Category: Student Stories

At the Lacy School of Business, learning to think like an entrepreneur can start with a simple question: What problem could I solve?

For sophomore finance major and Division I soccer player Hudson Sullivan, that question has led to two startup ventures, countless hours of trial and error, and a growing understanding of what it takes to turn an idea into a business.

Hudson co-founded Performix in January 2026, a personalized soccer training platform, with his father. He’s also building College Marketplace, a student-to-student marketplace designed specifically for college campuses. Neither venture began with a detailed business plan or years of technical experience. In fact, when Hudson started building apps, he didn’t know how to code.

What he did have was curiosity, a willingness to learn, and a habit of noticing problems that others might overlook.

“I wasn’t always somebody who was interested in creating things,” he says. “A lot of that came from seeing what my dad was doing and becoming more interested in entrepreneurship over time.”

That curiosity has since become a hands-on education in entrepreneurship, one that continues to evolve through his experiences as a student and athlete.

Hudson’s entrepreneurial journey began with a challenge he knew firsthand.

As a soccer player, he often went to the field for extra training without knowing exactly what he should work on that day. He wanted a better way to train, so he helped develop Performix, an app that creates personalized training plans based on an athlete’s goals, available equipment and training environment.

Building the app introduced him to a new set of challenges: debugging, troubleshooting, and figuring out how to turn an idea into something people could actually use.

Those lessons became the foundation for his next venture.

The idea for College Marketplace came from another familiar experience. College students regularly buy and sell items, but broad public marketplaces often mean navigating listings from strangers and coordinating transactions with people outside their campus community.

Hudson envisioned something different: a marketplace limited to verified students at individual universities.

There was just one problem. He didn’t know how to code.

Rather than letting that stop him, he started researching. He spent hours asking questions, learning from AI tools and teaching himself as he built. What began as curiosity gradually turned into a functioning platform.

“It was basically a lot of research,” he says. “Just asking questions, learning, and figuring things out one step at a time.”

The learning curve wasn’t always smooth. During testing, the platform worked perfectly with a handful of listings. As the number of listings increased, everything crashed.

Hudson had to think beyond getting the product to work. If College Marketplace was going to expand to universities across the country, it needed to handle that growth.

“If the goal is to eventually have something at every university, then it has to be able to handle that kind of scale,” he says.

But the technical hurdles proved easier than the business challenge that followed.

After launching College Marketplace, the Texas native discovered that building a product and building a user base are two very different things. Students would join the platform, but without enough listings, they had little reason to return. Generating consistent activity on campus after campus became increasingly difficult.

Instead of holding onto the original model, he began exploring a different approach: licensing the platform directly to universities so schools could offer students a trusted campus marketplace from day one.

The experience changed how he evaluates business ideas.

“Is it a need-to-have business or a nice-to-have business?” he asks. “Understanding the difference is really important.”

For the sophomore, entrepreneurship has become as much about understanding people and their needs as it is about building a product.

His approach to entrepreneurship reflects a mindset he also brings to life as a student-athlete: discipline, adaptability, and a willingness to keep working when things don’t go as planned.

His days begin around 7 a.m. with soccer. Practices and workouts consume much of his mornings, while classes fill his afternoons. Homework comes first in the evenings. Then, after his other responsibilities are complete, he turns to his startups.

Many of his biggest milestones have come late at night, after training sessions, assignments, and team responsibilities are finished.

“It’s about making the most of the time you have,” the defender says. “In sports, there are injuries, challenges and times when things don’t go your way. Business is very similar. You have to keep working and keep finding solutions.”

When Hudson transferred to Butler this year, he found a business school environment that has added a new dimension to that process.

At the Lacy School of Business, conversations about entrepreneurship extend beyond coursework. He’s connected with classmates eager to workshop ideas, teammates pursuing business degrees, and faculty members who bring different perspectives to the challenges he’s working through.

One experience has stood out in particular: an entrepreneurship course taught by lecturer Nick Smarrelli.

What started as a late addition to his schedule quickly became one of the most valuable parts of his semester.

“Being able to talk through ideas and get feedback has been really helpful,” he says. “It’s connected me with people and helped me think differently about what I’m building.”

For Hudson, those connections have reinforced the value of being surrounded by people who are willing to engage with his ideas and challenge the way he thinks about them. Entrepreneurship can be a solitary process, especially when much of the work happens late at night, but he has found a community where he can talk through possibilities and learn from others.

As he works toward securing the first university partnership for College Marketplace and growing Performix, he continues to approach entrepreneurship the same way he started: by identifying a problem and figuring out how to solve it.

His advice to other students who have an idea but aren’t sure where to begin is simple.

“Talk to people,” he says. “Get feedback. See if it’s something that solves a real problem. That’s the best first step.”

