Archive for Haiti – Page 2

Mark Sotomayor – Buy a Tea, Plant a Tree

Mark is a recent 2020 graduate from Grove City College where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Entrepreneurship. He started his business, Treecup Tea, during his sophomore year at Grove City College. Through a development process of his product, he learned a lot about branding and what it takes to start a business. He began selling samples of his grandmother’s chai tea recipe at local events and pop-up shops out of Dixie cups. He now has 4 different flavors of tea packaged in sleek glass bottles, and he sells it in large stores such as Whole Foods and local farmers markets. His success took time and hard work. Although Mark experienced setbacks and help along the way, that is what grew into the success he has today.

Mark’s tea business is especially unique due to his passion behind the cause he helps with. For each tea that is bought, a tree in Haiti is planted. This serves to combat deforestation in one of the most poverty-stricken places in the world. Mark accomplishes this through partnering with a foundation called Haiti Friends. Mark values transparency in marketing, so he feels strongly about sticking to this purpose behind the business.

Mark is driven by the commitment to “Jesus Christ and follows the leading of the Holy Spirit. He wants to manifest God’s will on earth as it is in Heaven.” Mark is led by the Lord in everything he does and does not focus on the money. His purpose is bigger than the profit he makes, and this is apparent in his business. I believe this is what makes Treecup Tea unique and a great idea. It can be hard to find businesses that truly stick to their cause and do not drift from their true mission when they are blinded by success as their sole purpose and fall into the trap of greed.

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I find Mark’s story truly inspiring because even through setbacks, he found a way to work through them and dig deeper. I can apply this to my own life and future business career because it is important to keep in mind that setbacks are what help us learn and grow. I aim to have a Christ-centered focus in everything I do just as Mark does. As Mark puts it, “if your business isn’t about God then what is it all for?”

 

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Project “I am” -Jahkil Jackson

Project “I am “was started by a nine year old Jahkil Jackson in Chicago. Jackson helped his aunt distribute cans of food to the homeless in Chicago which sparked his own idea. The I Am project is a non-profit and shares a goal to help to the homeless in the world that are in need to his coined terms as ‘Blessing Bags.’ These consisted of deodorant, wipes, toothbrushes, toothpaste, bottled water, granola bars and more. Jackson’s small business quickly grew, and he has impacted more than 50,o00 lives of the homeless around the world. Atlanta, Virginia, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., and Idaho and many more states in the U.S. have been greatly impacted by his generosity and care. There has also been a worldly impact where the blessing bags have been sent to many countries in Africa, and South America for special relief packages after natural disasters.

Jackson is really emphasizing the need for donations that go towards project I Am, so they can continue to make an impact around the world. He encourages everyone to be able to see the importance of helping out can make in your community. I AM thankful for my many blessings 🙏🏽 including @walmart for believing in my mission. This donation will help make over 500 blessong bags for those in need. #walmart #endhomelessness #BeTheChange #YouthDoItBetter #JahkilJackson #DontWaitToBeGreat

While Jackson had a lot of help from his family in the idea of helping others, he took that idea and pivoted to make a bigger idea. This is very inspiring, because Jackson saw that there was a need for the homeless that was unfulfilled. Instead of just handing out money, Jackson knew he wanted to make a real life impact by giving them the opportunity for staying healthy and clean as they go through difficult times. Jackson was acknowledged by former president, Barack Obama as well for his efforts in 2017 and featured on Cartoon-Network and many other platforms. This helped a lot with networking and getting his message out there for the public to understand the mission.

