Making Connections Count: How 3 Scholars Worked Together to Spread the Message of One’s Cause

By Michaella Gallina (2006) |  Last fall, while reading the monthly Scholars newsletter, I read about Kathryn Minshew’s (2004) “The Daily Muse” website. It provides smart content, career advice, and community for young professional women, featuring articles on everything from your job search to entrepreneurship and even office fashion. Recently, it was selected to Y Combinator, a prestigious startup accelerator in Silicon Valley. I have always had a love for writing, but with a very demanding job in finance, I rarely – if ever – used to make time for it. But I figured this would be a great opportunity to be able to write when time allowed, write for a site that provided serious content that I truly had an interest in, and more importantly, do so under the umbrella of another Coke Scholar. Soon after, I emailed Kathryn and The Daily Muse, and was invigorated to be contributing pieces again – and that was when Gabby Wild’s story came across my inbox. I learned that Gabby was a fellow Coke Scholar, so even though her project fell outside of what I’d typically write, I immediately connected with her to help share another Scholar’s story – and it turned out to be a fantastic Coke connection.

Gabby Wild’s (2008) “12 in 12 for 12” project is an effort to raise money for 12 different endangered species – but with an eco-fashion twist. I found Gabby to be a kind, sincere, soft-spoken, and yet ferociously passionate woman. Despite it being the first time that we had ever spoken, we became fast friends when I interviewed her, swapping stories about animals we had loved (and even lost) in our lives. For her project, she will wear only one outfit per month – an originally designed, eco-conscious ensemble inspired by an endangered species and designed by some major names, such as Gordana Gehlhausen, a Project Runway All-star.

What I love about Gabby’s campaign is that it is a well thought out business plan; it combines her love of fashion to help animals (the thing she is most passionate about) and has the right target audience (women) who can relate, appreciate, and become motivated to help on behalf of her effort. This Coke Scholar connection came full circle when I learned that Gabby found out about Kathryn’s site from Carolyn Norton at the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation as both were working on causes for empowering women. In all, this was a wonderful experience that led to three more Scholars now being “forever connected!”

Read Michaella’s article on Gabby Wild on The Daily Muse website.

Michaella Gallina is a 2006 Scholar who resides in Denver, Colorado, as an equity analyst for Marsico Capital Management. She is a summa cum laude graduate of the University of Denver, with a BS and MS in Finance. Follow her on twitter @MJGallina

Kathryn Minshew, a 2004 Coke Scholar, is the Founder & CEO of The Daily Muse, a rapidly growing career platform for women that has been featured on Forbes, The Huffington Post, INC, TechCrunch, PBS and Business Insider.  Kathryn graduated from Duke University and worked at McKinsey & Company in the New York office before taking a job with the Clinton Health Access Initiative in Rwanda, which she left to work on her company. She was recently named to Forbes’ “30-Under-30 in Media” and INC’s “15 Women to Watch in Tech”. Follow her on Twitter @KMin

To learn more about Gabby and the 12 in 12 for 12 campaign, visit www.gabbywild.com, follow her on Twitter @gabbywild, or email inquiries@gabbywild.com.