Developing entrepreneurs

Graduates return for fifth-year fellowship to develop their businesses

As a Wake Forest undergraduate, Ali Carroll ('08) started her own business selling jewelry made by women in Kenya she met on a summer trip there. Bill Brown ('08) and Jessica Vogel ('08) also started their own company, making stuffed toy robots, while undergraduates.

Ali Carroll ('08), with jewelry made in Kenya, is one of three "Fifth-Year Fellows" this year.

Even though all three graduated last spring, they are back on campus this year as fellows in the Fifth-Year Institute. The institute is an intensive incubator program sponsored by the Office of Entrepreneurship and Liberal Arts that provides graduating seniors with a fifth year at Wake Forest to further develop their entrepreneurial ideas. The program provides access to business classes, faculty mentoring and some funding.

Carroll, who is from Nashville, Tenn., will take classes in the Babcock Graduate School of Management and develop her business, "Adia," which means "valuable gift" in Swahili.

She returned from her latest trip to Kenya in July and plans to return in December. "I was encouraged to see the progress and growth of the women there as they learn the craft of bead and jewelry making," she said. Some of her profits will help support the Kenyan communities where the jewelry is made.

Brown, who is also from Nashville, and Vogel, who is from Metairie, La., are now working on new designs and a new production method for their business, Stuffed Robot LLC.

— Kerry M. King ('85)
Office of Creative Services

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