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President's Blog: From the Heart

Hats Off

By Eric F. Spina

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Danielle (‘Dani”) Ruffolo ’19 on “Shark Tank” one of these days.

She’ll be the one wearing her patented “handy hat” while making an earnest pitch to expand a company she started as a college student. The cap contains a lightweight pouch that can securely store a credit card, a student ID, even a house key.

While I love all of our students, I am particularly proud of Dani, who is interning in the president’s office this summer. She is a “local girl made good” who comes from hardy and deep Dayton Flyer stock. She’s also an excellent student, a terrific student-athlete who has represented UD at an NCAA leadership conference, a great University citizen who is deeply involved in the life of the campus — *and* a successful entrepreneur, who turned a classroom experience into her own company.

Way back when she was 19.

Makes me question what I have done with my life! Seriously, I’m convinced students like Dani will define a new generation of University of Dayton graduates. She’s creative and entrepreneurial, humble and collaborative. She had enough courage to take an idea from its infancy to the next level — a micro-business she formed with four other students — to, finally, her very own company, Handy Hats.

Nick Donofrio, who led IBM’s technology and innovation strategies for more than a decade, spoke at my presidential installation about the birth of new ideas. I distinctly remember his observation that the best innovators are those who know a problem well and figure out a simple solution. He’s fond of quoting Thomas Edison, who said, “There’s a way to do it better. Find it.”

Before Dani pitched the idea in her “Entrepreneurship Sophomore Experience” class, she sewed a sock into one of her baseball caps to illustrate the concept. Her professor, Vince Lewis, saw potential in the idea, and the School of Business Administration awarded her $5,000 to develop a product and marketing plan with a team of other entrepreneurship students. Initially, they sold the hats room to room on campus to their friends. Today, you can find a line of the handy hats for sale online and in the UD Bookstore, which is marketing them as gifts for Father’s Day. She recently received a patent for the product, whose logo is, fittingly, a kangaroo pouch.

After Dani shared her business start-up story with alumni at a Reunion Weekend brunch, she promptly sold more than 200 hats to the group. It’s an idea that is finding a market, one hat at a time.

UD’s entrepreneurship program is consistently ranked in the top 25 in the nation, but students don’t have to be interested in starting their own businesses to develop an entrepreneurial mindset.

Think of the successful people you admire. They’re visionary, creative, resilient, innovative, and courageous. They’re all thinkers and doers with a can-do, entrepreneurial spirit.

They’re students just like Dani, who are finding a way to do it better.

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