Julia Haber ’18 is making a difference with her business Home From College

In a world that’s ever-changing with new obstacles arising, Julia Haber has become a powerful and successful female founder. Julia graduated in 2018 with a major in advertising and media in Newhouse an minor in psychology, but she started her journey and ambition at a young age. Her eagerness to solve problems started her hometown in Westchester, NY and flourished when she joined the LaunchPad at Syracuse University.

Throughout her time in college, she used her opportunity to explore and try new activities that provided her with great resources and support. One of those organizations was LaunchPad. A unique fact about Julia was she was one of the first founding members of LaunchPad at Syracuse because of her passion for entrepreneurship. She described her relationship and connection with LaunchPad to be a match made in heaven. She started her first company during her time in LaunchPad in her junior year of college with her dream to continue building it after college. Little did she know, that was just the beginning to a great success story.

Her first business, WAYV, was designed to allow pop-up experiences on college campuses for students to engage with companies. Julia, with her business, visited eight different campuses on a tour for Shopify. WAYV was created in 2017 and by 2018 it had taken off and won a grand prize from a LaunchPad competition. This milestone led her to pursue her business straight out of college.

After graduating, Julia continued to work countless hours on building WAYV, but little did she know the pandemic was about to change her progress for the better. All the puzzle pieces fell straight into her lap. Seeing how impactful COVID-19 had on college students finding internships or jobs after college, allowed her to envision a new idea for WAYV. Julia saw Gen-Z struggling with these issues and made it a goal to ameliorate the issue the best she could. Thus, she created Home From College.  Home From College is a platform that allows students to start their career and take control of their opportunities. Similar to LinkedIn, they can connect with companies in unique ways in which students reach out to businesses.

This idea didn’t just originate from other students’ struggles, but from Julia’s own experience.   She discovered that the lack of internships in college did not produce a sufficient connections or portfolio work for students. Julia realized that internships meant more than what is recognized in a student’s experience on campus. With the couple internships she did pursue, Spotify and Snapchat for marketing, opened her eyes to what others were not fortunate enough to experience. So she built Home From College to connect, build, and maintain relationships. It was built as a space and place for those seeking internships to make connections out of college.

Home From College is wonderful because it is operated by a group of ten individuals dedicated to the success of your future. Furthermore, it is completely separated from colleges that allows for a more personal experience for all ages and no background needed. Users can explore others with the same interests and a space that could truly make a difference.

Julia and her co-founder have both had impactful experiences that led to their dedication to helping others achieve success. Her creative, ambitious, and ideal of not taking no for an answer has led her to wonderful success.

Julia says, “You have to keep on going, it’s the only way to success. There has to be a solution.” Her mentality to push through any hardship and continue working hard has made her into the amazing woman she is today. Just like she always has, her future entails helping as many students as possible and that’s exactly what she’ll do.

Story by Sydney Grosso ’23; photo supplied