 top seniors from across the country on the annual Poets&Quants for Undergrads list.

"These are the real go-getters in their classes," says Jeff Schmitt, Poets&Quants For Undergrad's senior editor who launched the series in 2016. "They have this energy - this optimism - that draws classmates to them. They're the ones who put themselves out there; they take charge and mobilize people around them to get things done. The Best & Brightest graduates walk a tight balance - always living in the now with their eyes fixed on how to make the future better for everyone else. They truly embody the best of their classes and we're looking forward to seeing what they do after graduation."

An ambitious entrepreneur, Zamora started her first small art business at the age of seven. This creative spark led her to create a crochet brand, Little Artsy Aloe, and design the viral Surprise Bouquet Blanket. Zamora has sold over 15,000 crochet patterns and products to date. She is also involved in the Urban Scholars Program, manages the Student-Made Marquette website, and is the president of Kultura, a Filipino cultural dance group. Additionally, Zamora won the Coleman Foundation Award for passion and achievement in entrepreneurship.

"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 - finding the balance between rigid methodologies and creative chaos," says Zamora. "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. There's something beautiful that emerges when you combine a systematic approach with the right amount of creativity."

To compile this year's Best & Brightest students, Poets&Quants for Undergrads reached out to the 50 highest-ranked schools in its 2025 Undergraduate Business School Rankings, along with other leading global business schools.

"Jonalie is a hardworking and inclusive leader," says Dr. Terence Ow, Wipfli Fellow in Artificial Intelligence and professor of information systems and business analytics. "She approaches every idea with the goal of understanding its potential. 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 read the Best & Brightest Business Majors of 2026, click here.