As Nehemiah Stewart sat in the car with his mother in 2019, he didn’t know that he would soon launch a nonprofit that would help a student from a small North Carolina town jumpstart her career in health care. Or help another student land a summer gig at Merck, where she could venture outside the state for the first time. Or even support the entrepreneurial dreams of a student working to bring pharmaceutical treatments to people thousands of miles away in Africa. In that moment, his thoughts hit closer to home: Will I have to drop out of school? Is my time as a college student over? How will I fix this?
While an undergraduate student at UNC-Chapel Hill, Stewart founded a startup called Vector Rideshare, a carpooling app. Despite positive initial feedback on the pre-launch concept, the actual company was sputtering: the app booked only 10 rides in its first six months. There was no revenue.
“To start the company and app, I took money out of my own pocket. My mom and grandmother helped, too. I come from the inner city, and we don’t have very much,” said Stewart. “I sat in the car riding back to campus with my mom after Thanksgiving break, and the conversation came up about if I needed to leave school to begin working to pay back the loan, because the financial strain had grown so great on my family. In that moment, I realized that entrepreneurship isn’t for everyone. Taking risks has true costs.” During that ride, Stewart learned another lesson: entrepreneurship also brings unexpected turns. “As we’re still driving home, I get a phone call at 11 p.m.,” said Stewart. “The caller says, “Are you Nehemiah Stewart? Do you run a company named Vector? I’ve been meaning to reach out. Is it too late to invest?”
A hiring pipeline for diverse students
Stewart says the investment—received just before he “hit the self-destruct button” of leaving school—allowed Vector Rideshare to hire employees and grow. In 2021, Florida-based Lacuna acquired Vector’s technology (intellectual property), giving Stewart his first exit and hard-won wisdom for his next venture: Level the Playing Field.
“Everything I learned from Vector, every failure, built my acumen and network, so when I was called in 2020 to solve another problem—filling the professional opportunity gap for minority students—I knew what to do,” said Stewart, who launched the nonprofit Level the Playing Field as a hiring pipeline for diverse students who lack access to professional networks enjoyed by many non-minority students.
Within three years, Level the Playing Field has recruited approximately 50 diverse students from six North Carolina universities—including three historically black colleges and universities (HBCU’s) and three predominantly white institutions (PWI’s) to participate in a year-long cohort. Over a 12-month period, students attend career readiness seminars hosted by area university collaborators and corporate partners. They then take a semester-long professional development course at UNC-Chapel Hill. Following the trainings and course, students receive a stipend from Level the Playing Field and are placed into paid, full-time internships at top companies and research labs across the country: Merck Pharmaceutical, Eli Lilly, Parker Lord, SAS, and others.
Level the Playing Field continues to place undergraduates into internships, but Stewart sees its true innovation in the training it provides—something he’s expanding via a partnership with Innovate Carolina, UNC-Chapel Hill’s central innovation, entrepreneurship and economic development team. The partnership involves space, training and fundraising. Level the Playing Field will establish an office in the Innovate Carolina Junction, a co-working space and innovation community located on Franklin Street in downtown Chapel Hill. “We’re grateful to have the Junction space for our program coordinator employee to work from,” said Stewart. “It’s a really nice hub for our students to build community in.”