【63】An Inspiring and Resilient Entrepreneur@Pittsburgh

In January 2013, Michelle Barabas donated 5^th Street School building, which she had purchased and been revitalizing since 2008, to the Borough of Donora. She purchased it for the price of $8,500 and spent over $35,000 on the renovations. Michelle intended to transform it into a living market as well as a nonprofit to assist local residents in raising their property values. She had a lot to tell as an entrepreneur, as well as a person who is full of ideas and ambitions.

In 2008, she graduated from the International Academy of Design and Technology with a degree in Visual Communications only to find that the market crash months before was leading to major layoffs in corporate graphic design and advertising departments nationwide.

She started an apprenticeship on a 10-acre green farm and got immersed into horticulture. At the same time, she was also actively seeking an investment where she could utilize the $10,000 she had saved from her educational loans. That is the essence of entrepreneurship, they are always pursuing the next thing. Barabas is indeed an entrepreneur. You know it the moment you meet her.

When she saw this school building in Donora on the Howard Hanna website, she felt this was her opportunity. With her business plans from college in hand, she called the realtor and within 41 minutes, her bid on the building was accepted. The endeavor did not turn out as planned but with her optimistic and kind nature, she will also tell you that those lessons she learned from this journey turned out to be so valuable that they ultimately led to what she is proudly doing now in Pittsburgh.

Her business ideas were to construct a vertical market within the school so that the building could be run as a living market. The day she started the revitalization was when her troubles began. 

Firstly, know thy neighbor. Michelle’s school sat adjacent to a neighbor who disliked the fact that the vacant property was finally purchased. This was because the new ownership assumed by Barabas made the neighbor’s parking on her property illegal. The neighbor started to file complaint after complaint to the local authorities stating that Barabas’ revitalization was posing a risk to the air quality and safety of the neighborhood. In reality, the dumpster at the entrance of the school building (legally on Barabas’ property) was blocking where she liked to park on the school property. However silly the complaints were, annoyed local authorities made Barabas’ revitalization inconvenient and eventually impossible. 

Secondly, Barabas put herself and her fiance’ at the time on the title of the building, so when Barabas’ fiance betrayed her, a legal battle had to ensue to get the property under her name only. That incidence was not just financially consuming but simply exhausting to Barabas who only wanted to create something meaningful. 

Thirdly, there was one last episode. Barabas finally said “Enough is enough”. The neighbor never really stopped fighting Barabas and the local officials finally had enough as well. One day the working crew showed up and there were “Condemned” signs on every door. At the time she purchased the school, Michelle was told by the Code Enforcement officer that the property was not condemnable after inspection.  The problem was she couldn’t go back in time and there was no paper record of what the first officer had told her.  That’s when she decided to donate this property to the City of Donora, get away from the headache, and start something new and positive in Pittsburgh where she is originally from.

Her entrepreneurial pursuit in Pittsburgh to help people of all ages start and grow small businesses was not a simple one to say the least. This made me think a famous Chinese saying that “God will make you work very hard and come near despair before you are chosen for a noble mission.”

Her business endeavors range from working with artists to help them build promotional materials and ultimately earn a living doing what they love, to working with youth to enhance their professional  and entrepreneurial education from a very young age, and to working with NPOs to bring different empowerment programs to more people with a desire to make a better life for themselves across the U.S..  For a person who worships simplicity and clarity, you might be appalled by Barabas’ various titles and responsibilities in many programs. Don’t worry, you are not alone. I was appalled and wondered how she could possibly manage to do so many things at one time and deal with all the obstacles that seem to be there each step of the way.

Yet she did it all. Not only she has the elegancy to enjoy her victory, but most importantly she has the composure to tackle dismay. In 2012, her fundraising money from an event she hosted in Market Square was stolen by a streetman who happened to be at the right place at the right time; Her sponsorship money was stolen by partners who didn’t hold integrity in front of profit as a decent organization under U.S. law should do; There was even a conflict with her original organizational name and she had to swallow the bitterness and reincorporate during her third year in business.  Each and every time, she coped with it, stood tall and strong, and handled each adversity with more poise than the last.

