Editor's note: This story is reprinted from the April issue of GCU Magazine. To read the digital version of the magazine, click here.
By Ashlee Larrison
GCU Magazine
A family trip to Paris gave the Reina family a taste of the kind of crepes they wanted to bring to Phoenix.
A shocking setback soon after gave them the determination to make their dream come true.
Two business degrees from Grand Canyon University gave them the know-how.
That’s the story behind Colados Coffee and Crepes, where Aaron Reina is using his entrepreneurship degree to manage marketing and his sister Jocelyn, an Honors College student and graduate in business management, handles operations.
It’s a story that took an unexpected turn in 2013 several weeks after the family celebrated Jocelyn’s 15th birthday in Paris: Her parents, Berni and Yesica, were laid off from the warehouse jobs they had held for 18 years. The first Colados opened in Avondale, Ariz., in 2014.
“We were open a couple of years when I decided I wanted to start learning a little more about business, what I could do to help my parents out,” Jocelyn said of her decision to select the Colangelo College of Business. “It really helped a lot. I learned a lot, met a lot of new people and it was just a great experience for me.”
Aaron and Jocelyn have taken elements of what they learned from their classes and the GCU culture, such as how to be servant leaders, into Colados, creating a family-like environment for the staff.
Colados opened its second location in Goodyear, Ariz., in the fall, and the growth has only just begun. There has been talk of a third location, but Aaron said the heart of business is in Arizona, where they hope to impact the community.
“We want to make Arizona better,” he said. “We want to make it a destination stop where when people come to Arizona and it’s like, ‘You have to try Colados.’”
Contact Ashlee Larrison at (602) 639-8488 or [email protected]
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