A business of their own
Worcester Magazine, June 21, 2007 https://www.worceste ... 0937728007
A business of their own
Staff Writer
Worcester Magazine
How Clark taught these students to start their own companies
By Micky Baca
When Aaron O'Hearn graduated from Clark University in May, he had a management degree. While he was a sophomore, as something of a school project, he started an on-line school supply company. Now, he's trying to raise a million bucks. He needs the capital to take it to that next lucrative level.
Meanwhile, 20-year-old Vicky Mariano, who just completed her junior year at Clark, is counting the weeks before her new business opens. She calls it The Spiritual Haze; a non-alcoholic club/hookah bar/cafe for Clark students. Mariano hopes it will help discourage binge drinking among her peers. And she expects it to turn a profit within a year and lead to a chain of similar clubs.
Neither student is looking to use their management degree to work for someone else's company. As O'Hearn puts it, "owning a secure business is the most secure thing you can find in this economy." The days of pinning career hopes on a large corporation or institution are over, he says.
O'Hearn and Mariano are products of the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Program at Clark. Read more at https://www.worcestermag.com/story/news/2007/06/21/a-business-of-their-own/10937728007