Jahasia Cooper recently graduated in 2019 from Wells College and was our chapter’s Co-Campus Correspondent while at Wells!! She currently works a full time job and manages her own company that she recently launched: AfroKIN. Honestly, as a woman in business, I look up to her courage and capability to launch a company not only on her own, but right after graduation. I had the opportunity to interview her and learn the steps she took in achieving her dream.
What degree/degrees did you receive from Wells?
I received a B.A. in International Cultures (Individualized Major) in May 2019 with a minor in Communications.
During college, what classes helped you the most with starting up your business?
That’s a great question. I think I was very fortunate to have supportive faculty advisors who helped me to choose courses that would benefit my academic interests, so I was able to choose classes from a variety of disciplines that contributed to my degree and in the long run helped me to start my own business. I would say in my top 5 favorite classes were definitely Social Entrepreneurship (Professor Miles) and Entrepreneurship & Small Business Management (Professor Miles). In my first year at Wells I took two French classes and from there continued learning French so both classes were definitely helpful – especially with my degree in International Cultures and now working in the travel and international education industry. Of course, I can’t leave out my Soc/Anth/International Studies family. Social Inequality (Professor McClusky) and Introduction to International Studies (Professor Tukumbi) were also two of my favorite classes. They really helped me to understand social, cultural, political and economic issues on a communal, local and global scale.
How did you start up your business? What steps did you take?
I am still in the start-up phase, but it has already been a challenging (but exciting process). Again, another tip I learned from the Entrepreneurship class that I took at Wells, was to have a solid business plan, so I actually started writing that in my last semester at Wells. I spent so much time doing market research, grabbing all of the statistics that I could find, researching other study abroad programs to see what I could change or do better, and more. And while all of that was helpful, one thing that Professor Miles taught me was that you will never be 100% ready to launch your business. As long as you’re 80% – 85% confident, you just have to hit the ground running, so that’s what I did. Since then, I’ve been applying to incubators and accelerators to secure funding for my business like Y Combinator and Black Girl Ventures and I’ve recruited an awesome team of 2 current Wells students and 1 alum! Another thing that I’ve done along the way was joining a community of other women who are in the same boat as me, in the startup phase, on Girlboss.com. I received a ton of advice and support on how to launch my business, how to secure funding/get the attention of Venture Capitalists, and how to reach my target demographic even though our study abroad programs aren’t open for students yet. So I launched my website and started our social media pages to start building interest in our company and create a community of supportive people who believe in our mission.
What is your business about?
AfroKIN is the FIRST and ONLY study abroad company for students of African descent. We connect our students with educational and professional opportunities that are readily available in different countries in Africa through our Summer Study and Internship Immersion programs. AfroKIN wants to change generations of families within the African diaspora and show that Africa isn’t this poverty-stricken and disease-ridden continent. There are so many opportunities for Black students to explore the people, languages, and cultures of Africa and also have the opportunity to reconnect with their heritage. I believe that in its most basic form, AfroKIN wants Black students to truly discover who they are and their heritage and gain the skills and knowledge that they need to navigate the world with confidence because when you know who you are, people can’t tell you who you are.
What gave you the courage to do it?
I have to give credit to David Lloyd who wrote “Remember Who You Are: The Greatest African Tribe.” I read that book in my last semester at Wells and it gave me the inspiration to start AfroKIN. I was sitting on this idea for months and I was so scared to launch my business because there was so much that I didn’t know how to do: I’ve never started a business before, I didn’t know anything about the travel and international education industries, but I just decided to go for it because I knew that I would be extremely disappointed in myself and regret that I didn’t at least give it my best shot, if someone else pursued this idea. I knew that once I thought about this amazing idea, I had to pursue it because I know more than anyone else what it’s like to be a member of my community and not see myself equally represented in study abroad programs. That was enough for me to just go for it.
If you could give advice to a college student what would it be?
There’s a ton of advice that I would give to college students, but my biggest piece of advice would be to explore any and everything in college. Take random classes, do a bunch of internships, start/join a club, participate in business competitions. I didn’t realize it until after I graduated, but college is the best time for you to explore all of the things that can help you to discover your passion, and it’s also the best time to build connections that will be very helpful once you graduate. I was one of those students that jumped into college and declared my major early on, but I wish I had given myself time to take a wider range of classes, meet professors from different departments and take advantage of internships because there is so much to learn and so many people who want to help you get where you need to be, you just have to be the one to be courageous enough to take those opportunities.
Stay up to date on all the new exciting things AfroKIN is working on!
Instagram and Facebook: afrokin_study
Twitter: infro@afrokin.org
Website: www.afrokin.org