Hunter Fairchild '10 has parlayed a campus laundry business into a slot at the Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership at the University of Virginia for its 2008 College Leaders Programs.
A business administration major from Palmyra, Va., Hunter was chosen for this selective program which offers an advanced curriculum on public service and leadership for promising student leaders in Virginia.
"I knew it was a very competitive program, but I thought I'd give it a try," Hunter said. That attitude also helped him launch an on-campus business in the fall of 2007.
As a freshman, Hunter said he was ill-prepared to handle one of life's basic needs. "I was coming to college and had never done a load of laundry in my life," he said. Hunter actually drove home every weekend his freshman year, dirty laundry in tow, to avoid this task.
Finally, at the beginning of this academic year, he broke down and did a load of laundry on his own. "It's not that laundry's hard; it's that it's time-consuming," he said.
With the help of a management class, Hunter developed a business model for Campus Cleaners, a one-man business that requires Hunter to pick up laundry from his student clients and take the laundry to an off-campus laundry mat where it's washed, dried, and folded.
Hunter has 15 clients who have paid for the semester-long service, and another handful that pay per load. It's cheaper, he said, to pay for the semester, which costs about 99 cents a pound, compared with $1.38 per pound.
With entrepreneurial exuberance, Hunter says he would like to create a laundromat in the community to expand his business and improve his profit margin.
Hunter was also elected president of the Delta Sigma Pi business fraternity as a sophomore. The co-ed fraternity hosts at three to six community service events a year, such as working at a homeless shelter, as well as professional and social events.
The Sorensen Institute's College Leaders Program will run from May 31 to June 28. Participants will live and study on the grounds of the University of Virginia.
In 2007 the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching recognized the program as among the best in the nation when it comes to giving young people the skills and motivation to become politically engaged in their communities.
Hunter is also part of a unique duo. His father, Chris Fairchild, was recently accepted in to the 10-month Sorensen Institute's Political Leaders Program.