Issuu

Loyola hosts inaugural Bloom Festival By Elise Beck erbeck@my.loyno.edu

On April 1, 2025, Loyola hosted its first annual Bloom Festival to honor former Loyola student Kendall Daigle, who passed away in 2014 at age 19. Daigle was an English student who adored art and poetry. The Bloom Festival was organized by Daigle’s family and Loyola staff and was held in front of Monroe Hall, around the tree sculpture erected in Daigle’s honor. Students read poetry and performed original music, and food was provided by Empanola. Several crafting tables were set up throughout the event, all decorated in pink to match Daigle’s poetry book posthumously created by her parents. Attendees could print a design on their very own Bloom Festival t-shirt, as well as make collages, poems, friendship bracelets, and prints. The festival was free to attend, and student volunteers helped with every aspect, from the tech crew for the soundstage to the setup and takedown of various craft tables. Attendees could take free copies of Daigle’s book from the tree sculpture, as well as small pink journals with prompts on every page.

A banner promoting New Orleans Entrepreneurship Week hangs on a lightpost on campus. Rodrigo Delgado/The Maroon

NOEW brings entrepreneurs to Loyola By Lily Bordelon lmbordel@my.loyno.edu

New Orleans Entrepreneurship Week consisted of panel discussions, entrepreneurship showcases, founder stories, and a career fair aimed at introducing students to multiple connections and insights across the business world, according to NOEW officials. NOEW hosted their summit on Loyola’s campus March 27 and 28, where multiple entrepreneurs were able to display their companies to Loyola students and provide insights for students who plan to focus on career innovation. Samantha Bongiovanni, an entrepreneur that came to campus, created Pixie Dust Biodegradable Glitter after she was unable to find any glitter that wasn’t made of microplastics, encouraging her to make a sustainable alternative that is plant-based. “The shops weren't carrying any sustainable glitter, and nobody really knew what I was talking about,” Bongiovanni said. “I kinda saw that there was, you know, a need for it because we really like to wear it on our faces.” Being a part of NOEW gave her the opportunity to showcase the sustain-

ability of her product towards Loyola students, leaving a positive impact on her business. “People are super interested in the sustainability aspect, and we get a lot of people who still don't know that an alternative exists,” she said. “So it's always fun in any setting, sharing that and seeing how much joy it brings to people.”

"It was really interesting to listen to all the different perspectives and to think about how I could implement their strategies into my own work." Remi Grady, Music Industry freshman

Amber Bonner, co-founder and CEO of Zokyo, came up with the idea of a device that promotes positive bathroom behavior after her own two daughters were having trouble with using too much toilet paper when go-

ing to the bathroom. The Zokyo device dispenses toilet paper from a swipe in front of its motion sensor, and after a certain amount of swipes, it stops to prevent excess usage. Bonner brought her first prototype to NOEW in hopes of raising capital for her product and gaining insight from university students and other entrepreneurs. “I just want to get more traction and get Zokyo out there a little bit more, so we can potentially not only be able to schedule more pitches with one-onones,” she said. “But also get feedback from potential students or other innovators or investors to just figure out if there's something that we may need to modify.” Entrepreneur Heather Cascio founded her app My Air Spa, which can connect salon spa health and wellness professionals with customers, either for services at their location or the customer’s home, online. Cascio said she attended NOEW in order to network with investors, which could spark potential partnership opportunities. She produced this app as a means to make the process of booking more comfortable for both the client and the

customer. “A lot of Gen Z people are more comfortable going places where their mom's a hairdresser, or a hairdresser may not be comfortable going to people's locations,” she said explained when describing some examples of people who may benefit from an app like My Air Spa. Music industry freshman Remi Grady, and a member of NOLA Sound, a student-run audiovisual company, ran sound for the event in Miller 114, the founders stage, where business founders shared their testimonies. “It was really interesting to listen to all the different perspectives and to think about how I could implement their strategies into my own work with Nola Sound was pretty meta,” Grady said.

Photo of the 2025 Bloom Fest schedule outside Monroe Hall. Olivia Sanyal/The Maroon