CEO Spotlight: Kelly Ingram, West Chester University

Kelly Ingram is a fascinating person. She has an 88-year-old best friend. She skydives. She bucked the trend of going right to college after high school and found herself on a 10-month journey doing community service around the country.

Now a 22-year-old senior at West Chester, Kelly is the perfect person to lead our brand-new West Chester cafe as student CEO. Through our Experiential Learning Program, Kelly will run the day-to-day operations of the cafe, manage 45 undergraduate team members, and earn college credit — and valuable experience — in the process.

Let’s learn a bit more about Kelly:

Where are you from originally?

Quakertown, PA

What’s your major at West Chester?

Business management.

You took a gap year after high school and enrolled in Americorp. What was that like?

I was part of the National Civilian Community Corps, a 10-month residential program for 18-24 year olds. I traveled up and down the West Coast going to California, Oregon, Washington and Nevada. We did things like removing invasive plant species like Himalayan blackberries. We helped educate people on the importance of conserving energy. We went to youth camps and outdoor education programs. We were even framing and building houses.

What did you learn from the Americorps experience?

The big thing is living with people from all over country who have very different backgrounds. Learning that we can still work well together despite our differences was important. And seeing different cultures and subcultures in America was eye-opening. I saw a lot of poverty that’s under the radar. It makes the little things like stress from school, not seem so bad.

What kind of work environment would you like to create at the West Chester Saxbys cafe?

Since it’s all students, I want it to be a place where they can be stress free. They can enjoy coming to work. It’s a break from studying and classes. I really want to build relationships with all my team members and encourage them to build relationships with each other. That way, people will be comfortable and excited to come to work and see their friends. I want it to be the hangout spot of West Chester.

What’s another recent job you held?

I worked at Skydive Philadelphia as their office manager.  

Wait, you skydive? Cool!

I just did the paperwork. Haha. I’ve gone four times tandem but they couldn’t convince me to do it myself.  I enjoyed the ride but I don’t want to feel the pressure of whether I pull my shoot or not.

What kind of career do you want after college?

I’m not quite sure. I want to try a lot of different things. I don’t see myself staying in the same job forever. I want to keep learning and trying new things. I like to put myself out of comfort zone and learn from that. Eventually, I would like to start a nonprofit for elderly widowed women, but that’s a long-term goal. I really connect with senior citizens. After women lose their husbands, they get forced into nursing homes because their families think they can’t run their house alone anymore. I would like to create smaller houses — similar to how college students live — so they have support. It would be small community living rather than big giant nursing homes.

That’s certainly a worthy goal. Does that aspiration stem from particular women in your life?

There are a few women - my grandmother. Then my 88-year-old best friend, Grace. I’ve known her since I was 4 years old. She was my very first sunday school teacher. She’s always been a key player in my life. And I took care of a woman with dementia a couple years ago. Seeing them go through their grief set my heart in that direction.