“My personal mantra, “Living Legacy & Leadership,” describes my passion for family, learning, and leadership.”
Fun fact about yourself: I grew up in New Jersey, then moved in high school to the Chicago suburbs.
Hometown: Barrington, Illinois
High School: Barrington High School
Major: Marketing
Minor: N/A
Favorite Business Course: ESP 252 with Jim Friedman
Extracurricular Activities, Community Work and Leadership Roles During College:
Business Honors Cohort
ESP 103 Undergraduate Assistant
VP of External Relations (Business Student Advisory Council)
VP of Philanthropy (AKPsi Business Fraternity)
Director of Recruitment (AKPsi Business Fraternity)
Founding Executive Vice President (The Levant Group)
President (The Levant Group)
FSB Careers Ambassador
Dean’s List (All semesters)
- Startup Weekend 1st Place
- Honors Senior Marketing Capstone Winner
Where have you interned during your college career? (List Companies, Locations and Roles) Giordano Dance Chicago, Development Intern (Summer 2023) hand2mind, Marketing Intern (Summer 2024)
Procter & Gamble, Sales Intern (Summer 2025)
Local Style Chips, Intern (Winter 2025/2026)
Where will you be working after graduation? (Include company and title)
Procter & Gamble, Full-Time Sales Role
Who is your favorite business professor? My favorite professor is Jan Taylor. She stands out as the most influential professor in my college career because she gave me the confidence to chase the most ambitious goals and opportunities. She has a way of making every student feel seen and special. For me, that’s influenced how I view myself and my future for the better.
What is the biggest lesson you gained from studying business? At my P&G Internship, I was told that the #1 thing I needed to do was “know your business”. At the time, I took this to mean understanding the data and trends of my isolated job. As I’ve grown over this past year, I’ve realised it has a much greater meaning. “Know your business” means understanding the living system your work operates within, the individual goals and relationships within the system, and how your personality and workstyle can fit in to maximize the team goal. This lesson is all about context, ownership, and self-awareness.
What advice would you give to a student looking to major in a business-related field? Build your network! Chasing a business career is competitive, and you can make it easier on yourself by leaning into the mentorship of professionals with more experience and wisdom. Don’t procrastinate asking for help; it won’t get you to your goal any sooner.
Looking back over your experience, what is the one thing you’d do differently in business school and why? If I could do anything differently, it’s I would’ve allowed myself to be more explorative with my career as a freshman. I originally limited myself to consulting and finance because I thought that was the only way I could find a successful career. But I realized during late sophomore year that I just needed to chase a career I’m good at and happy with.
What is one way that your business school has integrated AI into your programming? What is one insight you gained from using AI? In my marketing classes, we are encouraged to use AI for visualizing and polishing. We are taught to never go with the first response AI gives you, and instead work with AI as a tool to bounce ideas around and tighten up messaging. I’ve primarily used AI for generating images used to visualize marketing campaigns or packaging changes.
Which academic, extracurricular or personal achievement are you most proud of? I’m most proud of the work I’ve done in The Levant Group. After numerous campus leadership roles and professional internships, I’ve put all my learnings into building Levant’s operational structure. From designing systems, like recruitment and team onboarding, to leading teams through challenges in their client projects, I’ve been able to leave a mark that has a legacy. In just one semester, I’ve seen Levant change the lives of our people. We’ve helped secure internships, facilitate new mentor-connections, and curate a space where the most talented marketing students can share their knowledge and skills.
Which classmate do you most admire? By far, Jacob Didea is a classmate I most admire. He has always been so dedicated to excellence and has partnered with me in many of my major college accomplishments. Together, we won 2024 Startup Weekend, built The Levant Group, and won our Honors Senior Marketing Capstone. Every student who works with Jacob learns something after being on a team with him. He’s a natural leader and creative. As accomplished as he is, he’s also humble, kind, and always eager to jump at any opportunity to help his peers. Jacob Didea is the gold standard among FSB students.
Who would you most want to thank for your success? I’d like to thank Mark Lacker for encouraging me to choose Miami. He sold me on the FSB experience because of Miami’s tight-knit community and exceptional undergraduate professors.
He was absolutely right. I don’t think I’d be able to make as large an impact anywhere else.
What are the top two items on your professional bucket list?
1. Teach in a college classroom
2. Become an entrepreneur
What made Nikki such an invaluable addition to the Class of 2026?
“Nikki White has had a profound impact on the Farmer School of Business. She is a Marketing major who is a member of Honors College and the Business Honors Cohort. She also serves as a Careers Ambassador in FSB and is an Entrepreneurship Teaching Assistant. Nikki is a member of the Business Student Advisory Council, which serves as a liaison between the Dean’s suite and the student body. As the Vice President of External Relations, she raised $20,000 in corporate sponsorships to fund “Farmer Week,” an annual event attended by FSB students and faculty during the spring semester.
Nikki is also a member of Alpha Kappa Psi where she serves as the Vice President of Philanthropy and Diversity. She has raised money for philanthropic events as well as increasing member participation at these events. Additionally, she served as Director of Recruitment for AKPsi, which attracted over 100 potential members. Nikki organized the interview and evaluation process for these candidates which resulted in a successful Spring 2024 Pledge Class.
Also, as part of AKPsi, Nikki founded a new organization, The Levant Group, which is a marketing agency within the larger organization. She recognized the desire of some AKPsi members to work on marketing projects, so she created this agency. Currently, she serves as President of The Levant group and has developed training workshops for members and has acquired five clients for the 2025-2026 academic year. During the fall semester, Nikki was a member of the Honors Capstone in FSB where her team worked for Local Style Chips, a Chicago-based startup. Her team successfully created a market expansion plan in Chicago and designed an omni channel strategy to maximize distribution. Her team was chosen as one of the winning teams for this capstone class. Last summer, Nikki worked as a sales intern for Procter & Gamble where she successfully identified a $15M opportunity across P&G categories for multicultural consumers and presented her findings to the Walmart team. Nikki will return to P&G upon graduation.”
Zhiyong Yang, Ph.D.
Chair & Professor Department of Marketing
Miami University Farmer School of Business
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