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Students and alumni from UCI’s Paul Merage School of Business— Ashley Chen, Ryan Duong, James Jinadu, Stephanie Lai, Edward Li, Rama Mustapha and Claudia Vu —have been chosen to attend one of the most well-known events for young entrepreneurs: the 2019 Forbes Under 30 Summit. Every year Forbes selects 600 individuals from a pool of thousands of applicants to attend the three-day conference that, according to their official website, is “the world’s greatest event for young leaders, founders, investors and creators.” 

The seven attendees will be flying to Detroit, Mich. for this year’s conference, along with over 200 speakers, 500 investors and 175 journalists. The summit, held from October 17-30, will feature a multitude of exciting resources to assist attendees in their future endeavors.  

Fourth year business administration student Claudia Vu was attending a summer internship when she received the news. After getting the acceptance email, an ecstatic Vu relayed the information to her friends and family.   

“I think it was definitely shocking just because Forbes is such a big name, and I never thought my name would be associated with such a big brand,” Vu explained.  

For Rama Mustapha, MFin ’19, becoming a Forbes Under 30 Scholar is something that she has always foreseen in her future.  

“I always knew that I would achieve something like this. It was definitely a surprise and it was super exciting to see when I got the email, but I do see myself even furthering this step, and accomplishing things that would get me on the Forbes 30 Under 30,” she said. “It’s still so exciting, and it’s surreal that I’m about to attend the Forbes event.” 

A large part of Mustapha’s upbringing was centered around entrepreneurship and “being your own boss.” Her father currently runs a successful construction company, Harik Construction Inc., that builds schools all around California. Additionally, her mom runs her own organic soap brand called Afia Soap Inc, and her brothers are both creators of the following companies: Man & Cam Media, Dog Limited, and Crtv Ctrl.  

Mustapha began to experiment with entrepreneurship at a young age; when she was 16, she created her first clothing brand. At age 20, she started a jewelry brand called ISMI Jewelry to “pave the path of unconditional self-acceptance.”  

So how does Forbes select such talented individuals?  

Vu explained that the application process involved a series of questions concerning leadership and entrepreneurship.  

She said, “I’ve been interested in entrepreneurship for quite a while now. I’ve done the New Venture Competition twice now, for the first year I was a participant, and for the second I was the CEO of my own start up. So, answering the question was relatively easy for me just because I had a lot of ideas of what I wanted to do in the future with entrepreneurship.”  

While they’re attending, the Forbes website states that students will be able to enjoy “a private music festival, A-list speakers, investor speed-pitching, industry-focused field trips, a legendary pub crawl, a world-famous food festival and a powerful day of community service.” 

However, the main reason why most students attend this summit is for the opportunity to create life-long connections, and this includes Ashley Chen and James Jinadu.  

Chen, a campus junior pursuing a degree in business administration with an emphasis in organizational management, explained that she is most eager to interact with a wide variety of professional and student entrepreneurs.  

“What I’m most excited about is being in that environment. Not only meeting different students from other schools, and all over the world, but just being able to have the opportunity to connect with a lot of professionals who have been in the industry for a really, really, long time.” 

Jinadu, MFin ’19, is looking forward to the speakers and meeting “brilliant minds.”  

“Honestly, I’m excited about listening to the speakers, especially Serena Williams and Kevin Durant,” he said. “Listening to the speakers and connecting with different brilliant minds. That’s really why I’m going.”  

Another major highlight for Jinadu, who is originally from Nigeria, is the opportunity to travel outside of California: “It’s also an opportunity for me to explore Detroit because it’s going to be my second out of state trip since I came to America.” 

The Forbes Under 30 Summit offers each scholar a valuable chance to experience a plethora of life-changing opportunities. The students from Merage welcome the conference and all it has to offer with open arms.