Hudson’s journey is still unfolding. He’s testing ideas, learning from setbacks and figuring out what it takes to build businesses that last. He doesn’t have every answer, and he’s learning that he doesn’t need to have them all before getting started.

At the Lacy School of Business, his experience reflects the value of pairing individual initiative with a community of people who can help students ask better questions, explore possibilities, and keep moving forward.

Sometimes, building something meaningful starts with knowing exactly what you want to solve. Other times, it starts with being willing to figure it out.

When Preston Asher ’27 talks about where he is headed after Butler University, the answer is pretty clear: New York City.

After graduation, Preston will return to J.P. Morgan as a Commercial Banking Analyst in the firm’s Commercial and Specialized Industries Group. He has already spent time working in the bank’s New York office, supporting corporate clients on transactions exceeding $100 million and gaining firsthand experience with the pace and scale of the financial industry.

For a student from Vevay, Indiana, a small rural community along the Ohio River, the path from southeastern Indiana to one of the world’s largest financial centers might seem unexpected.

While still in high school, Preston was already taking courses through Ivy Tech, getting an early start on college-level work and beginning to think seriously about what he wanted from his education. As a Lilly Endowment Community Scholar, he then had the opportunity to pursue his education at any college in Indiana.

He had plenty of options. Preston considered Notre Dame, Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, Purdue University’s Mitch Daniels School of Business and DePauw University before ultimately choosing the Lacy School of Business.

He was looking for more than a business degree. He wanted a place where he could build relationships with professors, find mentors and have opportunities to get involved early. Butler’s size and emphasis on experiential learning gave him the chance to do that.

“I was unsure what could be accomplished within the collegiate setting,” the senior says. “The biggest thing is the Lacy School of Business opened my eyes to what more the world has to offer.”

At LSB, he found professors who were willing to do more than teach a class. They helped him explore interests, build relationships and connect what he was learning in the classroom to the business community beyond campus.

“I think a lot of opportunities are feasible on your own,” he says. “But when you talk with professors about what you want to do and what your goals are, they can help you figure out who you should talk to and what opportunities are out there.”

Preston took advantage of that access.

He is completing a double major in Finance and Entrepreneurship & Innovation while serving as a Managing Director for Bulldog Reports, Butler’s student-led equity research program. He has also worked as a Finance Intern within the Lacy School of Business and held leadership roles with DECA, the Undergraduate Programming Council, Student Government Association and Butler’s Peer Career Advisor program.

Through Bulldog Reports, Preston now helps teach underclassmen how to analyze companies, develop investment theses and present their research. The experience has become as much about developing people as it is about developing financial skills.

“The students already have the drive and ambition,” he says. “My job is to help them grow and become more comfortable with the process.”

His own growth accelerated as he became more involved with Butler’s business community. Faculty encouraged him to pursue research and introduced him to professionals and organizations beyond campus, including the Economic Club of Indiana, Venture Club of Indiana and CFA Society Indianapolis.

Those experiences gave Preston opportunities to see how what he was learning in the classroom connected to the business community around him – and how much could be built from a campus in Indianapolis.

Then came New York.

During his summer with J.P. Morgan’s Commercial and Specialized Industries Group, Preston conducted industry and company research, built financial and credit models, and analyzed everything from liquidity and cash flow to capital structure and risk. He supported senior bankers working with corporate clients on transactions exceeding $100 million.

The experience gave him a firsthand look at the scale and pace of the financial industry he had been preparing to enter – and showed him how the concepts he was studying at Lacy translated into decisions with real financial consequences.

Now, that experience is becoming his next chapter. After graduation, Preston will return to J.P. Morgan’s New York office as a full-time Commercial Banking Analyst in the same group, where he will evaluate the creditworthiness of corporate clients, underwrite financing solutions and work alongside bankers, credit officers and product teams to support businesses’ financing needs.

For a student from Vevay, Indiana, it is a significant next step. But Preston’s Butler experience has never been about following a single path toward a predetermined destination. Along the way, he has continued building things of his own.

Through Zephyr Logic, he works with medical practices to improve their websites, patient acquisition and use of technology, including AI. He also recently launched Callback Coaching to help students and recent graduates navigate the job search in their fields.

The common thread is simple: Preston likes finding a problem and figuring out how to solve it.

That mindset is part of what he says he will carry with him from LSB – along with the relationships, experiences and confidence that came from saying yes to opportunities he could not have fully imagined when he arrived.

“If you told me four years ago what I would be doing now, I probably wouldn’t have believed you,” Preston says.

His advice to the students coming behind him is simple: stay open to possibilities you cannot see yet. Join the organization. Take the class that sounds interesting. Go to office hours. Meet the professor. Start the business. Change your major. Talk to someone whose career you admire.

