for Innovation and Entrepreneurship
at Davidson College

Categories
Student

Heidi Meyer Does It All

About Heidi Meyer

Heidi Meyer (she/her/hers) is a Senior psychology major and is heavily involved in the Davidson College community. Apart from her impressive pre-professional expertise, Meyer is a part of Student Government, is a member of the Activities Tax Council, participates in debate and discussion on Davidson’s campus as a Deliberative Citizen’s Initiative fellow, nannies on the side, and is now starting a new position as a Gig-Hub consultant working with the director of the Hurt Hub@Davidson, Elizabeth Brigham.  

Though Meyer is just starting her official time working with the Hurt Hub, she’s been a familiar name around our space for much longer. Like most seniors, Meyer is focused on her future, but she says post-grad job anxiety actually started when she was a sophomore. Meyer realized her sophomore year that there was a gap in the research she was looking for when thinking about her path after Davidson, but the summer before her senior year she had a second realization: “I can do something about this.” It was this idea that launched her into the world of podcasting. 

Meyer first launched her podcast, “Careers Explained” the summer before her senior year without any funding. Bringing on guests in all kinds of career paths, Meyer aims to help people her age, who might also be stressed about post-grad plans. Later on in her process, Meyer received funding from the Try-It fund and the Avinger Impact Fund to continue growing her endeavors.  

This past Thursday, I sat down with Meyer and she’s just as impressive in person as she is on paper. Meyer carries herself with contagious joy and that was evident throughout my whole conversation with her. She smiled the entire interview and after we wrapped up questions about her, she sat with me for another twenty minutes to get to know me. Hearing her goals and story make me want to call as many Davidson people as I can, just to make connections.

“What I’ve learned is that there are a million jobs out there and maybe this is idealistic, but I believe that everyone can find something they love and that no one should settle. I think there are so many roles – keep looking and keep trying if you’re unsure because I want everyone to do something that makes them happy.” 

The Process 

The process begins, in Meyer’s words, “with a lot of LinkedIn DMing and sleuthing.” Based on student interests, sometimes generated from frequent meetings with the Matthews Career Center, Meyer reaches out via personal connection or LinkedIn to request interviews with prospective podcast guests. With a ten percent response rate, Meyer has to have thick skin when it comes to requests. Reaching out to both Davidson connections and professionals who fit student requests, Meyer preps for an interview and then the two hop on Zoom to record the interview. Usually, Meyer edits the interview on her own on Anchor, posts it on social media, and the podcast is ready! 

What’s Next

Using the Avinger Impact Fund Grant, Meyer is expanding. Using the Avinger Grant, Meyer has built a Careers Explained website and is looking into hiring graphic designers and social media planners to grow her brand. Meyer is also engaging with the Davidson community by planning on incorporating Jesse Doyle, a Davidson volleyball player, as the new face and voice of Careers Explained. Meyer also plans on incorporating video into her productions and researching the best methods for reaching the most amount of people. You can listen to Meyer’s podcast here and find a career path that fits you best, with help and advice from a fellow Davidson student.

Categories
Co-Working Student Try It Fund

All About: Boomerang

In 2017, Jason Dibble founded Boomerang with the mission to address the critical issues of water access and sustainability. His experiences serving in the US Military, including four tours in Afghanistan, provided the impetus for his passion. While watching the delivery of bottled water in the hot desert sun, Dibble observed the negative environmental impact of single-use plastic bottles, including chemical leaching and toxic waste disposal in burn pits. This motivated him to create a company that could eliminate the need for single-use plastics while providing clean, fresh water to communities. 

Dibble’s experience in the military led him to explore various water-based topics such as water filtration, access to water, and reusable water sources, eventually leading him to become an “aquapreneurer”- one of our new favorite titles, with Jerrod Freund, who’s focused on finance but has the flare for “disruptive bottling technology.” Together, they brainstormed solutions to the world’s water problems and identified eliminating single-use plastics as the most viable idea. This concept gave birth to the Boomerang Bottling System, which simplifies the bottling process and reduces the need for single-use plastics. 

Boomerang’s innovative bottling systems can handle the entire process of washing, sanitizing, filtering, filling, and capping bottles with a single, compact machine. They have their own filtration system to always keep the water fresh and ultra-filtered. In an eight-hour shift, the Boomerang Bottling System can produce up to 3,000 bottles of water. These machines provide the convenience of bottled water while reducing carbon footprint and eliminating single-use plastic by producing water locally instead of shipping it. 

