The Dayton region has a rich history of innovation with no signs of it slowing down.
The next-generation of young minds are getting an early start on executing their ideas with business ventures and small businesses.
The Dayton Business Journal has released its second Inno Under 25 list of founders, entrepreneurs, innovators and leaders under the age of 25 in the Dayton region.
Inno Under 25
Meet five Dayton-area innovators getting an early start on big ideas:
Jeffrey Wall, 17, Golden Age Karate
At the age of 13, Jeffrey Wall founded the nonprofit organization Golden Age Karate. He teaches martial arts classes to nursing home residents to quell their loneliness and help keep their bodies and minds active. His students are between the ages of 70-100.
Now at age 17, Wall is a senior at Chaminade Julienne Catholic High School in downtown Dayton. You might recognize him as one of the speakers at the recent TEDxDayton 2022.
Wall holds a black belt from Roll On Martial Arts under the instruction of Dr. Herman Dixon.
He also reaches hundreds of more students through online classes.
“Spending time with his grandparents he discovered that seniors were much more excited about life when they were learning something knew,” says his mother Valerie Wall. “They loved and trusted him enough to allow him to train them in martial arts and he soon discovered that seniors in nursing homes could benefit from that kindness, compassion and companionship as well.”
Wall truly believes that you’re never too old to learn something new.
After graduating from high school in 2023, Wall plans to pursue a college degree in business/economics and film production. He also aspires to becoming a collegiate athlete in football or track.
Kameron Seabrook, 24, Open Bay Autos, Real Ones Create
Operating two businesses has kept Kameron Seabrook very busy.
The CEO of Open Bay Autos founded that business in 2020 as a mobile car detailing and repair service. He has plans to grow into a brick-and-mortar location in 2023 where they will offer a unique DIY shop to accommodate affordable car repairs for locals and a dream workshop for car enthusiasts.
Seabrook also founded Real Ones Create, a creative agency that helps businesses build an online presence with content curation, web/app development, and digital advertising.
“Self-expression, creativity, and faith are everything to me,” Seabrook said. “That combination helps me balance the challenges of growing two companies.”
The way Open Bay Autos works is mechanics are scheduled for a visit and come to your location to fix and detail cars under a subscription platform.
But as Open Bay Autos scales, building a subscriber and worker clientele, Seabrook has his sights set on utilizing the relationships to expand his company into a physical location, pivoting into a DIY mechanic shop.
Since its founding, Open Bay Autos has raised over $50,000 in funds with a recent injection of $30,000 for seed money from an angel investor.
Geovanny “Geo” Cardona-Jones, 11, 1Love LLC
At just the young age of 7, Geovanny Cardona-Jones became CEO of a nonprofit organization. He and his family started the nonprofit 1Love LLC to help combat the growing feelings of hate and contempt that they were witnessing.
“My family and I made a nonprofit to try to change the world and be kind to everyone and make sure everyone loves each other,” Cardona-Jones said.
1Love LLC is committed to performing kind acts in the community and bridging the diversity gaps to promote peace, love, and partnership.
Now a sixth grader at Miami Valley School, the nonprofit has done around 300 different acts of kindness since 2017.
“Our most famous kind act is our Pay it Forward one,” he said. “We pay for someone else’s food and we tell them to keep it going. For two weeks it kept going.”
Other acts of kindness have included buying flowers for people, providing school supplies, donating winter clothes, making meals for people, writing kind letters, buying movie tickets, and leaving money in arcade machines.
“I help to make sure people in the world are being nice and kind and helpful,” Geo said.
Sarah Richard, 25, Gem City Ceramics, University of Dayton
A native of Pittsburgh, Sarah Richard decided to put down roots in Dayton after graduating from the University of Dayton in 2019. She has a degree in mechanical engineering with a minor in sustainability, energy and the environment.
Richard has been involved with sustainability and environmental justice initiatives since her time as a student. She now works at UD’s Hanley Sustainability Institute as a student engagement coordinator. In her position, Richard mentors students as they explore their role in environmental and social challenges.
She serves on various local boards, including the nonprofit Dayton Energy Collaborative and the City of Dayton Environmental Advisory Board. She helps guide efforts around residential energy burden.
"My areas of interest lie in the cross-sections of technical skills and social systems, believing every sector and profession plays a role in tackling the environmental and social implications of climate change," Richard said.
But Richard also is a small business owner. After graduating college, she founded Gem City Ceramics in 2020 where she follows another one of her passions. She went on to open MADE, a ceramic art studio in Dayton. And now she’s preparing to open a pottery shop and workshop studio at 1619 East Fifth St. in the St. Anne’s Hill neighborhood.
The space will have a soft opening in November and offer wheel classes, handbuilding classes and glaze experiences.
"I can’t say I ever intended to start a pottery business, let alone a studio," Richard said. "The journey from initially working behind the name of Gem City Ceramics to now owning a studio, came from taking a handful of small steps. Every step came with a new skill I had to learn; marketing, accounting, pricing, website building."
Richard previously worked at Gem City Market, Dayton’s first co-op grocery store located in west Dayton.
Myanah Keys, 21, University of Dayton student
The senior biology major at University of Dayton has been making strides in an innovative area of pediatric cancer research. She spent the summer as one of 10 national recipients of a research grant from Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation.
The Pediatric Oncology Student Training (POST) Program grant is funded by Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation and the Northwestern Mutual Foundation.
Keys spent the summer at the Center of Biobehavioral Health at Nationwide Children’s Hospital where she gained hands-on experience with recruitment, data collection, management and analyses, as well as direct interaction with families and children affected by childhood cancer. Her area of passion has been psychosocial pediatric oncology research where she studies social determinants of health and how that impacts quality of life in children.
“I found out that if you live in a rural area you’re more likely to have a low quality of life and high symptom burden,” Keys said. “Because of the research we did, we hope to help hospital develop methods to improve care of children with advanced cancers.”
Keys plans to apply to medical school after she graduates in 2023.