“Don’t put a ceiling on what you think you can do before you even get here,” he says.

For Preston, that willingness to explore has taken him from Vevay to Butler, from Indianapolis to New York, and from wondering what might be possible to having a career waiting for him in one of the world’s largest financial centers.

He came to Butler looking for an education. He is leaving with a degree, a network, businesses he is building – and a seat waiting for him at J.P. Morgan in New York.

When Jayden Norris talks about his future, he doesn’t start with football.

He doesn’t talk about sacks, game days, or the discipline required to play Division I athletics.

Instead, he talks about holding his grandmother’s hand.

Growing up in Flower Mound, Texas, business was woven into everyday life. His father built a career in sales. His mother worked in sales strategy. As a kid, Jayden wasn’t just setting up lemonade stands or organizing garage sales because they were fun. He genuinely enjoyed creating something, talking with people, and finding ways to make it successful.

Sales wasn’t just something his family did. It became part of who he was.

When it came time to choose a college, Jayden wasn’t looking for the biggest campus or simply the best football program. He wanted a place where he could compete at the Division I level while building an education that would prepare him for the next chapter of his life.

That search took him more than 900 miles from Texas to Butler University and the Lacy School of Business, where Jayden is now a senior Marketing major.

Leaving home wasn’t a small decision. Jayden had graduated from a private high school where his class had only about 80 students, so Butler’s personal environment immediately felt familiar.

“Walking into classrooms where professors actually knew your name felt natural,” he says.

At Butler, relationships weren’t something he had to go looking for. They were built into the experience – with professors, classmates, teammates and mentors who invested in his success.

“I always think about my 45-year plan,” Jayden says. “Football is important, but I came to Butler because I knew the education would prepare me for my future.”

At the time, he thought he knew what that future looked like. He wanted to work in sales. What he didn’t know yet was why.

In April 2025, Jayden lost his grandmother to cancer. She was 68 years old.

He still remembers sitting beside her, holding her hand and telling her, “I’ve got you forever. I love you.”

Those were the last words they shared.

For many students, college is where they discover what they want to do.

For Jayden, it became the place where he discovered why.

Growing up around sales had always pointed him toward business. Losing his grandmother gave that ambition a deeper purpose.

“I could make a lot of money in pharmaceutical or medical device sales,” he says. “But if I can help sell something that saves someone’s life or gives another family more time with someone they love, that means so much more.”

Success was no longer just about closing a deal. It was about helping people.

That purpose now shapes the way Jayden thinks about his career – and the opportunities he pursues.

The experience confirmed something he’d always believed.

Sales isn’t about convincing people. It’s about understanding them.

“Being yourself is what matters,” he says.

His football background often starts conversations. His curiosity keeps them going.

This spring, Jayden will continue pursuing the career that first inspired him after his grandmother’s passing through an internship with Applied Medical, gaining firsthand experience in the medical device industry.

But long before he stepped into that industry, Butler gave him the opportunity to discover what he was capable of.

One course in particular changed the way he understood business: the Real Business Experience.

The assignment sounded deceptively simple: Build a business.

Jayden and four classmates – students he had never met before – received a $1,000 loan and were tasked with creating a company from the ground up.

They launched Cold Companion, selling customized backpack coolers through partnerships with golf courses and construction companies.

What started as a classroom assignment quickly became something much bigger.

They negotiated with suppliers. Built a brand. Created partnerships. Managed inventory. Marketed their product. Handled customer relationships.

By the end of the semester, the team had generated nearly $15,000 in revenue, earned approximately $11,000 in profit and won Butler’s Outstanding Group Award.

But for Jayden, the numbers weren’t what made the experience unforgettable. The people did.

One teammate balanced Division I volleyball. Another worked two jobs while taking 21 credit hours. Others had fraternity commitments. Jayden had football.

Sometimes the only time everyone could meet was after 10:30 at night. Those late evenings taught him something no textbook ever could.

“We had to trust each other,” he says. “Communication wasn’t optional.”

The experience taught Jayden how to work with people whose schedules, responsibilities and perspectives were completely different from his own.

Years later, they’re still friends. And that may be what he remembers most.

Outside the classroom, life moves just as fast.

As a Division I defensive lineman, Jayden’s days begin before sunrise and move from 5 a.m. workouts to classes, football practice, meetings, homework, internships and film study before starting all over again the next morning.

The schedule is demanding. It has also become one of his greatest teachers.

“You can’t be average,” he says. “Football teaches you time management, determination and doing the extra work.”

Those habits extend far beyond athletics.

They’re the same habits that helped him build a student-led award-winning business.

The same habits that helped him earn another internship.

The same habits he’ll carry into his career long after his final football game.

And they’re not the only lessons Jayden brought with him to the Lacy School of Business.

