FOL-2023 Year in Review

Sloan Hurley (Fin, Mgmt’25)

Anonymous — Fri, 03 Nov 2023 14:32:04 +0000

Sloan Hurley (Fin, Mgmt’25) Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 11/03/2023 - 08:32

Mia Armbruster , Student Writer

Ralphie Handler

While she studies hard during the week, Sloan Hurley runs hard on the weekend with the rest of the Ralphie handlers (a.k.a., ‘Ralphie Runners’)—the students who lead ��Ƶ Boulder’s mascot, Ralphie the Buffalo, around the football field before each home game.

Monday through Friday, Sloan is a third-year student majoring in finance and management with a focus on social responsibility and sustainability. She transferred to the Leeds School of Business last year and quickly started looking for her place within the community.

“I know I have something to offer and a voice to be shared,” she says.

She decided to join the Leeds Young Alumni Mentor program to connect with professionals who share her passion for making a positive impact. She also joined Alpha Kappa Psi, a student-run business fraternity—where she stumbled across some students who stood out from the B-school crowd, wearing cowboy boots and ten-gallon hats. She learned they were Ralphie Handlers and felt instantly drawn to them. Soon after the chance encounter, she decided to try out.

“I put my foot in the door and pave a way for myself.”

Sloan Hurley (Fin’25)

Having always been active—she was a kicker on her high school football team—Sloan figured she might have a shot, even though she hadn’t trained like the other hopefuls. Nonetheless, she showed up at tryouts determined and ready to pass each physical test.

It was harder than she anticipated: At one point she found herself struggling with the lifting exercises, an area in which she had no experience. But this only made her train harder, she recalls, pushing herself ever closer to the goal she knew she was capable of achieving. In the end, she was right; she became one of 14 handlers on the team.

She’s quick to point out that it isn’t just a team, it’s a family: a support system that inspires each member to reach their full potential. And it’s not the only family she’s found. At Leeds, she’s a member of Alpha Kappa Psi and explains that they work not only to help each other grow but to grow together as a collective to make a positive impact on the school.

On finding her place, Sloan says she never hesitates to try something new, whether it’s keeping up with a racing buffalo or putting herself out there in a new community.

“I put my foot in the door and pave a way for myself.” She makes it clear that anything is possible.

Photos courtesy of University of Colorado Athletics.

Sloan Hurley studies hard during the week and runs hard on the weekend as a Ralphie handler.

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Jasmine Fabela Sanchez (Fin, Acct’25)

Anonymous — Fri, 07 Apr 2023 06:00:00 +0000

Jasmine Fabela Sanchez (Fin, Acct’25) Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 04/07/2023 - 00:00

Intern, HoneyBee Robotics

As the oldest of four children, Jasmine Fabela Sanchez is in some ways already her own boss. Helping her parents keep house was all part of growing up, alongside being a full-time student, working part-time in high school and even attempting her own eyelash business.

“When I got into Leeds, it was a calling—an affirmation of what I wanted to do,” said Jasmine, a first-generation college student. “I’ve always been very independent and I know I want to be my own boss someday.”

She’s still figuring out what form that may take—perhaps starting an accounting business or brokerage‚ maybe even getting into real estate—and is using her time at Leeds to explore as much as possible.

“I’m trying to be as involved as I can,” Jasmine said. “I’ve met so many incredible people in all these clubs, whether it’s Women in Business or the Multicultural Business Students Association.” She also is a mentor in the Diverse Scholars Program and is a student assistant for ��Ƶ’s Business and Engineering Women in Technology program; this summer, she’ll be working in the finance department at HoneyBee Robotics, where she’ll have opportunities to interact with the spacecraft technology company’s engineering and accounting teams.

Testing her limits

The possibilities for exploration have already extended to global travel, through the First-Year Global Experience, which sent her to Barcelona last year; she’s eagerly anticipating studying abroad in Madrid as a junior. The opportunity to test her boundaries helped bring her to Leeds, along with the sense of values that are part of the curriculum and the culture.

“Coming to Leeds opened my eyes to a whole new world—both how many people go here and how different their backgrounds all are,” she said.

A North Boulder native, Jasmine originally thought she’d attend school out of state, “but when COVID hit, I got really close to my family,” she said. “And Leeds turned out to be the perfect fit, especially once I got involved with the EXCEL Scholars Program.”

The EXCEL program, part of Leeds’ Office of Diversity Affairs, helps first-year students orient to college life ahead of Leeds Launch. Jasmine said that program, and ODA generally, helped her form a community and be a better student.

“Coming to Leeds opened my eyes to a whole new world—both how many people go here and how different their backgrounds all are.”

