Excellence in a Discipline | 2023-24
Jowei Yek
Excellence in a Discipline | Professional Master of Business Administration
What is your favorite Seidman memory?
All of my favorite memories are made in the Richard M. and Helen
DeVos Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation (CEI). My favorite
memory would have to be when I created a new business idea a few days
before pitching it at the GVSU Idea Pitch Competition in 2021. Before
that, I had zero interest in starting a business. Even though I only
took home second place, that experience propelled me into 3 years of
entrepreneurial pursuit.
Our building namesake – Bill Seidman – exhibited many
desirable traits of a leader such as innovator, integrity, curiosity
and future-minded. How did your experience at Seidman help you
develop one or more of these traits?
Through my Graduate Assistantship at the CEI, I helped student
entrepreneurs and local business owners nurture their dreams and
livelihoods. The business consulting process required me to ask good
questions and listen actively. Creativity is usually embedded within
the entrepreneurs, but my experience in consulting allowed me to pull
great ideas out of their heads, and push those ideas to be more novel,
exciting, and future-proof in the ever-changing market.
What would you like people in the community to know about
Seidman graduates like you?
Seidman graduates are some of the most driven students I have met
in my 7 years at GVSU. We are all trying to be change-bringers,
path-makers, and visionaries in the communities we inhabit. Seidman
students are always finding opportunities to network, volunteer their
time and talent, and most importantly, share their resources and ideas
with one another. Grand Rapids business leaders should be thrilled to
welcome this wave of ambitious young professionals.
What is your career aspiration?
While I foresee entrepreneurship in the future, I aspire to start
designing human-centered and business-minded operational processes for
a growing organization in Grand Rapids after I graduate.
How did your time at Seidman College prepare you to contribute
to your community as a Laker for a Lifetime?
The Professional Master of Business Administration (PMBA) program
stress-tested everything I knew about business. It honed me into a
sharper leader prepared me to take on nuanced challenges like climate
change, artificial intelligence, and talent shortages that are headed
toward Grand Rapids and the world. In these volatile times, I am
grateful that my Seidman education prepared me to be adaptive, bold,
and considerate of people and our planet.
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