Before college, he completed more than 500 hours of community service. He coached basketball for students with special needs and spent weekends visiting nursing home residents with his mother.

He never viewed those experiences as requirements.

“I just enjoyed being there,” he says.

That same instinct – to show up, connect with people and help where he can – runs through the way Jayden approaches his classmates, teammates, customers and, eventually, the patients whose lives may be touched by the products he helps bring to market.

Ask Jayden what surprised him most about Butler, and it isn’t the academics or even the opportunities.

It’s how quickly a place nearly a thousand miles from home became exactly that. Home.

His advice to future Bulldogs is simple:  “Don’t be afraid to get out of your comfort zone.”

Leaving Texas wasn’t easy.

Neither was learning how to survive an Indiana winter after growing up with year-round warmth and owning only two pairs of sweatpants.

He laughs now about spending hundreds of dollars on coats his first semester.

But the biggest adjustment wasn’t the weather. It was realizing how much could happen when he said yes to something unfamiliar.

Butler has become far more than the university where Jayden is earning his degree.

It has become the place where he’s found lifelong friends. Where professors have challenged him to think differently. Where teammates have become brothers. Where a classroom assignment became a real business. Where internships have become career opportunities. And where a young man who once knew he wanted to work in sales is discovering what he wants that work to mean.

Years from now, the patients whose lives are touched by the medical devices he helps bring to market may never know his name.

They won’t know about the drive from Texas. They won’t know about the 5 a.m. workouts, the late-night business meetings or the grandmother who inspired his purpose.

But they may experience the impact of someone who learned that business can be about more than profit.

It can be about people.

And for Jayden Norris, that’s exactly what Butler helped him find.

Seven years ago, Emma Parven ’18 couldn’t stop thinking about a question.

Not a business question. A human one.

Why, in a world where technology has made almost everything easier, had meeting new people become so hard?

She noticed it everywhere. A glance exchanged across a coffee shop. Two people lingering a little longer than necessary in conversation. The countless “what if” moments that seemed to happen every day – yet rarely turned into anything more.

“We’ve become so protected by a screen,” Emma says. “I kept thinking about all these moments where people were interested in each other, but fear, uncertainty, or timing got in the way.”

That question eventually became Radius, a New York City-based startup that helps people discover mutual interest in real life, in real time. Instead of endless swiping, the app is designed to help people connect with someone they’re already sharing a space with and then put the phone away and start a conversation.

Recently, Radius was named one of three winning companies at a pitch competition during NYC Tech Week and is currently closing its pre-seed investment round.

But the story of Radius didn’t begin in a startup accelerator or a venture capital office.

It began with a student who came to the Lacy School of Business knowing she wanted to study marketing and hoping to find a community where she could grow.

Originally from Washington, D.C., Emma was looking for something that felt different from home. She wanted a strong business school, an engaged campus community, and an environment where she could build meaningful relationships.

“When I visited Butler, it just felt like an easy fit,” she says. “I wanted a place that had community, a great business school, and people who genuinely cared about each other.”

At Lacy, Emma found more than a major. She found opportunities to test ideas, solve problems, and think like an entrepreneur long before she considered becoming one.

One experience has stayed with her.

In LSB’s Real Business Experience (RBE), students are given the opportunity to launch and operate a real business. For Emma, that meant creating a product, selling it, pitching it, and learning firsthand what it takes to bring an idea to life.

“I remember thinking, ‘What do you mean I have to build something from scratch?’” she says with a laugh. “At the time it felt impossible. But having an experience like that at 19 years old was incredibly impactful. It taught me how ideas become real.”

Looking back, it’s easy to see how that experience planted seeds for what would eventually become Radius.

Emma launched her career in marketing and business development, quickly climbing the ranks in New York. By 26, she was serving as a senior director, managing more than 10 employees, overseeing multimillion-dollar accounts, and leading partnerships with major brands.

From the outside, everything looked exactly as planned.

Inside, however, the idea for Radius never went away.

For seven years, she carried notebooks filled with sketches, concepts, and questions. She refined the idea repeatedly, trying to understand what it could become.

“There was never a perfect moment,” she says. “I didn’t wake up one day and suddenly know exactly what to do. I just reached a point where I knew I was ready to take a calculated risk and bet on myself.”

Leaving a successful career wasn’t easy.

Neither was building a company.

Emma spent months translating ideas from her head onto paper, teaching herself enough coding to communicate with developers, researching the market, creating prototypes, and navigating the uncertainty that comes with building something no one else can see yet.

What surprised her most wasn’t the complexity of the product.

It was how much progress depended on people.

For a long time, Emma kept the idea to herself, worried someone might steal it or dismiss it. Looking back, she believes that hesitation slowed her down.

Everything changed when she started talking about Radius openly.