Sundara

Erin Zakis is the founder of Sundara, a company that recycles used bars of soap from hotels and redistributes them to people in India, Uganda, and Myanmar. This year she began expanding the company to Haiti and Jordan. It all began when she took a trip to Thailand and was shocked to find that teenagers had never seen soap before- they were so confused by this new thing they even tried to eat it! This was a huge wake-up call to Erin which inspired her a few years down the road to enter a LinkedIn for Good pitch competition where she ended up winning $10,000. With this money, she moved to India and immediately began making her vision a reality. Erin works with large hotel chains on a fee for service model. The hotels pay her company to pick up their trash with the soaps separated out, then it is taken to a recycling facility. Sundara hires widows, domestic violence victims, single mothers, and other women as community hygiene ambassadors to raise awareness in these countries where soap is an abstract concept. In this way, Erin Zakis has united her passion to help others with her entrepreneurial skills. Not only does she bring life-saving hygiene to over 100,000 people each month, but she empowers disadvantaged women by providing employment.

The GOAT

Tom Brady has shown us time and time again what he is about on the field. Leading the Patriots to six super bowl wins. Besides the fact that he is the greatest of all time, he has also used his platform to his advantage. Unlike other quarterback Tom is playing at a peak in his career at the age of 42, for a quarterback in the NFL this is unheard of; and he isn’t even playing on retiring anytime soon. This is all thanks to his top of the line fitness and nutrition lifestyle he calls “the TB12 Method”. He has used this methImage result for tom brady tb12od to market his lifestyle to his fans. He is one of the most well known names in football which is genius because on top of the millions of dollars he’s making from the NFL, he’s making millions on the side all because of his TB12 Method. He could continue to sell his method until after he retires as well and would always have a source of income. But who needs an income when your model wife Gisele Bündchen makes double what you’re making… crazy how that works.

Sweet Sixteen

Sixteen-year-old Leanna Archer’s net worth is $3.2 million. This young lady’s fortune is a direct result of her hard work building her business of homemade beauty and skin products: Leanna Inc. This successful entrepreneur started her business at eight and by nine years old she became the CEO of her own company. Some of her homemade beauty and skin products came from her family. Her first product was an original recipe from her grandmother for a hair pomade. After Leanna received multiple compliments for using it, she then thought that she could make a business out of it. When Leanna first approached her parents regarding her business idea, they were hesitant but soon saw Leanna’s passion and talent and could not be more excited to support her in her business endeavors.

Leanna’s first customer was her aunt who needed a hair re-growing product after going to therapy. Six months after daily applying Leanna’s product, her aunt returned with good results. At thirteen years old, Miss Archer was making $180,000.00 a year for selling her homemade beauty and skin products online. Leanna has continued to establish her own name in the industry for becoming the youngest entrepreneur to have rung the NASDAQ stock market bell. She is still considered to be one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the United States who is under the age of thirty.

Although most sixteen-year old are dependent on their parents, Leanna continues to help support her family buy selling her homemade skin and beauty products to her local community and online. Leanna also founded the Leanna Arched Education Foundation in 2008 and has been able to feed 200 children three meals a day from the profitable sales of her products. Someday Leanna also dreams of building a school that would help kids in Haiti.

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Anne Wojcicki: 23andMe

After graduating from Yale, Anne Wojcicki started her career as a health care investment analyst with Passport Capital. After deciding this job was not for her she quit. Initially she thought about appearing at MCAT to do her medicine. However, her love for biotechnology prevailed and she started doing research. This led her to team up with Linda Avey, who was a biologist, and together they created 23andMe. The startup was a hit, and was featured as the “Invention of the Year” by Times Magazine in 2008. Today 23andMe has built one of the world’s most exhaustive databases of personal genetic information. Empowering people to take charge of their healthcare. Anne believed that scientist do not get their deserved fame as other celebrities do. So she decided to take measures into her own hands and thus co-founded the Breakthrough Awards in the USA to felicitate eminent scientist.

Dairy-free Alternatives

The options for sweet deserts, such as ice cream, have always been off limits for those who are dairy-free; until now. Meet Matthew Billington, the CEO of OLelei’s. At the young age of 18, Matt is in charge of OLelei’s which is a dairy-free option company. OLelei currently offers dairy-free milk, yogurt, and ice cream. These products are all made with almond milk which doesn’t contain any trace of dairy.

