Motivated to Meet a Need

Believing that menstrual products should be as accessible—and as free—as bathroom tissue in restrooms around campus, three Dominican University student leaders set out to make it happen.

Last winter, Naomi Moreland ’24, Lesly Salguero ’24 and Kiara Valenzuela ’24, with assistance from Director of Auxiliary Services Deb Kash, secured a partnership with Aunt Flow, a company that provides businesses and schools with restroom dispensers containing free tampons and pads. In all, 27 new dispensers have been installed in women’s and gender-neutral restrooms across the River Forest Campus, with two machines added at the Chicago Campus. An additional sponsorship from PepsiCo helped to cover some of the cost.

The machines aim to end “period poverty,” defined in part as a lack of access to proper menstrual products.

“Coming from a nursing perspective, menstrual health is a human right,” said Moreland, who graduated in May with a degree in nursing. “Being able to take a health advocacy standpoint was super important for all of us.”

Moreland found inspiration to launch the project after spending the summer of 2022 distributing 7,000 free menstrual products to shelters in her home state of Arkansas with help from a $2,000 Excellence in Experiential Learning (ExcEL) Scholar Award from Dominican.

She extended the effort to the university community, accepting donations from faculty and staff members for a limited number of restrooms on campus, but wanted to make the products free for all on a permanent basis.

Separately, Salguero and Valenzuela were partners on a marketing project that explored period poverty and the need for free and easily accessible products. When all three students came together, the initiative with Aunt Flow was born.

“It’s something that we knew we could definitely change on campus,” Valenzuela said. “And we had support as well. A lot of different people really felt the same way we were feeling.”

Salguero noted that the project can inspire other students to make changes and meet needs.

“We’re making sure there is something being done, and not only just talked about on campus,” she said. 

Moving forward, Dominican will continue to fund the free products through its operations budget, Kash said, allowing the university to meet student needs into the future.

University Minister Kayla Jackson-Wolff ’16 MSW ’18, who provided staff support to the students, said their efforts will inspire others.

“I see the impact it has on students who are younger,” she said. “They will be able to say, ‘If I see a need, if I see a gap, I have everything within me to serve my community.’ I think that is so powerful.”

While a senior at Taft High School in Chicago, Ingrid Bustos Aleman saw firsthand the challenges facing undocumented students contemplating college: Navigating the application process. Roadblocks to financial aid. The struggle of sharing their aspirations with parents—which for many, seemed impossible to achieve due to their immigration status and lack of funds

At Dominican, Bustos Aleman reflected on these student experiences as she considered a project for the Schmitt Scholars Program, which encourages students to engage in social justice work

After contacting one of her former Taft teachers, she learned a new club for undocumented students had formed—and the need for information, advice and assistance was just as great as ever.

She’d found her project.

With input from the high school students on the type of help they were seeking, and assistance from Dominican’s Center for Cultural Liberation, Bustos Aleman created a presentation outlining how to apply to college, how to find scholarships and aid packages geared toward undocumented students, how to request funding, and where to find online resources for additional help.

She was also a motivator.

“I had to sit them down and tell them to give it a shot, don’t just write it off thinking you can’t do it,” said Bustos Aleman, who is studying to become a teacher and is a senior at DU. 

“In addition to bringing resources to them, I wanted the students to feel they are not alone,” she added. “I wanted them to appreciate themselves and not let the fact that they are undocumented or discriminated against get to them. Because they can do a lot.”

Bustos Aleman also arranged for the high school students to tour Dominican’s River Forest campus and meet with representatives from the Center for Cultural Liberation, University Ministry and Student Success and Engagement. The visit led to several students applying to and later enrolling at Dominican, among other colleges, said Paul Simpson, director of civic learning, who advised Bustos Aleman on her project. 

“Ingrid knew that the path to universities is not one that many high schools make clear to undocumented students,” Simpson said. “As a result, those students face fear and uncertainty about taking a ‘wrong step’ when they want to explore options. She cut through that fear and uncertainty by creating a network of support and clear information for students both at Taft High School and at Dominican University. She changed lives.”

