Enhancing the Learning Environment
Hannah Rull
If you’re born with business DNA, then UGA is the place.
At a glance
Hannah earned a 2017 BBA in Agribusiness/Agricultural Business Operations after just three years at UGA. She’ll earn her master’s in Ag Ops in 2019.
Through UGA’s FABricate contest, she received $1,500 to develop her vision for Confluence Marina – an environmentally conscious and socially inclusive marina of the future.
In 2018, Hannah’s life was full – two full-time jobs and a full load of graduate school courses.
Hannah’s wedding planning business, Your Best Guest, proudly bears her new name – she marries Dalton Guest, her hometown sweetheart, on June 8, 2019.
“Scholarships at UGA allowed me financial freedom many peers don’t have. I was never worried about how I was going to pay back student loans, because I didn’t have any.”
Hannah Rull
Hannah Rull was born for business.
Her mom worked at a bank in Douglas County, near their rural northwest Georgia home town. Dad ran a string of ventures, from a bait-and-tackle store to a real-estate office.
In first grade, Hannah followed in their footsteps, launching her own designer jewelry line. She spent weekends making glass-bead pieces and little plastic lanyards, the way she learned in Girl Scouts. Mondays, she brought her inventory to school, sold some of it herself, and enlisted classmates to sell on commission.
Hannah planned a trip to Disney World with her profits, but her parents convinced her to open a CD instead.
Her first deposit? A cool $1,000.
Hannah looked for help with finances when she arrived at UGA in 2014. A wealth of scholarships opened the path to her future.
She received 15 different merit-based gifts from UGA and elsewhere, including the prestigious UGA Presidential Leadership Scholarship, the Bill and Barbara Segars Scholarship, the Tate Brookins Memorial Endowment, and others.
“Scholarships allowed me to have so many opportunities I never could have imagined,” Hannah says. “I’ve had classes and professors and experiences that all meant so much to me, and I’ll always remember and respect UGA for what I learned here.”
One experience stands out. The girl from Hiram went to Scotland in 2016 with UGA’s study-abroad program, where she and other students built an elementary school garden/wildlife area, and planted trees.
That experience and other remarkable UGA learning moments stirred Hannah’s desire to give back … while still a grad student.
You can find a brick with her name on it at Four Towers – a commemoration for her contribution to the CAES Alumni Brick Campaign. She also made a $50 donation to Senior Signature.
Hannah will walk out of college and into the world debt-free. She can pursue her own passions … not simply grab the first available job that might help pay off school debt.
Thanks to UGA, she’s able to be what she was born to be – an entrepreneur.
Last year, in family tradition, Hannah launched her own venture, Your Best Guest, a wedding and event planning boutique.
At UGA, Hannah put in four years of on-the-job training for her start-up, working 200-plus weddings for Smithonia Farms, an event space just outside Athens. Last year, she briefly worked full-time at Smithonia, worked even fuller time launching Your Best Guest … and still carried a full load of grad-school classes.
Her winning formula for a wedding biz?
“Most wedding and event planners bundle their services all together, leaving a large bill and lots of gray area for what they are and are not supposed to do,” Hannah says. “We simplify the chaos. For any budget, our services stay the same price … and you get a planner who’ll be your best guest.”
Someday, she wants to launch an even bigger venture.
In year three at UGA, scholarships indirectly led Hannah to FABricate (Food and AgriBusiness Entrepreneurial Initiative), a College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences contest and course designed to cultivate business and leadership skills. In partnership with the UGA Entrepreneurship Program, FABricate awarded Hannah $1,500 to develop her vision for Confluence Marina – an environmentally conscious and socially inclusive marina of the future.
Hannah’s been hooked on fishing and marinas since childhood trips with her dad to Georgia’s West Point Lake and other waters.
“On those trips, marinas were either country clubs, where it took thousands of dollars to join, or run-down gas stations where you wouldn’t feel comfortable bringing a family,” she says. “I want Confluence Marina to be a place for everybody, anybody, clean and nice and accessible, for fishing and for events too.”
She adds, “It’s going to take a lot of money, but that’s my long-term goal. Through FABricate, we already have 3-D renderings and a website.”
Hannah keeps in shape for a second career running a marina.
At UGA as a freshman, she signed up for the Bass Anglers of UGA – the first (and so far only) woman in the competitive fishing club’s history.
The bass can testify. Hannah Rull means business.
