The Wellesley Made Podcast: Recent Episodes
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Wellesley Made is an online community that promotes the work and mission of Wellesley College alum entrepreneurs, creatives, and thought leaders in small business. On the WM podcast our alums interview each other about art, life, and entrepreneurship.
Ariel Nathanson, Wellesley '10 is the founder of Finances for Feminists. Her business is focused on helping women attain financial wellness by providing education and personalized support. In this episode, Ariel talks about how she got started, the systemic and individual challenges women face with money, and her coaching services that help women gain clarity and control of their finances.
This week we're talking with Randy Lu of Randy Lu Pastels and Watercolor. Randy has had a fascinating journey following her years at Wellesley; from studying ancient Chinese literature in China to working in corporate America, focusing on family as a stay at home mom for a while, and now building her own giftware business. Randy's passion for testing new opportunities and enjoying the learning process as she grows her own business shines through.
Jessica Hiatt Platt, Class of 1999, is the founder of Platt Pilates, based in Houston Texas. A double major in Studio Art and Pre-Med at Wellesley, Jessica has followed her right/left brain interests since Wellesley, working as both a professional photographer on a cruise ship and later a software engineer designing surveillance for the Patriot missile defense system and electro-optics for the DDG-class destroyer. In the midst of building her family of five, Jessica moved from Boston to Houston and decided to reintegrate another part of herself, her love of fitness, pilates specifically, into a parent-friendly entrepreneurial venture in the form of Platt Pilates. Jessica embraces the healthy idea that we can have different seasons of our life that allow us to explore different personal interests, work/life balances, and careers, while still bringing the best of ourselves to each of these experiences.
Thu Anh Nguyen exemplifies Walt Whitman's assertion that each of us contains multitudes. She joined our podcast this week to discuss her work as a painter and calligrapher working on large scale bespoke floral posters supporting numerous social activist missions, but we expanded our discussion to hear more about her other ventures and how she ties her skills and passion together. From her days at Wellesley, to her work as a published poet, author, middle school teacher, diversity and inclusion consultant, and parent, Thu Anh does not fail to impress! Listen to this podcast for more details on how to win one of Thu Ahn's bespoke posters.
Thu Anh has produced over 200 custom posters focusing on messages of inclusion and support for BIPOC, Black Lives Matter, Wellesley, Casa Ruby, the Okra Project, and AAPI to name a few.
Amelia Pleasant Kennedy, Wellesley Class of 2002, is a professional organizer and life coach based in Detroit. Some have said Amelia's organization skills verge on superpowers. From moving her family 12 times, solo parenting while pursuing a PhD, raising 3 kids, and serving as primary caregiver for a parent with a long-term illness, Amelia doesn't just talk the talk, she is a master organizer who has honed her skills and philosophies into an art form...one that allows her to do all that and become an entrepreneur to help others. In this episode Amelia discusses how she approaches life, work, self, and family.
Brigette Borders is a tech-obsessed multidisciplinary artist from Chicago whose art blends digital and analogue techniques to produce improbable spatial perceptions. In this podcast Brigette and Connie Rhind Robey discuss her wondering path to becoming an artist, beginning with her Classics degree at Wellesley, and how she has let her artistic and intellectual curiosity be her guide. Brigette also works full-time for Facebook managing a large team of designers.
Julie Singer Kerwin launched the world's first ever line of female action figures in 2014 with her line IAmElemental. We discuss her life, approach to entrepreneurship, and what it was like to be at the forefront of America's super-heroine craze in the 2010-2020 decade, both repositioning girls as powerful in the superhero genre, but also rethinking how boys and girls play with female-identified action figures.