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KALAMAZOO, Mich.—In the moments before she hits her stride, accelerating toward takeoff, Bronco long jumper Layla Wallace gets in the zone.

“It’s the adrenaline; not knowing what’s going to happen but just going for it and having to give your all to something is what I enjoy,” says Wallace, who is also part of Western’s 4x400 relay team.

A literal leap of faith fits squarely into her wheelhouse. While she’s a Division I track athlete, Wallace never really liked running before she gave the sport a shot her sophomore year of high school. She was more focused on running her business.

Entrepreneur in the baking

Layla’s Cool Pops was born from a fourth grade economics project in 2015. Students were challenged to create something to sell to classmates. Just 10 years old at the time, Wallace concocted some chocolate-covered Oreos her friends wouldn’t be able to resist. But she didn’t want to stop there. She set her sights on a sweet shop with philanthropy baked into the business.

“I wanted it to impact the community,” she says. “My goal was to be able to buy a four-unit apartment complex and help low-income families be able to live on their own.” With the help of her business partner and mom Dr. Luchara Wallace, dean of Merze Tate College, Wallace’s dream took off. “All we could do was say, ‘Okay, let’s get to work,’” Luchara Wallace says.

Layla Wallace started peddling products at events like Art Hop in Kalamazoo, selling everything from cookie and cake pops to cupcakes and chocolate-dipped pretzels. As her profile in the community rose, so did her ambition. She brought other employees into the fold and partnered with the Lewis Walker Institute at Western to create a summer youth employment program.

“This collaborative effort laid the groundwork for what would eventually become Layla’s Cool Pops: a venture driven by passion, community support and a commitment to nurturing young talent,” says Luchara Wallace.

Now, nearly 10 years in, Layla Wallace has built a reputation as more than a teenage titan of treats. She is a veteran business owner who has raised more than $20,000 for community organizations that provide resources and housing for individuals in need. She also owns an apartment building in Kalamazoo’s Vine neighborhood— another step toward her ultimate goal of “eliminating homelessness one sweet at a time.”

Rising to the occasion

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, only half of small businesses survive their first five years. The odds are much steeper with an elementary school student at the helm. Wallace attributes her amazing success to the support of her family, her faith and the Kalamazoo community. 

“I’m so proud of myself and everybody who’s been with me every step of the way and not given up,” she says. “I’m so grateful for the opportunities I have.” 

But she’s not content waiting for opportunities to appear. 

Wallace is strategic about growing her business and expanding her impact. And she knows, even with several years of business under her belt, she’s got much to learn.

“I chose Western because of how competitive the business program was and how many resources it had for me,” she says. “There are so many things I still don’t know that I still need to work on.”

When she first arrived on campus, she wasn’t sure which aspect of business she wanted to focus on. A research project related to food marketing gave way to a new passion.

“I just fell in love with it,” she says. “I love to be creative and show different sides of a business.”

An introductory food marketing course with Dr. Russell Zwanka, director of the program and associate professor of marketing, inspired her to start putting some of the skills she cultivated in class to work in her business.

“That class changed my perspective on everything,” she remembers. “I really want to market my business better and more, so that’s what I’ve been trying to do gradually. And it takes a team.”

Wallace has jumped headfirst into the program, joining the Food Marketing Association student organization and even studying abroad with Zwanka in summer 2024 on the first ever “Food Marketing in Ireland” course. She and other students toured the country and met with executives at international brands like Kellanova and Kerrygold to learn more about global business practices and to network.

“I’ve learned so much in just the first year of being at Western, and I can already see the things I’ve been taught have helped me have a better understanding of business.”

Icing on the cake

As she’s developed as a business owner, Wallace has also had the opportunity to mentor her peers. Layla’s Cool Pops hosted two interns in summer 2024 through the Broncos Lead Internship Program, which offers paid internships for Western students.

“We definitely taught a lot about the ins and outs of owning your own business and how much work it takes to keep it running,” she says, adding her goal was to help “the skills they learned in school come to life here at Layla’s Cool Pops.”

The interns helped with marketing efforts and also preparations for renovations to the business’s cafe on South Westnedge Avenue in Kalamazoo, made possible by a recent $25,000 award from the state of Michigan’s Match on Main program.

“Now I can do things we’ve been dreaming of doing for the last couple of years,” she says.

In the Match on Main grant application, the city of Kalamazoo says it chose Layla’s Cool Pops for the grant because it is “not just a business; it’s a community-focused enterprise that actively addresses social issues, such as homelessness, through entrepreneurship.”

Wallace has high hopes for the future, including building her brand in Kalamazoo and also expanding opportunities for individuals who face employment barriers like housing insecurity or criminal histories.

“I want to be able to support everybody in every way possible,” she says. “That’s why I’ve taken the initiative to help the homeless with my business and work toward eliminating homelessness in the city.”

While her elementary school business idea may have started out as a long shot, long jumper Wallace is ready to keep defying the odds. Bolstered by Western’s world-class food marketing education, she has created a recipe for success by pairing profit with purpose that will impact the Kalamazoo community for years to come. ■