The experience also taught Bustos Aleman some key lessons, too—especially as a future educator herself. 

 “I learned a lot about patience, but also to take a step back,” she said. “I came into this project thinking I would be bringing the resources, but in reality, I couldn’t have done that without knowing what the students needed.

 “I feel teachers often say, ‘This is what students need,’ but oftentimes forget to ask the students,” she added. “So, I asked the students. And they were the ones who created the project and made it what it was.”

Last year, Bustos Aleman partnered with fellow Schmitt Scholar Rosa Padilla Rincon ’24 to create a podcast featuring personal stories of struggles and triumph from individuals who are living undocumented. Through “Undocumented Archives,” the students have established a platform for storytelling, expression, support, awareness and even protest. This, too, helps address a need, she believes.

“It’s another resource for undocumented students who often walk with a heavy burden because they are undocumented,” Bustos Aleman said. “Storytelling is an outlet for them.”

Jayla Stampley’s business education provided the right foundation when she sought a solution to a growing need within her community. 

Witnessing a resurgence of natural hair styles among African American women and a demand for organic, chemical-free cleansers amid growing concerns about hair straightening products linked to cancer and other health issues, Stampley, a 2024 graduate with a degree in international business, headed to the kitchen and got to work.

Experimenting with rosemary, avocado oil and African black soap, Stampley created Hair Sauce, a hair cleanser she began selling online under the brand Imani Origins.

Developed for afro-textured hair, but usable on all hair types, Hair Sauce is more than a safe and natural beauty product, Stampley says. 

“For me, it’s a huge part of supporting the resurgence of natural hair care ingredients in my community, while also spreading positivity and authenticity,” she explained. “It’s about showing up as your true self, which is what this brand means to me.”

Hoping to grow her business, Stampley was encouraged by the Brennan School of Business community to join the second annual Launchpad Business Pitch Competition last spring. The contest allows current students and recent DU grads to compete for funding for small, start-up business ventures. 

Stampley took first place—and $10,000 in prize money to use for promotion and development of additional hair care products for the Imani Origins line.

“Getting a business going takes a lot of courage and commitment to push your idea out,” Stampley noted. “I definitely had my doubts and setbacks, so it was encouraging to have support from the university and my peers who have entrepreneurial skills of their own.”

It was a need within his homeland that brought Dr. Leesi Saturday Komi more than 6,000 miles to Dominican University.

Komi is enrolled in DU’s Master of Science in Healthcare Management program as an international student, and he hopes to use the skills he acquires to improve how hospitals function in his native Nigeria.

Many of the country’s facilities are managed by doctors who do not have the proper training in this vital area, believes Komi, who studied medicine at Luhansk State Medical University in Ukraine. Many hospitals are overcrowded and understaffed, and patients face long waits in line before they are even seen by a healthcare worker in emergency rooms, delaying treatment and increasing the risk of death, he noted. 

Sometimes, medical doctors are unavailable to patients, which was the case when Komi’s brother, in pain and having waited four hours for emergency care, was treated by an intern, he recalled. 

“You see physicians becoming directors of a hospital without actually understanding how to manage physician-patient relationships and physician-administration relationships,” Komi said.

He is working to help change that.

“Seeing the huge disconnect between medical professionals and hospital management, and seeing how that impacted the quality of healthcare patients were receiving, I decided to study healthcare management,” he said. “One of the ways we can solve these issues is by educating healthcare professionals how to manage hospitals and clinical settings.”

Komi plans to complete his degree in December and then gain firsthand experience studying how American hospitals are managed before returning to Nigeria to determine how he can help implement changes there, he said. 

He would like to work with the Nigerian Ministry of Health, identifying areas for policy change and helping to create a structure for education and training in healthcare management. These managers, Komi said, will be “changemakers” for the overall state of healthcare. 

“Quality healthcare is a right for everybody,” he noted.