In April, alumna Patricia Aguilar watched on CNN as the U.S. surgeon general explained the outsize impact of COVID-19 on minority communities. The national address inspired FourStar Branding’s multicultural campaign “Protect to Respect,” reaching 500,000 people with a PSA about wearing face masks to protect others.
Aguilar earned her bachelor’s in integrated marketing communications from Roosevelt University in 2004. As the founder of FourStar Branding, she is out to change what she calls the “underprivileged small business landscape” in Little Village.
In collaboration with the Little Village Community Foundation and the Little Village Chamber of Commerce, the FourStar Branding Hub Program offers competitive branding services — at no cost — to small businesses in the Chicago neighborhood.
Aguilar’s firm also worked on the branding presentation to help secure funding for the Xquina Incubator Cafe in Little Village, which officially broke ground on September 21. The bilingual business incubator, co-working space and coffeeshop gives entrepreneurs in the neighborhood a new place to grow their businesses.
Aguilar spoke with Roosevelt University about her student experience, starting her own business, and her work in Little Village.