Fiorella Riccobono: Social Entrepreneur

Name: Fiorella Riccobono 

Year: Freshman 

Hometown: Weston, FL 

Relationship Status: Taken  

Majors: Finance and Interdisciplinary Social Sciences 

Photo By: Nicholas Kielbasa

Her Campus (HC): So, why did you choose FSU? 

Fiorella Riccobono (FR): My older brother goes here and when he was touring the campus, I fell in love with it. 

HC: You mentioned you were double majoring, what made you pursue those specific majors? 

FR: Well, in Interdisciplinary Social Sciences you can choose to do focuses and I chose economics and social entrepreneurship because I’m really interested in those. I chose finance as my other major to understand the numbers and the way money works so as I get older I can pursue my own social enterprise while having a full understanding of what I have to do.  

HC: You said the you were involved with social entrepreneurship. Did you pursue these interests before coming to college?  

FR: My senior year of high school we did a fair trade coffee project and that’s when I really got interested in it. When I started at FSU, I was directed to Bruce Manciagli, an advisor for social entrepreneurship, which is new to the FSU campus. He directed me to Val Rodriguez who started the Social Entrepreneurs and Innovators club at Florida State. I am now the treasurer for the club.  

Courtesy: Fiorella Riccobono

HC: That sounds amazing! Were you able to expand to other interests beyond social entrepreneurship or is that the main focus?  

FR: The club has been able to expand to other things beyond social entrepreneurship because we do a lot of projects in it and you meet a lot of people who are not only interested in social entrepreneurship, but other aspects of it as well. Since there are many other ways to go about it other than just focusing on fair trade and worker’s rights, I have many more interests now.  

HC: What has been your favorite experience you’ve had thus far in the club? 

FR: Definitely the semester winter land store. We collected clothing all semester and we set it up outside of the homeless shelter. We gave the homeless people a dignified shopping experience to be able to come out and choose what they wanted to wear rather than take what was given to them. 

Courtesy: Fiorella Riccobono

HC: That sounds like a very humbling experience. What inspires and motivates you to continue this work?  

FR: I think it’s definitely that business tactics can be used to help social issues; it’s not necessarily charity. You can use a business model to better the world. When you see so many people who are struggling it makes you want to work really hard until there is no more struggle in that area or country. 

HC: What do you see in the future for yourself and these passions? 

FR: Well, this semester I am interning at Red Eye Coffee which is a local fair trade coffee shop. In the summer I am hopefully going to be interning in either New York or Napa, which I am really excited about. I hope to keep getting new opportunities and expanding my horizons so I figure out what part of social entrepreneurship I want to focus on. 

HC: Is your internship at Red Eye Coffee your first internship experience?

FR: Actually, no; last semester I interned at a local business incubator called Domi for the city commissioner. There were about 20 interns from FSU, TCC and FAMU. We are responsible for creating a technology that improves civic life. We were able to compete and it was a really great experience because they taught you so much about the different aspects of government. The first couple of months were filled with learning about municipal governments. There were also many inspiring guest speakers who taught a lot about the government, technology and coding, things I never thought I would be interested in.