Matt started this business back in 2015 through the Young Enterprise Scheme (YES) program. YES is a program based solely out of New Zealand that offers 12-13 year students an opportunity to create a business venture and run it. Matt, along with his some of his classmates, participated in this program and created OLelei’s. They saw an opportunity in market for lactose intolerant people who were limited to a certain amount of dairy-free products. Matt emphasis the fact that OLelei’s main mission is to include everyone saying, “Inclusion is one of our core values. It doesn’t matter who you are, what you eat, where you’re from, what nationality you are, what race you are, what you’re allergic to, our products cater for everyone. We want to make sure everybody feels included” (You Unlimited).

YES allowed them to learn things that were unteachable in the classroom such as networking and managing. In 2017, Matt along with his team had won the Lion Foundation YES national award. OLelei is now currently stocked everywhere in New Zealand. Not only has Matt created a brand that offers a different type of tasty food, but has also helped solve problem for those who are live a dairy-free lifestyle.

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Tech for First-Responders

Young entrepreneurs are always impressive, but Mihir Garimella is one that really strikes me. He made in on an 18 under 18 list for inspiring entrepreneurs and businesses owns. Mihir is currently a sophomore at Stanford has a passion for working with robotics. His mission is to create real impact. He has definitely accomplished this through his invention of the Firefly.

At the age of 17 Mihir designed The Firefly, a modified drone which is specifically designed for  first-responders. It allows them to explore situations and disasters that could be dangerous and helps to find trapped survivors.

The Firefly is only one of Mihir’s creations. He has started work on projects that included self driving cars, adding scent to the movie theater experience, image processing that will help doctors with diagnosing patients, an app called Series which helps solve complex calculus problems using handwriting recognition and Citelt, a tool for writing correct bibliographies.

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Mihir is a strong example of the left and right brain working cohesively and productively to create new and amazing things. I am excited to see the impact that will come from his hard work and passion.

Brandless

Brandless is an online retailer started by Ido Leffler and Tina Sharkey. The company sells household products from toothpaste to ketchup. The main idea is to just give people the products they want without any additional costs that come with buying from brand names. Each product simply states what it is, and its ingredients. For example, you may buy a bottle of just mustard, and you’ll get a yellow bottle of mustard, no brand name, and just it’s ingredients list.

The other reason why they are doing this online is so that they can cut out supermarkets and such so that its easier and cheaper for people. They also only sell hundreds of items, as opposed to the thousands or millions on Amazon or Walmart. They want to keep things simple and clean. With every item bought, they donate a percentage of that to Feeding America.

Some information on Brandless.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/brandless-new-online-retailer-household-product-3-dollars/

https://brandless.com/

https://nrf.com/blog/how-brandless-reimagining-modern-consumption

 

A “New Story” for the Homeless

In many cases the world’s greatest technological advances are reserved for the rich until they slowly defuse into the mass market and if the poor are lucky, they eventually have a chance to utilize them. However, New Story, a nonprofit; has paired with ICON to give the poor an exclusive first dibs on some amazing technology.

New Story + ICON have developed the capability to 3D print houses and are using this technology to build safe, affordable, and comfortable homes for the homeless around the world.  They can print 600-800 square foot homes in 24 hours for less than 4,000 dollars. The impact this can have on third world is insane. It will create safer and cleaner communities where their residents can develop to their fullest potential.

Not only is New Story a crazy cool organization, but one of its co-founders and CEO is a millennial with a crazy cool story. Brett Hagler went to college pursuing all the wrong things in life. He wanted money, fame, and women. Instead he got cancer. His fight against cancer helped him to put his life into perspective and brought him back to his Christian faith. After beating cancer he decided to follow his new passion and start an organization that actually helps people.

 

2016 Brett was voted a Forbes 30 Under 30 Entrepreneur and in 2018 named Top 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs by Goldman Sachs. In 2017 New Story was called one of the “Most Innovative Companies In The World,” by Fast Company. This organization is small, but has shown stunning growth and continues on a successful path. In college as Brett chased the wrong things he gained a lot of entrepreneurial experience. He used these skills and a lot of hard work to create something amazing and it is changing the world in insane ways.