Now her incorporated NPO, the Art Resource Teaching Society Inc. includes many business branches that suit her ambitions. She is also a Graphic Designer, Web Designer, Event Planner, and the VP of Klauscher Architects. Her for-profit passions allow her the luxury of donating her time to her NPO. This approach may not be the one most entrepreneurs would choose but this is Barabas’ journey. She fights to prove that with ideas and perseverance, anyone can make their dreams a reality.

As of October 2013, she expanded her youth entrepreneurship program into a new neighborhood in Pittsburgh. At the same time, her work with artists in both Pittsburgh and Florida also continues. In addition, she is about to simplify her organizational structure for expansion since Google for Nonprofits has denied her usage of Google products as a result of having a fiduciary vs. her own 501(c)3 status. Simplicity is always a good thing to strive for.

When writing this story about Barabas, I have been thinking how fortunate I am to know her. Just like I want my little sister, who has had a business plan posted on her bedroom door since before she even graduated from high school, to know her one day, I want myself to be reminded of this inspiring and resilient entrepreneur who has been doing everything to pursue her dream as a creator. If you got inspired reading this article… even just a little, please share it. As Michelle would say, “What good is inspiration if we keep it all for ourselves?”

P.S. Where we always met in Pittsburgh was a neighborhood called Dormont towards south of the City. I found the Dormont main street a very nice place, nice coffee shops where people are so friendly; great used bookstore where I found all the Ken Follett collections Matt and I loved! 

Thank you Michelle for bringing inspiration in my life and leading to find life's many precious offerings. Have a beautiful day!

【62】In the Past A Year & Full Circle @ Americorps VISTA, Google, Pittsburgh Cares, CMU, Pitt, Idea Foundry

I remember reading LITTLE WOMEN by American author Louisa May Alcott in middle school and was amazed by the interesting aspects of those sisters’ life and characters. But one remark forever struck me: “Leisure without any productive work heads only towards boredom.” I guess from then on, I knew the value of work, honest work, and the work that creates value and leads to the future.

In the past a year, I worked as an Americorps VISTA, went to Philadelphia, saw the ocean for the first time, went to California, visit Google Headquarter, got to know many wonderful people who does honest work everyday for the community, created something meaningful, and witnessed how a good team heads towards a promising future in Pittsburgh community. Will True went to Carnegie Mellon University for his professional writing master degree, Kevin Grande went to University of Pittsburgh pursuing his passion for a technology career, and I joined Idea Foundry to make an idea a business that brings value to both Pittsburgh, PA and my home country of China.

In this blogpost, two articles are shared to illustrate the time that has gone by and to remind of how honest work can bring us in abundance.

(October 2013)Documenting the journey while we move forward is instrumental, for when we look back, we can start a treasure hunt. I bet nobody is objective to the idea of getting rich, is it? Since my paycheck from HandsOn Tech is slightly above poverty level, a treasure hunt to get rich, super rich, is really needed so that I can work as if I don’t need the money at all!

In the past two months, my journey has been eventful: Went to Heinz College, Carnegie Mellon University to recruit Skill Based Volunteers the first day I am at work; Attended volunteer fair at University of Pittsburgh a week after; Had a wonderful Google camp at Mountain View and met awesome fellow VISTAs; Completed a storyboard with Kevin and learned a lesson that we need to take each and every task with professional standard; Then Mary Strasser visited Pittsburgh and had a close interaction with our HandsOn Tech team…...Then it’s time for real work.

I mainly coordinated the workshops for the forthcoming a year. One challenge was to get

everybody on page and up to speed when they all have their priorities. However, due to the work done by previous years’ VISTAs, which made my work much easier, plus my persistence, the result turned out to be decent. Eventually we work as a team to get it all done and even made a pretty brochure to showcase our work in a more tangible way. Hopefully this can also be part of our legacy we leave behind.

To move forward, I myself will remember the fact that however chaotic the situation can be (

government shutdown), due to the rightful motivation our program has, I will be just fine. To get the most out of this coming year, I will dive in the local community and start to build asset and credentials for the project legacy as well as for myself moving forward.

