Academic Feature

Alumni Success Stories

From the rudimentary courses first offered in 1867, the Oakley School of Business has evolved into a rigorous and challenging academic discipline within the broad context of a Franciscan liberal arts education, attracting a significant share of Quincy University students.

by Jen Wingerter ’13

If there is one thing Jarja Phillips ’98 always had, it was a plan.

Upon arriving at QU, she worked hard to be a successful student-athlete and earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing. She chose a field that offered versatility, long-term agility, and transferable skills across any industry. Reflecting, she recognizes that she had many incredible experiences and people that helped her accomplish her plan and prepared her for where she is today. Her parents instilled a strong work ethic, integrity, high character, and the space to accomplish what she set her mind to. She found a similar environment and values at QU that helped her transition from a successful student to having a successful career.

One person, in particular, she gives credit to for changing the trajectory of her professional and personal life.

QU seeks to help students develop a clear vision for life, a desire for students to have physical and emotional strength rooted in Christian values, the courage to discover and actualize one’s potential, and to be decisive, thoughtful leaders.

-Jarja Phillips

1998 graduate

“Professor Duckworth (Brenda Duckworth Bradford) demonstrated strong industry expertise of the marketing discipline with such depth and breadth,” said Phillips. “She had a fascinating and effective teaching style, creating a learning environment that established a connection with each student for content mastery.” While at QU, Phillips participated in the award-winning QU Free Enterprise (SIFE) team as an officer. The 1998 team, led by Duckworth, competed in the Regional SIFE Competition and won every category they entered. As regional champions, the QU SIFE team competed at the National SIFE Exposition in Kansas City, Mo. It was there Phillips accepted a job offer from Walmart that began her 20-year career with the company. “I was fortunate to receive a quality education and experiences that provided me the skills to work for some of the best Fortune 500 companies and become a successful human resource executive,” said Phillips. “I am so grateful for my time at QU.” During Phillip’s tenure at Walmart, she held multiple leadership positions spanning operations and human resources. Because Walmart believes in building cross-functional talent, Phillips transitioned from store operations, where she was responsible for managing people, merchandising, and multi-million profit and loss, into human resources, where she served as senior regional human resource business partner and the director of labor relations. After a successful career at Walmart, she worked for three years as a senior director of human resources at Comcast NBC Universal. In 2021, she accepted the position as the vice president of field human resources for Kohl’s Corporation, where she supports more than 80,000 associates across 1,166 stores.

QU helps transisiton individuals from successful students to having successful careers.

For Cale Newlin ’07, QU was the perfect place to discover what career he wanted to pursue.

“I knew I wanted to do something in the business realm,” said Newlin. “One of the offensive lineman I played football with at QU was getting a finance degree, so I figured I would too. At least we would be in all the same classes and help each other out when studying for exams. We are best friends to this day. It was a great experience with fantastic professors, and if I could do it over again, I would make the same decision without hesitation.” Newlin found the curriculum challenging and exciting. He enjoyed learning to run a business in his senior year experience class with Professor Magliari. “That class was a great experience and preparation for life outside college,” said Newlin. Part of what made the class so memorable was Professor Magliari.

Everyone called him Mags [Professor Magliari], and he had a passion for teaching and the success of students. I was very sad to hear of his passing, but his legacy lives on in the students he influenced through the years.

-Cale Newlin

2007 graduate

Newlin began his career as a compliance officer acting as an internal auditor and reviewing loans for a small community bank in Herrin, Ill. In 2014, the bank was purchased by another local commercial bank, and Newlin accepted a promotion as a commercial lender and, a short time later, to assistant vice president. He stayed at the bank until 2017, when he took a position as a commercial lender for a bank in Marion, Ill. In January 2021, he started with Murphy-Wall State Bank as its vice president of commercial lending. Newlin pivoted in January 2022 and accepted a position at Edward Jones.