Jasmine Fabela Sanchez (Fin, Acct’25)

“When you’re a first-generation student, you don’t have someone who’s been there before who can hold your hand and help you know the deadlines, know how to get financial aid, fill out a FAFSA form,” she said. It’s why she’s a regular speaker in AVID—Achievement Via Individual Determination—which gives her opportunities to encourage other first-generation students to see the process through.

“I hope I can pave the way for my sister and younger brothers, so they’ll have someone to help them,” she said. “If I can be that asset, and help them and their friends get degrees that change their lives, that would be awesome.”

More Faces of Leeds Undergraduate programs Diverse Scholars Program

Jasmine’s ultimate goal in getting a business education is to be her own boss someday. Leeds is helping her figure out how to get there.

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Chris Wirth (MBA’97)

Anonymous — Fri, 27 Jan 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Chris Wirth (MBA’97) Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 01/27/2023 - 00:00

Co-founder, Liberty Puzzles

Chris Wirth is in his element.

As the co-founder of Liberty Puzzles talks about the concept behind his business and the Leeds experiences that helped him build it, a steady stream of customers wanders into his Pearl Street showroom in search of unique holiday gifts.

“For us, 2022 has been kind of a normal year, like 2019 was,” Chris said. “When we started the business, in 2005, we worked so hard just to get off the ground—like 12- and 14-hour days. Those early years were the hardest, until the pandemic hit, when we worked just as hard to stay alive. Those two periods were the biggest challenge for us.”

Unlike die-cut, cardboard puzzles, Liberty’s are wooden and filled with so-called “whimsy” pieces, named because workers running jigsaws would cut them on a whim. Chris’ work is inspired by Falls puzzles, created in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, during the Great Depression; each Falls puzzle included a signature whimsy piece of a girl falling. The Liberty signature piece is an eagle, and each puzzle includes whimsy pieces unique to each work. A Forever Buffs puzzle, for instance, shows Old Main and includes pieces of buffalo, hikers, books, even the Colorado state flag.

Chris said he inherited about 30 Falls puzzles from his mother, and on vacations, the family would work together to solve one.

“It got to the point where I’d call my dad before we left for a trip, asking if he picked out a puzzle yet,” he said. “I finally had my a-ha moment when we were in Puerto Vallarta together. It rained all weekend so we stayed inside working on the puzzle, all having a great time. And I realized, if I could find a way to make these and sell them for $100, that would be a good business.”

His grad school experiences were helpful not only as he overcame early-stage obstacles, but as he scaled up in response to demand.

“What I learned in studying law and business was to understand the perspective of any kind of problem you’re up against,” Chris said. “So, when you’re finding solutions, you think, are we within the ballpark? Does this seem ethical, logical, reasonable? It gives you a level of judgment that is so helpful in running a business.”

And he never needed creative problem-solving skills more than in the pandemic. In the first weekend of lockdowns, customers placed about 15,000 online orders.

“One of the things we’ve always been is entrepreneurial by necessity. We’re not afraid to tear stuff down and rebuild.”

Chris Wirth (MBA’97)

“We were panicking,” Chris said. “We had to close our factories because of lockdown, so we had no way to fulfill those orders. In the end, we went old-school—the two highest-level officers in the company making the puzzles, along with my laser floor manager—and the three of us kicked out all the orders in two months.”

Staying innovative

By then, even more demand had built up. To keep customers satisfied, Liberty created a token system that allowed people to reserve a token, which enabled buyers to order a single puzzle on the day it was valid—designed to keep orders to a manageable 500 a day while not locking out customers who weren’t tech savvy. That involved changing the company’s website from a virtual storefront to a kind of Ticketmaster—especially when scalpers caught on, requiring even tighter controls.

“One of the things we’ve always been is entrepreneurial by necessity,” Chris said. “We’re not afraid to tear stuff down and rebuild, like putting that token system in, or adding a new factory. But it’s interesting because, as we get bigger, it’s harder to be that. You can’t pivot as fast.”

With 130 employees selling some 700 puzzle designs, along with three Boulder factory locations and the showroom, Liberty has comfortably outgrown its status as a small business—but it hasn’t forgotten its roots. Chris showed off a 1,600-piece Falls puzzle of the British Isles that he has framed on his Pearl Street store, one of only two displayed designs his company didn’t create. He estimated its worth at $10,000.

“In the Depression, people wanted cheap forms of entertainment, and jigsaw puzzles fit the bill,” Chris said. “More than that, they created this social experience as people solved them together. That idea of bringing people together was where our initial business concept came from.”

More Faces of Leeds Why Leeds Leeds MBA

A Leeds MBA was the missing piece Chris needed in order to successfully launch his puzzle business.

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