A chance conversation at a friend’s event led to a key advisor who now serves on the company’s board. One connection led to another. Investors, developers, mentors, and supporters began appearing in unexpected places.

“Once you start putting yourself out there and talking about what you’re building, the right people come into your life,” Emma says. “That’s when everything started to move.”

Today, Radius is focused on helping people create meaningful real-world connections while navigating a culture increasingly centered on digital interactions. The company is executing grassroots growth strategies throughout New York City and steadily building momentum with users and investors alike.

For Emma, though, success isn’t defined solely by funding rounds or user growth.

It’s about solving a problem she deeply believes matters.

“The confidence doesn’t come from knowing everything,” she says. “It comes from believing in the problem you’re trying to solve.”

That perspective shapes the advice she offers today’s Lacy School of Business students – especially those carrying around ideas they aren’t sure they’re ready to pursue.

“Of course you’re going to doubt yourself,” she says. “You’re going to overthink it. You’re going to imagine every possible reason it won’t work. That’s normal.”

What matters, she says, is learning to trust yourself enough to take the next step.

“If you have an idea and there’s a deep knowing inside you that it’s something you should pursue, that’s worth paying attention to. The people who succeed aren’t necessarily the smartest people in the room. They’re often the people who simply don’t give up.”

She also encourages students to take advantage of one of the most valuable resources available to them at Butler: people.

Reflecting on her college years, Emma remembers a guest speaker who offered to connect with students after class. She sent an email, never received a response, and never followed up.

Today, she wishes she had.

“My advice is simple: follow up,” she says. “People are busy. Don’t be afraid to reach back out. Showing genuine interest isn’t bothering someone, it’s showing that you care.”

It’s a lesson that feels especially fitting coming from the founder of a company built around connection.

Whether she’s encouraging users to start a conversation, helping investors understand a vision, or advising Lacy students with ideas of their own, Emma believes growth begins the same way:

By taking the chance to reach out.

For Payton Greenlee ’23, one of the most important career decisions she ever made was choosing a major she knew almost nothing about.

Growing up in Michigan, Payton was already familiar with Butler University. Both of her parents are Butler alumni, and family visits to Indiana often included a walk through the campus they once called home. When it came time to choose a college, Butler felt familiar – but the career she would ultimately build there was anything but expected.

“I loved the atmosphere,” Payton says. “The smaller class sizes and the relationships you could build with faculty were huge for me.”

As she prepared to start college, Payton knew she wanted to study business. While exploring majors within the Lacy School of Business, one program kept catching her attention: Risk Management and Insurance. The program’s strong career outcomes, growing industry demand, and opportunities for young professionals initially drew her in. Once on campus, conversations with faculty, alumni, and industry partners helped her see just how broad the field could be.

Through Gamma Iota Sigma, Butler’s student organization for those interested in risk management, insurance, and actuarial science, Payton was introduced to professionals from across the industry and exposed to diverse career paths.

“That was the thing that locked me in,” she says. “I realized there were so many different directions I could go. It’s not just one specific career. There were so many opportunities.”

That realization marked the beginning of a college experience centered on exploration, mentorship, and hands-on learning.

LSB’s Davey Risk Management and Insurance program is recognized among the nation’s leading RMI programs, known for its 100 percent job placement rate, required internships, industry partnerships, and experiential learning opportunities. For Payton, those advantages weren’t simply statistics, they became part of her everyday experience as a student.

Inside the classroom, she built a strong foundation in insurance, risk analysis, and business operations. Outside the classroom, she gained exposure to the profession through networking events, career mentors, mock interviews, and student organizations designed to help students connect their education to future careers.

Faculty members played an important role in that journey. Professor Tom Faulconer, whose enthusiasm and industry experience helped bring complex concepts to life.

“His energy made class really fun,” Payton says. “He made learning about insurance interesting by bringing in real world examples.”

Like many Lacy students, Payton’s learning extended far beyond lectures and textbooks.

One experience that stands out was underwriting exposures for businesses participating in LSB’s Real Business Experience program. Having once been the student developing a product through RBE, she later had the opportunity to evaluate those businesses through the lens of liability and risk.

“That was so cool,” she says. “You were once the student making the product, and then you were actually underwriting it and seeing what had to be done from a liability standpoint.”

Experiences like that gave Payton something she would later draw upon in every interview: real examples of how classroom concepts translated into business decisions.

“I talked about Real Business Experience in every interview I had,” she says. “I loved how often we were taking what we learned in class and applying it to real situations.” She later became a RBE Coach for a few semesters, bringing the experience full circle.

That preparation became especially valuable when Payton landed an internship with The MJ Companies, one of America’s largest privately held insurance agencies, headquartered in Carmel, Indiana.