(Full Circle September 2014--By Will True)

As she boarded a flight from Pittsburgh to New York, a connecting flight on the way back to her native China, Lingling Zhu wasn’t sure what the future held. This was Plan A, after all. Go to America, get some experience and build a resume, then fly back to her homeland with a leg up on her competitors, but she was conflicted. She was leaving behind a community that welcomed her and supported her, a love that could be the real thing, and a world class education she might not get anywhere else. So when she was seated on the plane next to a librarian from Carnegie Mellon University’s Qatar campus, it seemed predestined. You know, the librarian said, you should really think about CMU.

Alright, she thought. Plan B it is.

“I take pride in where I grew up.” Lingling was born in a small farming village on top of a mountain, a six hour drive up winding dirt roads from the nearest town of Huishui in the Shaanxi province of China. Although her family was poor, they were well respected within their community, as her father was an educated government official and her paternal grandparents were farmers. When she was 5, her father took her into Huishui where he worked to further her schooling; as she left, she began to cry, and her father turned to her. “You’re not going to make it. So soft, you can’t do this. People aren’t going to make a big name of themselves if they cry as often as you do.”

Sitting across from Lingling now, you don’t get any impression of softness. Softspoken,

perhaps, but not soft. Standing closer to five feet than to six, the first thing you notice is her jet

black hair, which frames her face at a square angle. She welcomes you with a warm smile and

a friendly greeting, no matter the time or the place, and more often than not will immediately

engage you in conversation. She has a very slight rasp to her voice, the type that commands

authority no matter the volume at which she speaks. Despite not speaking English on a regular basis until 2009, her grasp of the language is stronger than a lot of native speakers; even when it falters slightly, her enthusiasm for her work and for life in Pittsburgh never does.

Her mother eventually joined the two of them in Huishui, becoming the chef for the town’s police department. She would left that job to start her own business some time later, which became the spark for Lingling’s entrepreneurial spirit. “If you want to do something, you’d better figure out a way to do it,” her mother told her. “If you don’t, nobody else is going to help you to realize your dream.” At the age of 15, Lingling left her parents behind to attend high school in the city of Ankang, five hours away from home. Living in a dorm with 8 other students far from family took its toll on the teenager. “Looking back, it feels unbelievable,” she says. “How did I have that strong a resolution?”

That resolve eventually led her to the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics in

Chengdu, the capital of China’s Sichuan Province. “It was during those four years that I really

started to thrive as a person, not only as a study machine.” In a hushed tone, she talks about the times she would skip class to do something more personally fulfilling. With a more balanced worldview, it seemed like she was headed toward a prosperous future in her home country. Then, one day, her friend came up and asked her if she wanted to learn about a scholarship opportunity for studying abroad. It was the last day to sign up, her friend said. Now or never.

In 2009, Lingling came to America as part of an exchange program with Indiana University of Pennsylvania. To add to her economic base, she studied business administration and marketing. However, the region held a lot more for her than just academics. “Once I got here, I felt like my world just opened up. I didn’t know there were so many things I could do.” She became the president of IUP’s student exchange program, which helped her improve her fledgling spoken English skills, and she became a Chinese tutor. It was in that role that she met Matthew, her future husband. He was a geology student, and the two quickly became best friends, trading Chinese lessons for English lessons.

At the end of her exchange year, Lingling prepared to head back home. However. Lingling’s

professors were so impressed with her growth both as a student and as a person, that it would

be a disservice not to return to America for graduate school. In addition to an education, it would help her determine if her relationship with Matthew could last. Two birds, one stone. After some significant thought, she decided to pursue a graduate degree in Pittsburgh, but there would still be a year between for her in China while she applied to schools and took the required tests. In the meantime, she taught English at her old elementary school, giving something back to the system that raised her.

This theme of “giving back to your roots” would follow Lingling through the rest of her time in

Pittsburgh.

