Students at Pivot Point Academy in Bloomingdale are eager to learn how to grow their beauty careers, and Mireya Villarreal, founder of the Pink Pewter Foundation, and Julie Hightower, founder of the Daisie Foundation, want to help them do that.
The two women joined forces to produce Beauty with a Purpose- an event designed to inspire, develop, empower, and give back. There will be speakers from all over the country in attendance.
“The greatest pathway to success is exposure,” Hightower said. “So literally, enlisting an A-list of speakers who are changemakers, who are history makers, who were really wanting to elevate.”
Villarreal did not have a mentor when she started in the business, and she shares her story with aspiring students at Pivot Point Academy.
Feeling out of the loop? We'll catch you up on the Chicago news you need to know. Sign up for the weekly Chicago Catch-Up newsletter here.
“The number one thing that people want to hear is my mistakes. 'How did you come from here and become so successful?’" she said. “I say, ‘Honey, I failed, I failed and I had to rebuild my company all over again.’"
“I knew it was always in me, but to hear it from somebody that started out down where I am, and at the top now… It just gave me so much motivation and really touched me," said Nashiyla Patterson, a Pivot Point Academy student.
"Just seeing women from minority backgrounds, seeing them and their faces and how excited they are, that gets me excited," said student Aleesha Thomas.
Local
Thanks to a sponsor, Pivot Point Academy students are attending the event for free.
“I think it’s a great opportunity to learn and feed off of other people's energy and wisdom they have to share and offer,” said PPA student Alexia Camacho.
Pivot Point Academy is also giving away two tuition scholarships, each worth $20,000.
“We are asking [applicants] to send in a 90-second video, and fill out an application," PPA owner Denise Provenzano said. "Let us know how they have given back so far in their communities or in their family life.”
The Pink Pewter Foundation also has grants and scholarships.
Tickets are still available for the Beauty with a Purpose seminar, which is happening Sept. 17 in Oak Brook.