Right now, Boomerang has five machines in use, and they are contracted to install many more units in the next six months. Boomerang is suitable for hotels, resorts, industrial, and corporate campuses, but they are also exploring opportunities to work with cruise lines, aiming to replace the thousands of plastic water bottles that are used on every trip. 

Boomerang and their Connections to Davidson 

Boomerang started up in 2020 and you can guess how that felt. Ready to go but nowhere to go at the same time. So, Boomerang went local. The company went to the Town of Davidson and offered to bottle water for the police department and the fire department, but soon others saw the benefits of their sustainable approach to bottled water. Summit Coffee and GreenWorks in Mooresville quickly became clients, and Boomerang’s business expanded rapidly in the town. They now work with a variety of downtown businesses, including the Davidson Inn, Ben and Jerry’s, Good Drip Coffee, Hop and Vine, Abode Spa and Our Town Cinemas. During the pandemic, Boomerang collaborated with these local clients to improve their machines, processes, and designs. 

Boomerang was solely located in a facility on Depot Street, where they are manufacturing their machines, as well as housing their marketing/design studio, engineering, and accounting teams. What Boomerang needed was more space where they could accommodate their growing team and foster a collaborative environment for idea sharing and innovation. Boomerang found a perfect fit with the Hurt Hub and is one of our coworking members. According to Jean Andzulis, the Director of Special Projects at Boomerang, the Hurt Hub has been instrumental in their success, enabling them to collaborate more effectively and achieve their goals. 

“The Hurt Hub has been instrumental in providing us with the space and resources we need to grow and thrive as a company. Their contributions have allowed us to present ourselves more clearly, host guests, and showcase our innovative office and co-working space, ultimately contributing to our continued success.” – Jean Andzulis, Director of Special Projects at Boomerang. 

Boomerang focuses on a closed-loop, waste-free, return, reuse, refill, recycle model while providing fresh, delicious water for all their clients. Davidson is lucky to have Boomerang as they aim to eliminate single-use plastic bottles once and for all. 


Categories
Student

When Art is Entrepreneurial!

Evie Mulhern (she/her), class of 2025, is the picture of what a liberal arts education can provide for students at Davidson. As a computer science and studio art double major, Evie has been working on merging the digital and technical side of things with her creative endeavors which has lead her, unexpectedly, to entrepreneurship.

Her first year, Evie took Intro to Works on Paper with the visual arts department. Meeting in the Katherine and Tom Belk Visual Arts Center, Intro to Works on paper focuses on the intricacies of drawing, painting, and screenprinting.

I’ve done commissioned work, but I’ve never had people purchase original work that I’d done on my own or for a class.

Evie Mulhern

Although many may think of art as painting and drawing, Davidson’s art courses offer much more in the realms of alternative art. Evie’s interests lie in digital art and screen printing. (She’s also tried her hand at things like sculpture and silverwork.)

Having created screenprints in Intro to Works on Paper and her digital art class (Intro to Digital Design), Evie agreed to have her pieces displayed in the final student art showcase at the end of the semester. Two of her pieces, “Sense of Self Street” and “Are You Ready?” were singled out by interns at VAC who approached her about displaying the pieces in the Hurt Hub. Evie was excited, having studied at the Hurt Hub for her finals and the uniqueness of the space, to have her art set up for exhibit.

All pieces displayed at the Hurt Hub are available for purchase and the increased exposure led to two buyers contacting the VAC to inquire about purchasing Evie’s piece. The buying program focuses on centering the student in the process, which means students receive 100% of the sale profits and are responsible for orchestrating the sale.

Evie’s Pieces

“Sense of Self Street” is a screen print, with several independent layers to create the multi-layered effect. The prompt for this piece was to create a self-portrait. With no other guidelines, Evie took an abstract approach choosing five or so prominent buildings throughout her life and creating this fictional, yet personally significant, city landscape.

“Are You Ready?” is a digital creation combined with screen-printing, made in Evie’s Intro to Digital Art class. Evie wanted the piece to feel like the starting placard of a video game. When asked about this piece, Evie explained that “I wanted to make something that was a little bit different than what you see with screen print.”

Evie is realistic about her future ventures – although being a full-time creative is appealing – she wants to incorporate coding skills from her computer science major in her career while maintaining some kind of creative work. Although Evie’s sold these two pieces, she’s excited about the prospect of selling original work (for the first time as non-commissioned work!) and isn’t sad about losing these pieces. “Especially for “Are You Ready?”, since it is part of a 5 part series, I did not fully let it go, just let one bird out of the nest!”

Hello!

Are you a Prospective Davidson College student or Prospective coworking member?

The Hurt Hub logo

Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Davidson College