Rachel Atta-Mensah stood in front of her Grade 10 class, excitedly presenting her business idea. It was called Rxchxl’s Lashes, and offered clients beautiful false eyelashes. Rachel had even created a logo for the dreamed-up company. After the presentation, Rachel put the idea out of her mind, and life moved on. Fast-forward a few years, and Rachel, a Centennial College Social Service Worker student, has brought the same company she created for that Grade 10 presentation to life.
“I still remember what the original logo looked like!” she laughs. “Anyone who knows me knows I love three things: lashes, highlight, and lip gloss. Lashes were a natural start, but I want to eventually branch off to other areas of makeup.”
Launched in 2020, Rxchxl’s Lashes uniquely combines faith and beauty. Rachel uses her Christian faith as inspiration to encourage women to have confidence and self-love, and to feel beautiful inside and out. The Centennial College student also hopes to bridge the two by incorporating elements of her faith into her business.
“The Bible says to share the word, and I wanted to share it by implementing it in my business,” Rachel explains. “Everything I do, I involve God. For me, there’s nothing I’ve been able to do without involving God.”
In addition to incorporating her faith into her business, Rachel is also applying skills that she is gaining in her social work classes. Because the program prepares students to be critical practitioners, advocates, problem solvers and agents of social change, they learn to interact with a wide range of populations. Rachel, who plans to pursue a degree in the field once she completes Centennial College’s program, says this aspect in particular has been helpful to her budding false eyelash company.
“The way you address people and make them feel matters so much in social work,” she says. “The people we work with need to be able to trust us and feel that we care for them. I apply those people skills to my lash clients. I want to ensure women feel beautiful and empowered. Even that is something we learn in social work — to empower people.”
While juggling school and running a company isn’t always easy, Rachel says since Rxchxl’s Lashes opened its virtual doors for business, she has gotten an overwhelming amount of support. It even trickled down to the Centennial College community when a fellow student reached out to Rachel about The Black Business Showcase. Organized by Solv. and the Centre for Global Citizenship Education and Inclusion, the Showcase features more than 40 local Black-owned businesses. It’s just one of the ways in which the College supports its students’ interests beyond the classroom.
“I posted on my Instagram that I’ll be part of the Black Business Showcase, and everyone was so excited for me,” says Rachel. “A college having your back even with your business is not something that you think will happen when you enroll in a program. It’s a really cool experience, and I’m grateful for the opportunity.”