In the past decade, Carnegie Mellon’s student population has gone through a drastic change. The Office of International Education reports that the number of international students has doubled since 2003, from under 2000 students to over 4000. Of these students, nearly half of them come from China. In 2013, Asian students made up 23 percent of the student body; the only larger ethnic group was white students at just over 40 percent.

The draw of CMU to international students, especially from China, is multifaceted.

“CMU is the new Ivy League,” Lingling says with a sense of pride. At Southwestern, almost every class was chosen for her; at Heinz College, she was allowed the freedom to take electives alongside her core requirements and shape the Master’s degree in public policy she received in 2013. It was CMU’s focus on social entrepreneurship that caught Lingling’s attention. “My passion in life, I had already found out, is a combination of business and social good. Social good that can be sustainable.”

The university’s prestige and rigorous academic programs weren’t the only factors in her

decision. “I think it’s the people,” she posits. “People at CMU are humble. They work hard.” Her fellow students and the faculty at the Heinz School made a difficult transition a little bit easier. “[Assistant Vice Provost for Graduate Education] Susie McIntyre, Vice Provost Dr. Amy Burkert, The Director and VP for enrollment services Lisa Krieg, Assistant Dean of Heinz College, Branda Peyser, and the staff at OIE Donna Frost, my advisors, they have supported me each step of the way.”

As she capped off her time, she received the Heinz College’s Barbara Jenkins award, which goes to a student that “demonstrated service to the Heinz College and made significant contributions to the quality of life for residents in the Pittsburgh region.” While she was honored to receive the award, Lingling didn’t feel as though she’d earned the second part of it. Instead of accepting one of the several marketing jobs offered to her, she chose to take a vow of poverty and enter the AmeriCorps service program.

For a small living stipend, Lingling spent a year working in Pittsburgh to bolster the city’s nonprofit sector with affordable and sustainable technology. The program, called HandsOn Tech, was a partnership with Google, AmeriCorps and the Points of Light Foundation in Atlanta, and provided her with a unique opportunity to hone her skills and make important connections while doing good.

Three months into her service, Lingling was contacted by Mike Matesic, the CEO of Idea

Foundry, a nonprofit that acts as a business incubator and commercialization accelerator for the innovations of Pittsburgh’s student population. Matesic wanted to expand Pittsburgh’s reach in China, positioning itself as a national leader in both tourism and education. Matesic asked Lingling if she could write a business proposal on the benefits and potential opportunities for Chinese visitors, which they could then pitch to investors. She put the proposal together in her spare time, and her and Matesic laid out a regional marketing plan.

The plan was successful, and as a result, Lingling was hired fulltime by Idea Foundry as the leader of their Greater China Initiatives program. In partnership with Visit Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance, the organization launched its “Friendly Pittsburgh” and “FriendlyPA” programs, which serve as user oriented hubs for prospective visitors and students and Business people to both the state and the city. “I really created something, I feel,” she says with a huge smile on her face. The two websites, FriendlyPA.com and FriendlyPittsburgh.com, are up and running now already.

In her role, Lingling is Pittsburgh’s unofficial cultural ambassador to China. After giving back to her two homes of China and Pittsburgh directly, she’s found a way to work for their continued success as a whole. “Even though there’s no direct link between me finding this job and Heinz College,” she says with total confidence, “I feel because of my education, my mindset and my work ethic, they’re all leading me to this position I’m in now.”

“Oh, the waiter’s name is Jake.” Lingling takes the pen with which she wrote the tip for dinner and writes “Thank You Jake” on the receipt, capping the sentiment off with a smiley face. It’s 6pm on a Friday, and she lives over an hour northeast of the city. It would seem obvious that she’d be on her way home. Still, it doesn’t come as a surprise when she responds otherwise. There’s a meet and greet at Heinz College for current and former graduate students, she says. It’s a great opportunity to network and learn what’s going on among Heinzers. Don’t want to be late.

P.S. Thanks Will and Kevin for a wonderful service year. Especially Thanks to Will, for the wonderful article he wrote about me and my journey. All the best for our continued growth in Pittsburgh.