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Throughout his time at WMU Haworth, Charles Poole has learned that giving your best effort and fully committing to growth opportunities leads to success. “As a business and honors college student, one of the most important things that I learned was the concept of ‘challenge by choice.’ When presented with an opportunity to participate at the minimal level or to go above and beyond, it is always better to put in the extra effort. Choosing to engage more in an internship, class or project really makes your experience better.”

Some experiences that Charles has put maximum effort into include his majors in advertising and promotion and leadership and business strategy, study abroad, and campus activities such as LEAD Corp, Bernhard Center Advisory Board, Western Student Association and more.

His study abroad experience in the COVID-interrupted semester was something he found extremely meaningful and that helped him become more flexible.

“In Spring 2020 when COVID-19 started to shut down everything, I was studying abroad in Italy with the CIMBA program. When I came back, some of my courses decided to meet asynchronously to continue our learning. I had to quickly adapt to this online structure so that I would not fall behind in any of my classes. Since Spring 2020, all my courses have been online. Thanks to having to adapt in a short time initially, I have found that my online courses have been very manageable and that I have been able to designate additional time for experiences outside of class.”

As Charles embarks on his summer internship at Starcom, a company that creates “experiences that people love and actions brands need,” he is ready to apply the background he has developed at the college to this role. His advertising and promotion skills will be front and center in this internship, and he looks forward to further practicing what he has taken from his leadership and business strategy courses, noting that the LBS internship-level experiences have been one of the high points of his WMU Haworth career.

Aspiring to work in human resources one day, Charles aims to positively impact workplace culture at the organization he joins post-graduation. “Part of what excites me about HR is that I am able to use all that I learned from both my majors and apply those skills in valuable ways. I am looking forward to being able to have a voice in important decisions that affect not just the company I will work for, but also the clients as well.” He looks forward to opportunities to grow personally and professionally—the ability to constantly learn and evolve in this field appeals to him. “A challenge that I see but also an opportunity is working to promote diversity, inclusion and equity in the workplace. As an African American student, I know change can be hard and can cause fear, but I also know the importance and value of diversity and inclusion. I am looking forward to the working in this area and creating a workplace environment welcoming to all.”