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06/08/2024 | News release | Distributed by Public on 07/08/2024 04:06

Questrom Student Helps Women Artisans in India Become Entrepreneurs

Questrom Student Helps Women Artisans in India Become Entrepreneurs

Rising senior Simran Seth comanages the nonprofit Project Meraki, the result of a respected program run by Dior and UNESCO

Simran Seth (CGS'23, Questrom'25) at the Dior and UNESCO conference in Paris, where her team pitched Project Meraki and tied for first place. Photo courtesy of Seth

Student Life

Questrom Student Helps Women Artisans in India Become Entrepreneurs

Rising senior Simran Seth comanages the nonprofit Project Meraki, the result of a respected program run by Dior and UNESCO

August 6, 2024
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You think you're busy? Try being Simran Seth.

Even at a school of overachievers, Seth , a rising senior in the Questrom School of Business at Boston University, stands out.

Her résumé reads like an ad in a fashion magazine: internships with Tiffany & Co., the AR beauty-filter purveyors Maquillar Studio, and VF Corporation, the parent company of brands like The North Face and Supreme, to start. Her extracurriculars include the BU Buzz, Finance & Investment Club, Consulting Group Club, and Entrepreneurship Club. Not to mention the Fashion and Retail Association, where she spent two years as director of professional development and planned the club's highly successful panel events.

If that's not enough, Seth (CGS'23, Questrom'25) helps run Project Meraki, a nonprofit business-incubator based in India. This spring, Seth and her cofounders took top honors for Meraki at a global women's empowerment conference sponsored by UNESCO and the luxury fashion brand Dior. The nonprofit works to turn economically disadvantaged female artisans into entrepreneurs by teaching them crafting and business skills so they can run their own business.

"Our artisans are based in rural towns in India, and many of them are financially dependent on the men in their lives," says Seth, a business administration major from Vancouver, Canada. "We're trying to target the women in these communities and help them realize that their hobbies can actually be sources of income."

Project Meraki focuses on making fashionable everyday items. They include crocheted bags, keychains, and stuffed animals, as well as scarves, pouches, jewelry, embroidery, and more. Seth says that everything the artisans create is "very well made. They're so talented."

Seth with her Project Meraki teammates. Photo courtesy of Seth

So how does a BU student from Vancouver come to run a nonprofit in India?

Project Meraki came out of the Woman@Dior program, an international mentorship program for women in college cosponsored by UNESCO. Participants in the highly selective program-Seth was one of the 400 participants selected out of almost 5,000 applicants globally for the 2024 iteration-learn leadership and career skills before splitting into teams of four and working to create a social-impact initiative that supports women's empowerment.

"The mission of the program is really to empower yourself and the women around you and to collaborate in order to make a difference together," she says.

Seth first came across the program on LinkedIn during sophomore year. As a longtime devotee of fashion-something she inherited from her mom, she says-and of entrepreneurship, she kept a diligent watch for the next year's applications. When she got in, she knew she wanted to build a fashion business-oriented project, ideally for women in India, a country she traces her heritage to and that the program's previous projects had largely ignored.

"I think business, in general, has the ability to change your life in so many ways," she says. "And as women, it's really nice to have it as a tool for being financially independent."

She paired up with three teammates, from India, France, and the United Kingdom. Together, the four started building Project Meraki (meraki is Greek for "to do something with soul, creativity, or love"). They brought on experienced business and nonprofit advisors, including human rights and social impact expert Aanya Wig. Their first milestone: an "artepreneurship" boot camp held in Dehradun, India, in January.

Over four days, a dozen artisans participated in workshops on topics like material selection, social media marketing, and business development. At the end, they put together mini Shark Tank-style presentations for the advisory board.

Ultimately, the work of Seth's team landed them in the top 20 projects, and a second round of pitching put them in the top 5. Then came their biggest pitch: presenting at a Dior and UNESCO conference held at UNESCO's headquarters in Paris-where the Meraki team tied for first place. (This made them the first team of Indian descent to win, as well as the first team with a mentee from a US university.) The reward: the team receives ongoing funding from Dior and advising from Dior creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri.

Grazia Chiuri "told us she was really excited to work with us," Seth says. "We're so grateful and excited that a woman who is so talented and high up in the ranks at Dior believes in our mission-that means we're going to be able to go forward and impact more women across India."

Crocheted goods made by Project Meraki artisans. Photos courtesy of Project Meraki

Meraki is now certified as an official nongovernmental organization in India. Seth and her teammates manage the nonprofit from their respective locations and work on expanding opportunities for their artisans, such as a recent market event showcasing their work. One of Seth's biggest goals for Meraki is building partnerships that lead to opportunities for venture capital (VC).

"A very small amount of venture capital goes to woman-founded start-ups," Seth says. "I want to be someone who can reach out to different VC firms based in India that focus on women-founded start-ups and connect them with these artisans."

VC in general is something Seth hopes to explore postgraduation. "The idea of being at the forefront of new innovations and helping founders really excites me," she says. "I know that I can be a part of the solution to bring more women into VC. I keep working hard every day to make this vision come true."

But first, she has her senior year to get through.

In the fall, Seth will continue her busy extracurricular schedule-while overloading classes-with the addition of Sports Business Club and maybe a dance team if she can squeeze it in. In the spring, she's planning to study abroad for the second time (she went to London with the College of General Studies) in Milan, Copenhagen, or Madrid.

Seth's day-to-day would be daunting to most anyone. But to her, a packed schedule is just what happens when you believe in saying "yes" as much as possible.

"I think I'm always trying to learn brand-new things," she says. "Even if you attend just one meeting, you might learn something new. And you never know what you might love until you try something out."

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  • Alene Bouranova

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    Alene Bouranova is a Pacific Northwest native and a BU alum (COM'16). After earning a BS in journalism, she spent four years at Boston magazine writing, copyediting, and managing production for all publications. These days, she covers campus happenings, current events, and more for BU Today. Fun fact: she's still using her Terrier card from 2013. When she's not writing about campus, she's trying to lose her Terrier card so BU will give her a new one. She lives in Cambridge with her plants. Profile

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