Author Archive for Sarah Karns

Mia Monzidelis – Founder of Power Pony

Posted by Sarah Karns 
· Monday, October 28th, 2024 
· 3 Comments

Mia Monsidelis is a young girl with the mind of an entrepreneur who took something she loved and found a way to help other kids love it as much as her. She is now 13, but she started her business Power Pony when she was just five years old. Mia absolutely loves horses and has always watned to own one, but she lives in Long Island, New York and her family just doesn’t have enough space for a horse. So Mia went to her Dad and explained to him that she wanted to create something that rides like a real horse so she could “ride” without have to own a horse. Her Dad helped her design the horse and bring her idea to life, and so Power Pony was born.

While it’s obvious that Mia’s dad was the one who did a lot of the work to make the business successful, Mia is still a great example of an entrepreneur because she saw a problema nd found a unique and innovative way to solve that problem and create value. She is clearly a very determined young girl and seems to be incredibly social and good with people as well. While it’s possible that a product simillar to Power Pony might’ve been created without Mia, she is the driving face behind the brand which I bleieve makes it more unique and likeable. Overall, she is truly a young entrepreneur and is now running a very successful business.

See the business here.

3 Comments
Categories : Horses/ponies, Toys

Hailey Hardenbrook – JoyPins

Posted by Sarah Karns 
· Sunday, October 13th, 2024 
· 1 Comment

Hailey Hardenbrook is a young girl who decided she wanted to start a business where she could use her creativity and spread joy to those around her. This is what led her to JoyPins. The business started out with just her and her mom, creating beautiful pins to sell to friends and family, but then the response to these pins was much greater than they were expecting. Over time, the business has grown into a larger operation, with multiple of Hailey’s friends working as “employees.” On top of the usual business orders, Hailey carried out a whole fundraising effort to provide pins and handwritten notes to kids at their local hospital.

Hailey had a drive to do something that would impact the people around her, which is an incredibly important thing for an entrepreneur to have. Something she believed in was that every time you fail you learn something new, so you should keep trying. This is a simple way of explaining prototyping, which is another very important thing for entrepreneurs.

Overall, Hailey is a beautiful example of a young entrepreneur and JoyPins succeeded in doing exactly what she wanted it to; inspire creativity and joy in others.

 

1 Comment
Categories : Apparel/Accessories, Jewelry

Kenan Pala – Founder of Kids4Community

Posted by Sarah Karns 
· Tuesday, October 1st, 2024 
· 3 Comments

In 2015, 11-year-old Kenan Pala had an influential experience which sparked the idea for a nonprofit that has raised well over half a million dollars for homelessness initiatives in San Diego. Pala and his father went on a run at the beach, where they encountered a sick baby seal. There were many people surrounding the seal and attempting to care for it, giving it blankets and calling shelters. Then on the drive home from the beach, Pala and his father passed a homeless man who clearly needed help; however, no one seemed to care, and everyone walked or drove past the man as if he was completely invisible. It was this stark comparison between the baby seal and the homeless man that sparked Pala’s passion for homelessness and drove him to starting Kids4Community, a nonprofit that partners with local organizations to get kids involved with volunteer work early on and helps kids to help the community.

Pala is an incredibly driven young man, who possesses traits and skills, such as passion, determination, and a strong work ethic, that have aided him as an entrepreneur. His realization for his passion for homelessness was a realization that led him to develop a unique business that not only works to solve homelessness, but also builds a community of youth in the process. Running Kids4Community while also juggling the time commitments of school and cross-country took a great deal of determination on his part. He works hard in all three of these areas and is thriving in all of them, with Kids4Community growing and expanding to other regions of California and his running efforts resulting in him running cross country in college.

Overall, Kenan Pala is a very inspiring young entrepreneur who has used his passions and skills to make a lasting impact on the San Diego community.

To learn more about Kids4Community and the work that Kenan is doing, visit the website here.

3 Comments
Categories : Homelessness, Nonprofit

Luke Gilligan – Founder and CEO of Resense

Posted by Sarah Karns 
· Saturday, September 21st, 2024 
· 2 Comments

Luke Gilligan is a former Grove City College entrepreneurship student who has founded three different companies. It seems that Luke has always had a mind for entrepreneurship, as he started his first company, a nonprofit called Huggable Happiness Corp., when he was just 15 years old. He graduated high school a year early, took a gap year, and then enrolled here at Grove City, graduating in 2024 with a degree in entrepreneurship. The startup he began while in college is a company called Resense, the goal of which is to engage and encourage individuals with dementia in a way that does not diminish their dignity. Resense started as a memory box of sorts that targeted the five senses, but it has gone through multiple iterations and is now a newspaper that provides reminiscent articles, puzzles, and games to the reader to stimulate their mind, encourage social interaction, and evoke memories.

When it came to the idea for Resense, Luke took personal experience and ran with it, developing a unique solution to a problem that he witnessed firsthand. Throughout high school, Luke worked as a respite caregiver, and he saw the effects of dementia firsthand. So, when it came to the idea for Resense, Luke took personal experience and ran with it, developing a unique solution to the real-world problem.

Luke demonstrates multiple entrepreneurial traits, the most prevalent of which I believe are drive, empathy, and persistence. He is clearly very driven to impact, inspire, and give back to the community, and he also has the empathy to feel the pain in the problem he is trying to solve. In the process of trying to solve the problem, Luke went through iterations and experienced some failure, but his persistence and drive kept him moving forward towards a better solution. In talking to Luke, he said “you can’t be afraid of getting told no, and you can’t give up when you are.”

Overall, Luke Gilligan is an amazing example of a young entrepreneur who is using the entrepreneurial traits that God his gifted him with to have a real redemptive impact on the community.

To find his site, visit here.

2 Comments
Categories : Uncategorized