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DePauw Alumni Speaker Series to welcome Kyle Smitley Thursday
A 2007 DePauw University graduate who was featured on the "Ellen DeGeneres Show" for her founding of the Detroit Achievement Academy, will return to her alma mater as the second speaker of the GOLD Alumni Speaker Series.
Kyle Smitley will discuss "How a Liberal Arts Education Led Me to Find Success in Many Places" on Thursday, Nov. 19 at 7:30 p.m. in Meharry Hall of historic East College.
Created this year, the GOLD Alumni Speaker Series is presented by the Student Philanthropy Council and the Office of Alumni Engagement. Its mission is to educate current students on all of the opportunities provided as a member of the DePauw alumni community.
Smitley studied environmental geoscience and philosophy during her time in Greencastle and has used her diverse liberal arts education in her post-graduate career.
After graduating from DePauw, Smitley moved to California where she noticed a disparity in the creation of children's clothing. This realization prompted her to created her own company, barley & birch.
Barley & birch, named for the barley fields near DePauw and the birch trees remembered from Smitley's childhood, was a rapidly growing, environmentally responsible children's clothing company. Its goal is to provide the safest clothing for children while remaining as carbon neutral as possible in its production processes.
While working on barley & birch, Smitley also announced the creation of its own foundation to streamline the giving of the company and allow it to collaborate with its countless friends within the children's and green industries. These companies came together to co-sponsor everything from schools to clinics, in areas in which barley & birch has firsthand experience.
During her time at barley & birch, Smitley attended law school in San Francisco, hoping to turn her passions into physical change. Following her graduation and selling of barley & birch, Smitley intended to move back to Michigan and donate her time and money to a charter school, not start one. However, that's exactly what she did. Smitley founded Detroit Achievement Academy (DAA), and has since been featured on the "Ellen DeGeneres Show" and other major media outlets for her work with Detroit's children.
Since its founding, DAA has allowed students from Detroit to achieve a higher level of education that was not previously available. In its third year, DAA students have already reached more NWEA MAP nationally set targets than any other school in Detroit. In addition, DAA's first-grade math growth was in the 95th percentile nationally.
Smitley has been honored as a member of Inc.'s 2009 "30 Under 30: America's Coolest Entrepreneurs," and her work with the DAA resulted in a $50,000 donation from DeGeneres.