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McDavid with one of her candles. (Photo by Meng Johnson)
“I literally love what I do so much that it doesn’t feel like work. There’s nothing like embarking on a career path focused on making a positive difference in the lives of others,” says 27-year-old Sterling McDavid, founder of The Starling Project, which launched this year.
The Starling Project is a charitable company that sells home candles in order to provide solar energy to under-resourced communities. “Our candles not only light the homes of their users but also the world,” McDavid explained.
In the past year, The Starling Project has donated $100,000 to UNICEF, which has provided solar energy to people in Chad, Africa. “Solar energy provides so much more than light,” McDavid said. “It can also provide clean running water by powering pipes and greatly improve a community's overall quality of life.”
While making a difference across the globe, Starling Project candles also support the U.S. economy. The soy-based candles are hand-poured in Brooklyn and feature American handmade glass and a cotton wick. The essential oils found within the candles are all-natural. The Starling Project is committed to only working with ethical suppliers, ensuring that their partners do not support human trafficking, child labor, or abusive labor practices.
McDavid says that while she always has had a passion for philanthropy, it was travel to less developed countries such as Vietnam, Rwanda, and Jamaica as the National Development Chair of the UNICEF Next Generation Steering Committee that truly opened her eyes to the harsh problems people can face in everyday life. She was working as a financial analyst at Goldman Sachs at the time of her first field visit to Vietnam, but seeing the impact that just a single solar panel could make on a rural community inspired McDavid to leave her career in finance in order to focus on creating a product line that could help people access electrical power and/or running water.
“I've always had an entrepreneurial spirit,” McDavid said. “My parents are both entrepreneurs, which has forever instilled in me a desire to have a strong work ethic and build something of my very own. I'm thrilled to be following in their footsteps.”
At the core of The Starling Project’s mission is the idea of collective action. McDavid said, “Just as individual starlings come together to create awe-inspiring formations in flight, we believe in the transformative power and energy we can have when we come together. Our customers who fervently support the cause and spread the word about the project forever inspire me. The word of mouth advocacy has been astounding.”
McDavid sharing entrepreneurial lessons with students in Jamaica. (Photo courtesy of The Starling... [+]
McDavid has faced challenges running her social good company. She finds that she has to be extra cautious on spending in order to have more to give back. “We want as much funding as possible to go to the cause!” she exclaimed.
Yet the rewards of pursuing a career that has value and meaning far outweigh the costs. “Not only are we changing lives for the better, but we are also helping educate our customers who often do not know about the hardships faced by people in rural communities around the world. A solar panel can do more than provide electricity; it also can provide clean water. It really is a multi-purpose sustainable energy source.”
To other young people interested in tapping into their life purpose, McDavid has this to say. “I genuinely believe we all have a purpose in this world, and I believe you are doing society a disservice if you do not pursue your dreams. There is always a risk associated with switching careers, but if you do your best to take calculated risks, you won’t regret it. It was difficult for me to leave a job on Wall Street, but I knew the longer I waited to start my new career path, the harder it would be. It also would’ve meant not getting things in motion for the people I so desperately wanted to help. One of the best things I did before taking the leap was meeting with as many people as possible within social good companies. I wanted to make sure I fully understood what I was getting myself into. In my opinion, the key to success is doing your due diligence so you are as armed and as ready as you can be to accomplish your goals .”
