Ready for a bite of The Big Apple

Annabelle Smith, a Florence native and December 2019 graduate of FMU, always knew she was destined to move to the Big Apple and credits FMU for getting her there.

A year after graduating from Francis Marion with degrees in Human Resource Management and Marketing, Smith took a leap of faith and moved to New York City during the height of the pandemic. Careful planning and saving for a year while she stayed home and worked as director of programs for Extreme Cheer and Tumble – where she worked all throughout high school and college – allowed her to confidently move to the city without a job. 

Always true to herself, Smith gave herself a year in New York, enough time, she thought, to move into an apartment, get acclimated to big city life, and find a job. As you can imagine, finding a job while the world was shut down proved to be challenging, but if there was anyone up for a challenge, it was Smith.

She landed a job at Dow Jones, one of the largest business and financial news companies in the world. In her first year with the company, she was selected for the prestigious America’s Rookie of the Year Award based on her stellar performance. This wasn’t the only achievement she had during her first year — she was also promoted to New Business Sales Executive, quite a feat at a company of the caliber of Dow Jones.

All of this, she says, can be attributed to the education she received at Francis Marion. 

“I feel confident that wherever I go in my career, I have a great foundation thanks to the education and support I received during my time at FMU.”

She also credits the university’s faculty, in particular, Dr. Kay Lawrimore-Belanger, professor of marketing, for setting her up for success. 

“Dr. Lawrimore had a huge impact on me during my time at FMU,” says Smith. “The constant encouragement as well as the push she gives her students to be better and learn more is truly amazing. I find myself pulling out old notes from her class even today to help me in my current role. To me, that’s something that’s pretty special.”

Lawrimore also had nothing but praise for Smith.

“So often, I’ll have students walk in on the first day of class and tell me they are going to move to New York and work in marketing,” says Lawrimore-Belanger. “When Annabelle told me she aspired to do that, I knew she would. I couldn’t be more proud of the business woman she has become.”

A 2017 graduate of South Florence High School, Smith had an extensive college search, looking at many schools of business. She knew she wanted to study business and had a checklist of items she was looking for in a university: national recognition, small class sizes, personal attention, and the ability to work while in school. Francis Marion checked each box for her.

Smith was particularly impressed that FMU’s School of Business holds AACSB-International accreditation, something that only 5% of business schools in the world have. This accreditation checked box one for Smith.

Knowing her ultimate goal was to move to NYC after graduating, she wanted to be able to work and study at the same time. This was something she found she could do easily at FMU, as she was able to continue the job she held throughout high school during her college years. Box number two, checked.

She also knew she wanted a place where she’d be challenged to grow, but have smaller classes where her professors knew her by name. With an average class size of 16, and faculty dedicated to getting to know their students on day one, FMU easily checked off this box.

During her two and a half years at FMU – she entered the university with quite a few credits – she studied Human Resource Management and Marketing. A creative person by nature, she knew she wanted to have a people-forward position, so learning about HR Management was the right track. After taking a marketing course required for all business majors regardless of focus, she decided to add marketing to her degree.

“I fell in love with marketing and the creative aspect of business during one of my early marketing classes,” says Smith. “I knew I wanted to work with people and help move them forward. The combination of marketing and HR management was the perfect fit for me.”

Not only were her areas of study the perfect fit for her, they also seemed to be the perfect fit for Dow Jones. Smith’s multifaceted role at the company allows her to work with many different areas within the organization. She is able to use the skills she learned in both marketing and HR management as she works with clients across the nation, as well as some of Dow Jones’ brands like the Wall Street Journal.