As I settled into the comfortable atmosphere of Bella Union, Duke sophomore Huayu Lai walks in and greets me with more than a smile – she brought me some goodies! To showcase her prominent involvement and role as the campus CEO of Zaarly, an online and mobile marketplace where people buy and sell with their neighbors, she gives me a mug, shot glass, pong ball, and frat star shades, all sporting the Zaarly logo. She even has the logo on her shirt. Her thoughtfulness was not only clearly demonstrated by her gifts for both Stephanie, our staff photographer, and me, but also through her deep interest in this community based organization, as well as her passion for service.
Zaarly is a campus outreach program that seeks to empower entrepreneurial-minded students with the chance to run a business. In short, Zaarly’s goals include providing a secure space for students to ask for notes, textbooks, have meals delivered, organize rides to the stores, and meet other people in the community, including making money along the way. It hopes to ultimately function as an instant online community, fostering a way for students to help one another out. Although a national company, it is an online city marketplace, and one that is specifically targeted at college campuses. The instant this site goes live, I already know that I’m going to be paying students to drive to Sushi Love and get me food! … And maybe extra tutoring?
A little over a year old, Zaarly is still in the process of growing and expanding. As Huayu became the campus CEO of the company only halfway through this semester, she is currently focused on reaching out and spreading awareness about what Zaarly is, and what it has to offer the student body. She hopes to get more Duke students actually utilizing the system next semester. With Zaarly still in its beginning phase, Huayu has a lot of flexibility in shaping the direction of the site, which is a facet that she finds the most appealing: “The team provides a list of suggested accomplishments but no recipe for getting there, so I have a lot of creative freedom – to pick my team, design promotions, and so on, in a way that will be most effective for Duke’s campus.” Ultimately, though, she finds this enjoyable aspect to be somewhat of a “double-edged sword” because it presents many challenges as well. Even though the Zaarly team has been helpful in providing suggestions and feedback, it can be tough navigating the road when you’re working with a start-up for the first time, trying to foresee the bumps and curves. “With freedom,” she begins, “comes responsibility.” Words of wisdom, indeed.
Huayu may have been born in China, but she spent 8 years of her childhood growing up in Sweden. Although her parents have PhDs in microbiology, and science interested her in her pre-college years, she chose to leave her current residence at Portland, Oregon, and pursue a double major in Economics and Linguistics instead, as well as nurture her strong interest in marketing. When asked how she learned about such a unique and rewarding opportunity to represent a national company, Huayu laughed, revealing that she first read about it on the Marketing Club listserv. I originally thought that marketing was just about making cool commercials for food products and meeting beautiful models, but Huayu soon proved me wrong; “Marketing is about language and the power of language; there is a strategic aspect in marketing – figuring out how to reach and intrigue a consumer contains a psychological aspect that is so fascinating.” “A field that enables you to be really creative and innovative,” Huayu continued, “nothing is too out of the box.” With this point of view, it comes as no surprise that Huayu applied, and successfully acquired, this prestigious position.
So why did this superstar choose Duke as her new home for four years? Simply put, she voiced, “I really value balance. I get to have three strong aspects in one school: academia, a social life, and athletics.” Duke’s global facet also attracted Huayu – programs such as Duke Engage (which she did in South Africa!) and study abroad (which she hopes to do in Denmark next semester) were the real game changers. Superstar…and world traveler?
In addition to her status as Zaarly’s Duke campus CEO, Huayu is involved in two co-ed fraternities that are “the best representation of the intersection of (her) passions,” the service-oriented Alpha Phi Omega and the business focused Alpha Kappa Psi. At present, she is trying to figure out how to merge her interest in civic engagement and non-profit work with business. I’m sure that with her skills and experience, she will have no problem in eventually finding this solution.
When not taking over the marketing world, Huayu shared that she is quite an outdoorsy person. “Living in Oregon,” she explained, “really made me love nature.” Whether it is hiking, water boating, soccer, or dragon-boating (chyeah! There was a club team at her high school… how cool is that?), I’m sure you won’t find her inside on a beautiful day.
After settling in well at Duke over the past two years, Huayu explained that she really loves it here because of the people. Ascribing this to Duke’s diversity, she expressed, “I’ve always lived in very homogenous communities (Portland and Sweden) and so meeting people who have the most varied mentalities and perspectives have really made me reconsider and reevaluate the way I think.” As a piece of advice to other students who hope to pursue marketing, she adamantly encourages them to get involved and meet others who are also interested: “Trying things out is the best way to find out if that’s what you actually like and also gain experience. Before you know it, you’ll be able to pitch like a pro in front of your possible employers!” In hindsight, maybe I should have asked for pointers on how to effectively pitch the ideal of ‘no finals’ to my professors.
Without doubt, Huayu certainly values her precious time at Duke. As she described how impactful certain people have been on her life already, and the connections she has made, and the growth she has experienced, I was struck by how mature and confident this young woman truly is. Her excitement doesn’t stop there, either.
“How does Duke look like moving forward?” I asked.
“It just keeps getting better and better.”
Hell yeah. I can snap to that.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Duke chapter.