The internship was designed as a rotational experience, allowing her to spend time with multiple teams across the Risk Management + Commercial Insurance department and gain a broad understanding of how the company operated. Rather than simply observing, she was invited into meetings, worked on meaningful projects, and gained exposure to client-facing work.

More importantly, she arrived prepared.

“LSB did such a great job exposing us to the industry,” Payton says. “Now that I’m involved in our internship program, we still see that preparedness in Butler students today.”

What began as an internship quickly evolved into something more.

Payton remained connected to MJ during her final semester at Lacy, working part-time while finishing her degree. After graduating in 2023, she joined the company full-time as a Risk Management Associate.

Over the next three years, she advanced through several roles – including Risk Transfer Associate and Risk Transfer Specialist – before being promoted to Associate Client Executive in January 2026.

Today, she works directly with clients to develop strategies that help organizations identify risks, reduce losses, strengthen operations, and build long-term resilience.

While insurance is certainly part of the conversation, her work goes far beyond policies and premiums.

“We help companies buy insurance coverage, but there’s so much more to it than signing on the dotted line,” Payton says. “Where are there issues we can help build a strategy around? How can we help them improve and become best in class?”

The role is one she envisioned for herself from the very beginning.

“When I started, I knew I wanted to become a Client Executive,” she says. “Being in the role I’m in now is something I’m really proud of.”

As her career has progressed, one lesson has remained constant: curiosity matters.

“Stay curious,” she says. “Companies know you’re learning. They care about your willingness to ask questions, think differently, and continue growing.”

Looking back, Payton believes the value of her Lacy School of Business experience becomes even clearer with time.

The relationships she built, the opportunities she pursued, and the hands-on experiences she gained continue to influence her career every day.

“The more years you’re out of college, the more you realize it,” she says. “The resources, the people, the opportunities – you really don’t find another business school that does it the way we do.”

At just 22 years old, Iman Noor D. Braham has already built a life defined by curiosity, courage, and an unwavering belief in possibility.

Raised in Côte d’Ivoire, West Africa, Iman’s path to the MBA program at the Lacy School of Business wasn’t shaped by geography – it was shaped by intention. A self-described “little entrepreneur” from a young age, she graduated with her bachelor’s degree in business management and operations at just 18. For her, that milestone wasn’t an ending, it was confirmation that she was exactly where she was meant to be.

“I’ve always been passionate about business,” she says. “After my bachelor’s, I already knew I would pursue my MBA.”

After gaining two years of professional experience in investment banking in West Africa, Iman turned to mentors at her undergraduate institution, an American-style university in her home country, for guidance on where to go next. One name kept resurfacing: Butler University. With its growing strengths in supply chain, entrepreneurship, and experiential learning, the program aligned seamlessly with her ambitions as both a student and a founder.

At the time, she wasn’t focused on the city. She didn’t even visit before applying. Instead, she followed instinct.

“I always say it was fate,” she reflects. “I just felt like it would be the right place for me.”

That instinct proved right. From the moment she arrived, Indianapolis became more than just a destination; it became a space where she could grow, explore, and fully step into her potential as a young leader. In a program intentionally designed for connection and impact, she found not only academic challenge, but belonging.

Iman’s presence in the classroom brings something distinct and powerful. Fluent in both French and English, she has experienced firsthand how language and culture shape the way we think about business. Even something as simple as a phrase can reveal deeper differences – where English suggests that “time is money,” French invites us to “pass time” with others, emphasizing presence over productivity.

That dual perspective allows her to both challenge and enrich classroom conversations. In one supply chain discussion, she offered insight into cocoa production in Côte d’Ivoire, where her own family has roots in the industry, transforming a theoretical case into lived experience.

“It makes you realize how important diverse perspectives are,” she says. “Sometimes, I’ve lived what we’re learning.”

At the same time, adapting to a new academic culture pushed her beyond her comfort zone. As an introvert, speaking up in a more participatory classroom environment didn’t come naturally at first. But it became part of her growth.

“I’ve always done things more quietly, more in the background,” she shares. “Being here challenged me to put myself out there, and that’s been one of the most valuable parts of my experience.”

That growth is evident across every corner of her time at Lacy. As Vice President of Finance for the MBA Association, she oversees budgeting and financial planning, ensuring resources are used to create meaningful experiences for her peers. But her impact extends far beyond her role.

Driven by a deep commitment to access and community, Iman saw a gap: many MBA students were building businesses or dreaming of starting one, but lacked a shared space to connect. Instead of waiting for that space to exist, she created it.

The result was the launch of the MBA Entrepreneurship Club, a first-of-its-kind graduate-level organization at Lacy. What began as a simple idea quickly gained traction. After surveying her peers, she discovered that nearly 80% had a business or were interested in starting one. At the club’s first meeting, the turnout was overwhelming.

