Few college seniors can say that they’ve been the driving factor behind a company’s success. But one enterprising student in the Daniels School of Business has done just that, using her talents for photography and graphic design to bring an international market to artisans in developing countries.
Megan Earley, a senior majoring in marketing with a concentration in innovation management, has turned a class project into something much more impactful, leading her to a lifelong commitment to using business for good.
Earley’s journey started with her International Marketing class at Purdue, which focuses on how to adapt marketing strategies to international markets. Taught by Clinical Associate Professor of Management Chad Allred, the course pairs student groups with global humanitarian organizations to give them insight into the real world of international marketing.
Although the teams were given a long list of organizations to choose from, Earley, who has long cited charity as one of her passions, was immediately interested in Elevita, a nonprofit e-commerce site that creates opportunities for artisans in developing countries by serving as a platform for their handmade products.
Elevita started in 2010 when co-founders Kirsten and Keyne Monson visited India and witnessed the poverty afflicting skilled artisans. This hardship struck a chord with the couple, and within a few months they had secured nonprofit status and launched a website that would help these struggling artisans find an international market.
Since then, Elevita has provided a commercial platform for hundreds of artisans in developing countries like India, Kenya, the Philippines and Cambodia to sell their products to buyers in the U.S. and beyond. Co-founder Kirsten Monson individually connects with every artisan she works with, bringing a personal touch to the organization while also bringing beautiful, hand-crafted goods to buyers around the world.
“Since the organization’s inception, few have had as great an impact as Megan Earley.” — Kirsten Monson, co-founder, Elevita
“Having a market makes all the difference in the world to the artisans and their families,” Monson says. “It empowers and lifts them. It puts rice on their tables, shoes on their feet, school books in their childrens’ hands and gives them the confidence that they can do more. And they often do. They start with us and then go do bigger things, and we love that. Our goal is to empower as many artisans as we can to fight for themselves and their families and become self-reliant.”
During their class project, Earley and her team worked directly with Monson, corresponding via email and video call. Monson has been working with Allred and his international marketing students for the past 8 years, but the scale of Earley’s impact on the organization had never happened before. “Never have I had a student that stood out as much as Megan,” Monson says. “From day one she was on the ball, professional, talented, visionary and energetic. She caught the vision of Elevita right from the beginning and has been able to keep it going.”
The original goal of the class project was to complete one small marketing project for Elevita, but seeing potential to put her skills to use, Earley volunteered to do product photography on the side. At the conclusion of the project, Earley expressed interest in interning at Elevita for the summer on a completely volunteer basis. During that internship, she finished product photography of the entire inventory, redesigned the website and logo, and managed Elevita’s social media.
Megan redesigned Elevita’s website and honed its brand.
“As a founder of a nonprofit, I always look for people to catch the vision,” Monson says. “People don’t always understand what we’re doing, but when they do understand, it’s really valuable, both for them and for the artisans we help. Even as a really small organization, Megan was able to see through our size and our outdated website and say, ‘This is a really amazing concept and I can make it better.’ And she did. Since the organization’s inception, few have had as great an impact as Megan Earley.”
For Earley, incredible initiative is just business as usual, and she advises other students to take the same approach. “It’s hard to do, but it’s important to remember that college is a time where you can make mistakes and recover from them easily,” she says. “Don’t take opportunities for granted. When you’re presented with them, you can take them and turn them into anything you want if you have the initiative and the passion for it.”
As part of her internship with Elevita, Monson flew Earley out to New York City, where she could continue her efforts in person and work directly with the inventory. This was particularly meaningful for Earley because New York City symbolizes a turning point in her passion for graphic design.
In high school, she won the national Scholastic Art and Writing Gold Medal for a travel poster she designed in her graphic design class, earning it a spot in Butler University’s Jordan College Annex art gallery. For her accomplishment, she was invited to the award ceremony in Carnegie Hall in New York City.
“I grew up in a really small town and that was my first time seeing a big city,” Earley says. “I fell in love with it, and it became this place where I imagined my future. There are so many successful people there, and it represented the success that I wanted in my future, so it was crazy to have graphic design bring me back to New York City with Elevita.”
Since then, Earley’s involvement with Elevita has only grown, and she has no plans of stopping. “For as long as I’m able, I plan to help out Elevita wherever I can,” she says.
She now works as a volunteer marketing specialist, where she runs Elevita’s marketing efforts, including social media, email marketing and student team coordination for Professor Allred’s international marketing class.
Monson sees a future for Earley with Elevita as well. “Connecting with Megan has been one of our great blessings,” she says. “To any organization that would like to work with students, I would advise you to assess their strengths, see where they would like to fit in, and empower them. Students have so much energy and talent to offer, and if they really catch the vision of how they can make a difference, trust them to be able to do that.”
