Jennifer Reynolds first acquired marketing experience as a young child. Her parents operated a line of organic snacks called Healthy Handfuls, and they enlisted Jennifer to help choose kid-friendly (and sales-driving) cartoon characters to grace the packaging of such snacks as Python Pretzels, Crocodile Cookers, and Lucky Duckies. And as a young “brand ambassador,” she accompanied her parents to food shows and talked with retailers and consumers about their products.

So perhaps it was inevitable that Jennifer eventually pursued a career in marketing. At Vanderbilt, she took both courses in the subject that were available to undergrads, but she knew she wanted more. The MMark program, she concluded, was the perfect next step. “I really wanted to fill my marketing toolbox with the skills necessary to succeed in this ever-changing field,” she says.

While she immersed herself in the program, Jennifer also was busy immersing herself in the Owen community, serving as a board member and content creator for the Owen Marketing Association and Owen Ventures and Entrepreneurship Club, and as a campus visit coordinator. Owen’s collaborative culture, she found, made it easy to get involved. “We all come from such different backgrounds, schools, and experiences, yet we all are united by a common passion for marketing,” she says. “Each of us brings something unique to the classroom, and we all have been able to work with each other in various groups. Everyone wants to work together, and professors truly want you to succeed in every way.”

The particular makeup of the MMark cohort—25 of the 31 students in her class is women—added to the confidence Jennifer has gained from her new skills. “I am constantly surrounded by other women who are intelligent, driven, caring, kind, and inspiring,” she says. “The ability for women to be leaders in groups, the classroom, student government, and clubs has allowed me to realize that this can transfer seamlessly to the workplace.”

Now, she is putting her marketing knowledge and leadership skills to work in the healthy snacks field where she got her start, as social media and digital marketing lead for DailyCrunch, whose crunchy, non-GMO sprouted nut snacks won the Good Housekeeping Award in 2020 for Best Healthy Snack.

Fun Fact: Jennifer’s favorite spot for live music in Nashville is The Listening Room.

The ability for women to be leaders in groups, the classroom, student government, and clubs has allowed me to realize that this can transfer seamlessly to the workplace.