“As an entrepreneur, I know how lonely it can feel,” she says. “I wanted to create something where people could share, support each other, and actually build together.”

Her vision for the club goes beyond networking. She hopes it becomes a space where ideas turn into action – where students collaborate to solve real problems, support one another’s ventures, and create impact that extends beyond campus.

“I don’t want it to be something where people just come and talk,” she says. “I want it to add value – to people, to the school, and even to the economy.”

That mindset, of identifying gaps and building solutions, has been a constant throughout her life. At just 16, Iman launched her own fashion e-commerce business, designed to make trendy clothing more accessible to young women in West Africa. At the time, many global brands didn’t ship to the region, and those that did often came with high costs and long wait times.

Seeing both a need and an opportunity, she built a business that met her generation where they were – online. Over four years, she grew the brand to more than 100,000 followers and sold over 20,000 pieces across multiple countries.

“It started as something fun,” she says. “But it became something much bigger than I expected.”

Balancing the business alongside her studies and early career eventually led her to step away, but the experience continues to shape how she thinks about entrepreneurship, innovation, and impact. Looking ahead, she hopes to build a modern African fashion brand; one that reflects both identity and aspiration on a global stage.

Her experiences, from investment banking to entrepreneurship to leadership roles at Butler, have given her a wide lens on what’s possible. But they’ve also made one thing clear: having many paths can make choosing just one feel overwhelming.

“The hardest part of having options is choosing,” she admits.

Still, she’s learning to trust what energizes her most – where creativity and strategy intersect, and where business becomes a tool for meaningful change.

“I once heard that sometimes we try to be a plane when we’re actually a bird,” she says. “For me, it’s about finding where I truly thrive.”

At Lacy, she’s found an environment that encourages exactly that kind of exploration. Through hands-on coursework, consulting projects, and immersive experiences like the Global Business Experience, learning extends far beyond the classroom.

“You’re not just learning theory,” she says. “You’re applying it, working with real clients, and learning from the people around you.”

It’s the people, she says, who make the experience truly special; faculty who are deeply invested, peers who challenge and inspire, and a community that makes space for growth.

Outside of her many roles, Iman gravitates toward spaces that allow her to slow down and create. She enjoys exploring coffee shops like Parlor Public House, writing, and capturing the constant flow of ideas that define her thinking.

“My mind is always creating,” she says. “I love building things. Whether it’s a business, an idea, or something entirely new.”

As she prepares to graduate, Iman isn’t rushing to define what comes next. Instead, she’s embracing the process – continuing to learn, explore, and refine her path.

What’s certain is that wherever she goes, she will continue to build, lead, and create impact.

Because for Iman Noor D. Braham, success isn’t just about where you end up – it’s about what you create along the way, and how many others you bring with you.

Gregor von Rohr didn’t arrive at the Lacy School of Business looking for a pause in his academic journey. He came looking for a place where he could expand it.

Originally from Switzerland, Gregor studies political science with a strong business focus, moving between disciplines that rarely stay in separate lanes. His academic path has already taken him across institutions and borders, including the University of Zurich and an exchange semester at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., where he immersed himself in international relations and national security studies. Each experience added another layer to how he understands politics, economics, and the systems that connect them globally.

But it was at LSB where those layers began to actively intersect.

In International Business Environment, taught by Dr. Juan Manual Gil, Gregor stepped into a learning environment designed around real-world global collaboration. The course integrates X-Culture, an international experiential learning project that brings together thousands of students from more than 100 countries to work in virtual teams and develop internationalization strategies for real companies.

For Gregor, this wasn’t just another group assignment – it became the defining academic experience of his exchange semester.

Through X-Culture, he worked with peers across continents on a real business challenge: developing expansion strategies for a honey company in Africa. The experience pushed far beyond traditional case studies. It required navigating time zones, communication styles, and deeply rooted cultural differences in how teams build trust and make decisions.

“In Switzerland, if you’re five minutes early, you’re on time,” he reflects. “But in a global team, you quickly realize those assumptions don’t always translate. Everything changes; how you communicate, how you define deadlines, even how you build relationships.”

What stood out most to Gregor was how directly the experience reflected what he was learning in Dr. Gil’s classroom at Lacy. Concepts like internationalization, cross-cultural management, and global strategy were no longer theoretical frameworks – they were immediate, lived realities unfolding inside his team.

His performance and engagement in both the course and X-Culture led to a significant recognition: selection for the 2026 X-Culture Global Business Week Conference in Trieste, Italy. Out of more than 500 applicants, only 150 students were chosen globally. For Gregor, the selection represents not just individual achievement, but a continuation of the applied, global learning he first encountered at the Lacy School.

