Brittany Holtzclaw

"UNG has a quaint campus in Dahlonega, Georgia, and I knew there was something special about it," she said.

There, Holtzclaw discovered her future passion after being hired at the Dahlonega-Lumpkin County Chamber of Commerce.

"They hired me to help at the Welcome Center," she said, explaining she was asked if she would be interested in a paid internship. "I jumped all over that. The rest is history."

Holtzclaw said her work at the Dahlonega-Lumpkin County Chamber gave her a real-world perspective. She was employed there for two years.

"My classes started to become less of an effort and more of a passion," she said. "I realized that UNG prepares you for a career and not just a degree."

Holtzclaw graduated with a bachelor's degree in business administration with a concentration in management in December 2007. She landed a job as project manager for the Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce in February 2008, and was responsible for small business development along with entrepreneurial initiatives.

Her work with businesses proved successful, leading to more job opportunities. In 2016, she landed the job as the director of Logistics, Energy, Agribusiness, and Food Processing (LEAF) with the Georgia Department of Economic Development (GDED). In October 2017, Holtzclaw found herself hand-delivering Atlanta's bid to become the second headquarters for Amazon, an American electronic commerce and cloud computing company based in Seattle, Washington. Holtzclaw, 33, led the team that developed the proposal for Amazon.

Her work was noticed. Five months later, Holtzclaw was promoted to director of Life Sciences and Corporate Solutions for GDED.

Holtzclaw attributes part of her success to the UNG professors who taught her. She said from business ethics to operations management, each professor and class prepared her for her career.

"For example, I was so sure I would never use JIT (just-in-time) manufacturing in my profession, but when a manufacturing company is considering Georgia for their next location and they need a facility that can fit their JIT production lines, I think about Dr. T.J. Gabriel’s class," she said. "When the widget in my economics class becomes a carpet tile for Shaw Industries in Adairsville, I reflect back on my time at UNG."

She also credits Dale Steenbergen, then-president of the Dahlonega-Lumpkin County Chamber of Commerce, for inspiring her.

"He made the biggest impact on my time at UNG," she said. "He took a chance on an overconfident 21-year-old and guided me down a career path that I never knew existed."

She advises all UNG students to never take for granted the opportunities they are given.

"I make sure I arrive at the office every morning with a positive attitude and a willingness to help others because I know I have been given an opportunity to lead and my actions affect those who surround me," she said.