Jeronimo Guijarro has made a very strong presence on Drexel’s campus. The Miami transfer was born and raised in Mexico City and has inspired many with his passion and talents in entrepreneurship. At just 20 years old, he has taken on many projects and business endeavors at Drexel, Miami, and even internationally, making him a very experienced student entrepreneur. Jeronimo is a marketing major and is very professional in all of his classes and all situations.
Jeronimo has a keen eye for spotting the issues we have in our lives that can be solved. “Since I was young I wanted to help people by improving their lives on a day-to-day basis. That is something that I have used every day as inspiration to do good in other people’s lives,” Jeronimo said. His newest endeavor does just that. “I searched several businesses to see if there was anything that helped provide healthy food at more than affordable prices. Having realized that there was no such a business, I decided to start making it possible,” he said. He was inspired so he took a few more steps in researching before taking action on the issue.
When asked what the real issue at hand was and what he wanted to do about it, he said, “We have a lot of waste on our planet, and nobody really realizes it has to be reduced or else there will be very bad repercussions. I want to target waste produced by the farming industry. We can’t live without it, but we don’t realize how overworked these industries are. I want to create an algorithm that can help reduce the amount of waste produced by the industry.” The algorithm allows farmers to know the optimal time for planting seeds and the optimal environmental conditions needed to reduce the unnecessary waste caused by poorly timed planting.
This is an ambitious goal for a student entrepreneur, but Jeronimo takes it just as seriously as his school work. He constantly tries to schedule some time into his days to make progress on his business goals. He does that by reaching out to a number of contacts and creating a business plan to organize his efforts. He has a very strong passion for business, but even with that it’s intimidating to start a business this young, while balancing a college course load. “The hardest part of stating my business was deciding to start it. It’s like … the first time you are about to jump in the ocean, which is really scary because I started thinking about the many things that could go wrong, but that is just the right moment to jump and decide to do it,” Jeronimo said. Now that he’s decided to make the jump and pursue this, he’s beginning to see some of the positive aspects of starting your own business. “One of the best perks of running your business is that you can decide your own hours to work … Although I have learned from experience that having a routine is much better than jumping into work from time to time,” he said.
At just 20 years old, Jeronimo has a long journey ahead of him, but with his ambition and enthusiasm he’s bound to go far. When asked about future plans and how his current ventures may help guide him towards the right co-op he said, “I now know that I want to do my co-op with a company that shows me how to grow or even apply for the entrepreneurship co-op opportunity. After I graduate I want to continue working on my business but I also want to go to graduate school to pursue my MBA.”
Jeronimo values his friends, family and business partners. He inspires other students here at Drexel to take the next step in pursuing their dreams. His presence alone in a group setting increases the enthusiasm of the other members! With this professional presence, many people don’t expect him to be passionate about things like music and golf. And like every other student, he enjoys having some down time between business and classes with his friends. “My favorite quote is ‘you are the average of the five people you hang out with, so choose wisely,’” he said.