At the same time, Gregor has found that Butler offers something beyond academic rigor: a sense of community that shapes how learning feels. Compared to competitive environments he has experienced elsewhere, he describes Lacy as more collaborative – where students are encouraged not just to compete, but to engage, support, and build together.

“People care about each other here,” he says. “It’s not just competition; it’s community. That changes how you learn.”

That balance has influenced how he thinks about his future. Exposure to global systems, inequality, and economic structures – both in and outside the classroom – has led him to explore paths in international diplomacy or consulting, where analytical thinking and human understanding must work together.

Outside of academics, Gregor has also extended his voice through writing as an opinion contributor for The Butler Collegian. Writing, for him, serves as another way of processing what he is learning: connecting academic theory to lived experience and global observation. It is less about reporting and more about synthesizing: understanding how ideas show up in the real world, and why they matter.

“The real skill,” he says, “is connecting what you learn to what you see happening in the world.”

For students considering LSB, especially those coming from international backgrounds, Gregor’s experience reflects what is possible when academic structure and global opportunity intersect.

When asked what he would say to another student considering an exchange at LSB, his answer is immediate.

“Just do it. Once you’re here, you realize how much is possible. You just have to step into it.”

Written by Brad Seehausen
Marketing and Communications Intern, Lacy School of Business ’26

In a world full of labels, it is easy to be boxed into one area of expertise. For Kate Parisi, her competitive drive does not allow for this. From a foray into the allergy-free food business through the Lacy School of Business entrepreneurship program to competing on Butler’s club swim team, the finance and marketing double major is elevating her game on all levels.

Kate came into the college searching process with one word on her mind: Versatility. What program could allow her to transform her existing business skills into becoming a professional powerhouse. 

“I remember I came to the Lacy Business Scholars Day and it was an automatic yes,” Kate says.

The Mount Prospect, Illinois native cites the emphasis of hands-on experiences through Lacy as being the driving force behind her decision. Now, well into her third year at LSB, Kate has taken full advantage of the promises that Lacy made. 

Entering college, Kate had been a member of the high school level of DECA, a renowned business competition organization. During her time, her team placed in the top 10 of 200 teams in the country during a Buying and Merchandising Team Decision Making competition. While unsure whether business was for her or not, Kate’s experience in DECA had effectively convinced her that the domain was in her future. 

Now, three years later, Kate has served as the Vice President of DECA at Butler, and currently holds the title of VP of Career Development. Through this role, she ensures that all competing members are prepared to go head-to-head with their spreadsheets and slidedecks. She calls them “competition bootcamps,” effectively preparing individuals for DECA’s International Career Development Conferences, located all across the country. 

When Kate isn’t leading in DECA, she is engineering her most recent entrepreneurship venture, Balls, No Nuts, a nut-allergen free protein ball. Her team spends their time packaging, producing, and selling their food, all facilitated through Lacy’s entrepreneurship program.

“I had no intention of starting a business. I’m not even an entrepreneurship major. I really just wanted to take a class with Nick Smarelli, who is a great resource for students,” Kate offers.

However, after discovering a shared passion among her classmates for creating an allergen-free alternative for protein balls, Balls No Nuts was born.

“I had no idea that entrepreneurship was something that I was interested in until I fully immersed myself in it this year.”

Kate’s competitive spirit extends outside of the classroom and business world, as she actively competes on Butler’s club swim team.

“I grew up swimming and doing track and field. I’ve continued swimming through the club team at Butler. I’ve served on the executive board for the last two years, so it’s been a large part of my college experience,” Kate says. 

Although self-sufficient, Kate attributes much of her guidance and mentorship to Nick Smarelli, a Lecturer in Entrepreneurship and Innovation and Director of Butler Entrepreneurship.

“Nick has connections to everybody. Need a production person? Nick has a guy. Manufacturing? He has a guy. He’s also just a great mentor in general,” Kate says. 

In addition, Kate shouts out the career mentor program within Lacy, as well. She cites her mentor. Randy Brown, as an inspiration for her addition of a finance double major.

“I talked to him and he showed me that adding finance could open up additional opportunities and pathways in my career,” Kate says. 

Although a few semesters away from graduating and entering the workforce, Kate has already experienced a great deal of real world experience. Over the summer, she had the opportunity to study abroad in London, in which she completed an 11 week internship at a small accounting firm. 

Not one to limit herself, Kate will venture onto the other end of the business spectrum this summer. At Health Care Service Corporation, Kate will fulfill her second internship as a procurement intern. 

“Do as many internships and clubs as you can. Getting as much experience as possible is so important to figure out what your strengths are, what your weaknesses are, what you like, and what you don’t like,” Kate advises. 

Although she maintains a busy schedule, Kate says she pursues everything in her life with passion and love, and she offers new students to do the same.

“Put yourself out there and find what you love. And then, stick with it.”