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Awarded through the , the fund was established in honor of Robert L. Avinger Jr. ’60, who also served on the economics faculty from 1967-1980.

Not That Georgia

Sandro Chumashvili ’24 kicked off his business plan pitch presentation with a PowerPoint slide dotted with images of peaches. Quickly, he let the Avinger Impact Fund judges know he wasn’t talking about “that Georgia.” He was talking about his home country, known by many for kvevri wines, which are fermented in gigantic underground clay vessels, a method of winemaking Georgians have used for more than 8,000 years. 

“My first year on campus, my roommate, who is from Guatemala, was talking about importing coffee to the U.S.,” Chumashvili said. “It gave me the idea to do the same, but with wine. I am not 21, so I cannot own or import wine. But I can work on the exporting side of things and turn the product over to distributors upon arrival.” 

His roommate stepped away from the coffee idea, but Chumashvili moved forward with help from the Hurt Hub@С����Ƶ. From connecting the budding entrepreneur to mentors who have helped refine the business plan to linking him up with lawyers, marketing support and distributors, the idea quickly became feasible. The college’s С����Ƶ Connect platform also allowed him to reach out to members of the alumni community with a natural inclination to get involved. 

With this award, he will purchase his first wines from Georgia, arrange to have them flown to the U.S. and host an event to market the wines and finalize partnerships with distributors.

“It is great to talk to my partners about what we will be doing, not just ideas around what we might do,” he said. “I am able to make a difference in preserving the winemaking industry in Georgia while introducing Americans to these amazing wines.”

The volume is intentionally low. Chumashvili will work with winemakers who preserve the original approach to the craft, using clay vessels. He will make small profits, but money is not his main motivation.

Carol and Carson also took a trip to the zoo during that time, where they were fascinated by an exhibit on naked mole rats. Naked mole rats live in a community like bees, and each mole rat has a role. The mom and daughter pair dubbed Carol the queen mole rat.

Also used in biomedical research, naked mole rats are highly resistant to cancer. 

“I wished I could have given my mom a plush naked mole rat instead of Little Bunny,” Carson recalled. “A hairless, strong animal that could be there when I was far away. It represents so much more to me—the battle, the roles everyone plays when a loved one is going through treatment.”

Athey and his best friend, Ivan, who inspired Athey through the high-end shoe reselling business he launched through Instagram, led a financial summer camp for 7th and 8th graders, furthering their interest in sharing knowledge more broadly. 

“The first month of the pandemic, we just sat around playing XBOX, and Ivan couldn’t sell shoes because his transactions were usually in person, so we started looking into options trading as a business model,” he said. “Another friend of ours was interested in cryptocurrencies; he had actually fried circuits in his home trying to mine Bitcoin.” 

Soon after Portfolio Kings launched near the end of their senior year of high school, more than a thousand people were coming to the chat rooms to learn and talk. The friends realized they had something valuable going on, so they started charging a monthly fee. With people at home during the pandemic, they saw quick growth. 

Portfolio Kings’ pandemic-centered business model needed to be tweaked. The Avinger Impact Fund and the mentor program through the Hurt Hub@С����Ƶ have allowed the team to figure out how best to adjust their model for a more successful future. The result: Portfolio Kings will now focus on crypto and digital asset consulting.

“We realize there are a lot of people who are curious about crypto, NFTs and the like, but they don’t know where to begin,” Athey said. “We will be that guiding hand.”

More information can be found on their website at . 

“I would love to be able to come out of college and have the freedom to do something that excites me and keeps pushing me to do more,” said Athey, who receives support from The  С����Ƶ Trust. “My plan is to work as hard as I can and open as many doors as possible.”