Chinaa Orr, a 2018 alum, was working as a leasing agent when she received a direct message from former adjunct faculty Jonathan McReynolds, a Grammy award-winning gospel musician.
“He randomly messages me when I’m at work and is like ‘hey, do you want to go on tour with me?’” Orr said.
What originally was meant to be a one month experience completely turned her life around, she said. Now a full-time musician, she has performed on Grammy stages alongside renowned musicians like John Legend, Usher and Snoh Aalegra.
Orr returned to campus on Wednesday, Oct. 14 to share her story along with two other alumni as part of “Black Entrepreneurs in Conversation,” hosted by the Black Student Union.
Tom Joyce, a career advisor at Columbia’s career center, approached the Black Student Union with the idea of bringing back BSU alumni to speak on their entrepreneurial journeys in honor of Black Entrepreneurs Day.
The first Black Entrepreneurs Day was celebrated on Oct. 24, 2020, when Shark Tank investor Daymond John hosted an inaugural event uplifting Black businesses across the U.S.
“We’ve had so many talented students come through this school, many races, colors, and creeds,” Joyce said.
The other alums were CaSera Heining, an award-winning DJ and producer also known as DJ Ca$h Era, and Da’Nelle Grier, a celebrated voice actress. Both graduated from Columbia in 2017, and were active in BSU when they were students.
“People in BSU were kind of trailblazers for us,” Orr said “That was a big motivator.”
In 2021, Grier got her first major voice acting role after a Nick Jr. representative discovered a TikTok voiceover challenge she did for fun.
“We think we won’t get opportunities unless we go insanely viral, but I got maybe 300 likes on my video,” Grier said.
From then, she did voiceovers for shows like Face’s Music Party and Noggin Knows, as well as companies such as Zillow.
Orr said that in most rooms during her career, she’s felt singled out for being the only woman and the only Black woman.
Black entrepreneurs only make up 3.4% of all entrepreneurs in the U.S. according to the Pew Research Center. Each entrepreneur expressed how they navigate situations where they are the only or one of few Black people in a space.
“I have to fight for my voice to be heard,” Orr said.
She said there are situations where advocating for yourself can be viewed as disrespectful just because of your race or gender.
“I don’t have to burn a bridge, but I’m also not going to lay off what I know to be right,” Orr said.
Each panelist’s journey started on campus, building strong relationships with peers and faculty, they said.
Heining said she was especially proud of the ways she maximized her resources while attending Columbia.
“I made relationships with my professors, I did BSU, I took classes in majors that had nothing to do with mine, and I went to different events around campus,” Heining said.
This effort allowed her to keep strong contacts with her professors and peers, shaping some of the opportunities she has today, she said.
Heining emphasized that she was able to put in this effort while being a commuter student all four years of her studies.
“You have to remember that a lot of the stuff y’all have now we didn’t have,” Heining said.
Heining discovered her passion for DJing after taking “The Club DJ I” radio course as an elective her first semester at Columbia. She first pursued it as a hobby, but it became her career.
“Once it came time to graduate, I was making more money DJing than anything else,” Heining said.
Grier said having a core group of creative friends has been very integral to her career and life.
“You know they’re going to hold you down, and they want to hear all of the ups and downs without judging you,” Grier said.
She said the connections she built at Columbia remain.
“CaSera, Chinaa, and our other friends are all women that are killing it right now in different industries,” Grier said.
Copy edited by Isaac Russo
