MechSE undergrad brings entrepreneurship in a health food store to Green Street

On the brink of opening her own business – a shop selling healthy shakes, refreshers and more – mechanical engineering sophomore Vidhi Chavda’s technical background comes in handy for optimizing her work-life balance. In addition to being involved with Women in Mechanical Science and Engineering and Illini Solar Car, Chavda has worked this past semester to get her brick-and-mortar business up and running.

“I’m getting my technical experience through [the RSOs], but I needed something for the business side of my brain,” Chavda said of her latest endeavor.

Chavda’s store, Elite, which will soon be located at the intersection of Second and Green, promises to offer healthy food options that incorporate nutritional supplements. The shop will operate during daytime business hours so that students can easily grab a shake or other quick meal on their way to class.

As a double-major in the Innovation, Leadership & Engineering Entrepreneurship (ILEE) dual degree program, the shop represented a fitting opportunity for Chavda to follow in the footsteps of her father, who owned a convenience store in a suburb of Chicago.

“I grew up in the back of my dad’s store,” Chavda said. “I would stand at the counter and talk to people. Through the years, he then chased his dream of owning a car dealership and I watched him build it and developed [the same] mindset.”

As a freshman at Illinois, Chavda struggled to find healthy food options on Green Street. She thought back to a health café in her hometown that offers a menu with the kinds of quick but healthy options she was looking for.

“I went back home during winter break and I walked into [the café] and thought, ‘What’s stopping me from doing this?’” she said. “[The café owner] mentored me and taught me everything—not just the business side, but also making the menu and the recipes.”

As she prepares to open Elite, she credits her family with being her strongest support group. “I have a great team at home,” she said. “A simple phone call reminding me [that I’ve got this] really encourages me.”

Chavda plans to work in the shop whenever she doesn’t have class or other commitments and is in the process of hiring a team of part-time workers and a full-time manager. “The U of I is the ideal little world,” she said of leveraging the skills of so many talented people, which has helped enable her to make her small business a reality. “You have everyone from every expertise. It’s amazing.”