Jeannine Cook

As a UArts alumna that never lived on campus and preferred life in the local community instead, she worked to find ways to give local kids access to art supplies. “I noticed the children on my block didn’t have access to things, so I rented out equipment and let them use it every weekend,” she said. These efforts became Positive Minds, a club she started at the university with the community in mind.

To raise money for Positive Minds projects, Cook and her peers sold books in front of the UArts campus. She began to see entrepreneurship as a way to solve community problems.