The Horn Hen of the Month article series is a new series dedicated to highlighting Horn students that are inspiring others and impacting their community. One nominated Horn student will be chosen each month and a written feature will document their hard work and progress as they go through their time at Horn.
The winning student will receive a gift card, a Horn Hen of the Month certificate, and will have a feature written about them and the work that they are doing outside of the Horn community. Congratulations to last month’s winner, Hunter Wills! Read more about Hunter on the blog.
To nominate a student, fill out this Google form. Any student involved with Horn Entrepreneurship is eligible to be nominated.
Introducing the May winner for Horn Hen of the Month… Lynn Roberts ‘23, is working towards a Management and Information Systems major and an Entrepreneurship minor. Roberts is able to experiment with business strategy through working on her startup, and she practices her data analytics skills by learning Python.
Roberts’ passion for entrepreneurship has developed over the years and has been growing ever since she was young. In her STEM high school she became involved in EntreX, a youth entrepreneurship program that gave her the creative freedom that she always aspired to have. Her fascination with entrepreneurship has only grown stronger since then.
She arrived at UD with an entrepreneurship minor and instantly became a well known face in the Venture Development Center (VDC), the home for entrepreneurship. She has participated in almost every program that the Horn Community has to offer and feels that each program has enhanced her entrepreneurial skills in a different way.
VentureOn and Delaware Innovation Fellows have allowed her to work closely with other like-minded entrepreneurs on improving and developing their startups. VDC Community Sessions inspire her to stay motivated on her goals, while being a Horn Ambassador allows her to share her passion for entrepreneurship with potential students. Roberts also participated in the Summer Founders program, which required her to spend the summer working full time on her startup, Yuda.
“Yuda is a startup aimed at a diverse marketplace of vendors and suppliers in the DEI space,” said Roberts.
To improve upon employee groups, her goal is to diversify the supplying process within the corporate world. Part of Yuda’s unique value is a reward system that gives individuals a chance to give back to the organizations that they care about which aims to create a cycle of giving back to the community. The junior’s work with her startup has made her realize that she resonates strongly with social entrepreneurship and focuses on being an intrapreneur.
She credits a lot of her knowledge and personal development to the people within the Horn community who have mentored and supported her. Roberts notes Vince DiFelice, Faculty Director, Student Venture Support at Horn, Nat Measley, and Garry Johnson as individuals who have stood out as role models to her because of their similar passions. Roberts is always looking for their advice when it comes to learning more about growth as a person, as well as growth for her business. She also added some advice of her own for incoming freshmen.
“Don’t be afraid to change the path that you think you will have in college. It is okay to change and it is important to be okay with that change. Do not validate it for anyone else other than yourself,” Roberts said.
Roberts also recommends becoming heavily involved in the Horn community because it's a safe space for everyone to be themselves. Through her own time dealing with changing a major, she has found that everyone she has met at Horn is genuine and passionate about what they are doing. At the Venture Development Center, students are encouraged to be themselves and go after their dreams.
Congratulations to Lynn Roberts, the 2022 May Horn Hen of the Month! Join us for the next edition of Horn Hen of the Month in September, when the Fall Semester gets underway.
