Hustle and Grow: How a "Most Well-Rounded Experience" Led to UF Alumna’s Success

Dana Ford ’12 remembers the University of Findlay mission statement well. In fact, she readily credits UF, at least in part, with providing her the resources and mindset to carry on the “meaningful life and productive career” that she’s made for herself as a young entrepreneur.
“UF gives the tools and resources to weave meaning into everything we do in life,” she said. “UF gave me the most well-rounded experience I could have asked for. I couldn’t imagine attending a bigger school where that experience of authenticity and intentionality wasn’t a part of it.”

Born and raised in the country on the outskirts of Findlay, Ford said she was able to grow up “in nature with room to dream and thrive.” Her parents played a key role in setting her on the path to success. “Both my parents inspired me to pursue whatever I was doing at the time with all my heart,” she mentioned. “To find what it is you desire to do, and do it wholeheartedly.”
Set up for success when she arrived at UF, Ford was a whip-smart sprinter recruited to run track for the Oilers while pursuing a degree in journalism. Her two scholarships—one athletic and another academic—helped, as Ford explained, to “fuel the passion I had for learning new things and pursuing them even harder post grad, meaning less to pay off and more room to move forward after all was said and done.”
Another way in which those scholarships helped Ford was in encouraging her to try as many things as she could while enrolled at UF. The idea was that, due to the scholarship support, she could free herself to explore a bit more than she might if she felt bound to the notion of having to follow an exact, or more sensible path. It’s that idea that Ford’s parents had of “doing it wholeheartedly.” College, after all, is most often a time for a student to find out who he or she really is, to blossom as an individual. “It’s a pivotal time to explore who you are,” Ford said. “I was in constant discovery mode, brainstorming how I really could apply [everything being learned] one day. Never did I think taking American Sign Language could apply to my future—until a deaf person stormed into my place of work crying for help and no one could understand him.”
No one, that is, besides Ford. She could understand him, because, at UF, she went beyond what was comfortable, using her time to set her sights on that meaningful life that the University makes sure is so important to its students. She tried her hand in the aforementioned American Sign Language class; in marketing, business, and animal science classes; in a variety of internships working for the newspaper and even UFTV. In short, she was searching for meaning in areas where she was convinced she could grow. “It’s learning to look deeper,” she explained, “past academic credits and scores and curriculum, to what we learn about life. I learned some of the most critical life lessons stepping out of my comfort zone and trying classes for extracurricular credits as opposed to something that might have sounded easy.”

Ford and her sister, Carly.

That isn’t to say that she greatly excelled in everything she tried; but part of the benefit of being able to explore different areas at UF is learning where passions lie. And it isn’t always about learning exactly what the course or experience is designed to have a student learn. It’s about discovering what happens when they try. When they succeed. When they fail. When they just do okay. “Challenging myself to be curious and not be afraid to fail, those were the growing moments, and they still are. But looking back, that’s what college was all about for me at UF.”
And where did all of this lead for Ford? After some time spent at a full-time job in Chicago and, in between, working on what she called her “side hustle” with all of her other available time, she eventually turned that hustle into her own business—Wild Lion Marketing—launched in Columbus, Ohio in 2016. “I had several successes with clients in Chicago, and the side hustle kept growing as my passion for it did too. Moving back to Columbus to be closer to family, I found the city to be a great place to groom and grow my efforts further.”
And there’s someone particularly special to Ford working with her. “My sister Carly, who happens to have a background in communications, moved up from Florida and was looking for some side work to get her going. Now a year later, she’s our Team Leader and Marketing Manager, and truthfully, the best sidekick I could ask for. I consider my sister my best friend. Together, we’re better, and that’s a crucial part to recognize going into business – collaboration and delegation.” Ford said that her business is “developing, growing and aiming to make a difference in our community.”
So, how is that “meaningful lives and productive careers” mission statement working out for her now?  Apparently, just as it was intended. “We can be as productive as we want to be, if we learn to use the tools we’ve been given,” Ford said. “And the word ‘meaning,’ for me, is found in the simplest, yet most breathtaking moments—like translating for a deaf person in need.”