VibeSociety

Scott Frauenheim, the youngest of seven children, found himself in his small hometown in New Jersey in 2008 on a quest to find himself. After visiting a friend in Chicago and falling in love with the city, he took a leap of faith and made the decision to leave his large, close knit family. He quickly built up his confidence and friendships and faced one of the most difficult times of his life coming out to his friends and family as a gay man. Since that moment, everyone in his life has been incredibly supportive and he has fallen in love with our great city so much, he can’t see himself ever leaving.

Throughout his journey of finding himself, one thing always rang true for Scott: he has a passion to teach young minds. He credits his strong draw to education and sense of community to his parents. They modeled what community, faith, relationships and success look like. While his mom is a female entrepreneur, his dad spent over 52 years as Vice Principal, Athletic Director, and Football coach at their hometown school. Following in his dad’s footsteps, Scott is now the proud CEO of a non-profit Charter School Management Organization, Distinctive Schools. He manages and oversees nine schools, five of which are in Chicago. The organization was designed to bring educational innovation and choice through a strong equity lens and strong staff/student and community culture. They serve historically marginalized communities specifically for grades Pre-K through 9th. 

A true people person with a deep sense of loyalty, nothing makes Scott happier than giving back to his community, whether that community includes his 30+ nieces and nephews, or the thousands of kids Distinctive Schools support. When he’s not busy managing all nine locations, he’s finding opportunities to volunteer, join advisory and fundraising boards, lead community service opportunities, and donate financially to students and families during difficult times.

A serial entrepreneur, Xavier Hernandez has been a hustler since the beginning. It hasn’t been an easy road for him as he’s tried his hand in various jobs and industries, losing his father to cancer along the way. Throughout all the ups and downs, he has always held on to his creativity and entrepreneurial spirit. HIs latest venture is BTEC Studios, “a social-entrepreneurship launch pad for people to prosper and succeed in the innovation economy.” 

BTEC does everything from curating videos and photography for brands and individuals to providing education on 3D printing or showing students how to grow their own sustainable urban gardens. Xavier is a true Chicagoan constantly finding creative ways to give back to the community that raised him. 

Most recently, he teamed up with an LA-based shoe designer to design his own line of Men’s footwear. He modeled his designs after his own Mexican heritage contemporizing the utility of the ancient Mayans. Both a multifaceted and multi-cultural individual, Xavier finds ways to showcase his Japanese roots as well.

Xavier has his hands in many different jars from non-profits to for-profits but regardless of whatever project he’s working on at the time, he’s focused on helping others with innovating their processes through technology, workforce development, and economic development. One of his latest achievements has been learning how to pivot quickly, survive, and thrive during a Political-Covid Pandemic. Anyone who has or will have the pleasure of working with Xavier, he wants them to know that “No matter what life throws at us, as long as I’m in the boardroom, on the basketball court or on the battlefield, we are winning game 7."

Chrstine Gerling is a health coach focused on leading people to their optimal health that lasts a lifetime. After struggling with her weight all of her life and finding herself merely surviving, Christine eventually found Optavia that helped her transform her habits for lifelong success. She went from feeling hopeless that it was impossible to change her trajectory in life but has now gone from the mom on the couch to the mom on the run and more importantly from merely surviving her life to truly thriving.

While she saw such great success personally and professionally after becoming a coach for Optavia herself, the real test came when her husband suffered a mental breakdown. A nurse during the COVID-19 pandemic facing both stress of the job and paralyzing fear of the disease left him spiraling. Christine locked into the habit tools she used in coaching to help the person she loved most. Her husband did drop 70 pounds but it wasn’t until he dove into the head and heart work that his health transformation truly reached his mentality. Through this experience, Chrstine leared so much about the many depths of health that are possible when people decide they are ready for a change. 

Christine today leads a team of coaches that have helped over 400 people smash their health goals. They teach others that it’s not about the number on the scale but the true transformation of their habits, mental health, and overall life. When she’s not helping others live their best life or wrangling her little boys, she spends her time in her Church community leading a small group of women growing in their leadership. 

Kevin Davenport is a serial entrepreneur and author. A few years ago, Kevin had an investor for his mobile app. After putting in his two weeks notice at his job with nothing but high hopes for the future, he discovered that the investor was a fraud and had bad intentions. Due to this misfortune and other obstacles in his life at the time, Kevin found himself at age 29 moving in with his mom, sleeping on the floor of her one bedroom apartment. 

With his faith still tact, Kevin prayed and put all of his struggles down on paper. Once a kid diagnosed with ADD and Dyslexia, he now is a published author that sold over 1,400 copies in his book’s first year. He used his own challenges in life as motivation for starting his Non-Profit, The Ideal Candidate. It’s a nonprofit training academy that connects diverse talent to corporate partners. Since its inception, Kevin and the organization have won numerous awards including the Mayors Award of Excellence from the City of Aurora. 

It’s only been a couple of years since sleeping on the floor of his mom’s one bedroom apartment and Kevin has a successful nonprofit and his mobile app is finally launching March 1st, 2021. Carrying on his mom’s vision and legacy, Kevin is continuing to bring education and literacy to candidates seeking to find the right opportunities for them.

Born in Bulgaria, Nikoleta Morales immigrated to the U.S. alone at the age of 15. After accepting a scholarship to study in Fryeburg Academy, Maine, she moved to Chicago in 2009 and has called our city home ever since. 

Over the past decade, Nikoleta has proven herself over and over again in the field of journalism. She’s currently a freelance entertainment journalist for Cultured Focus Magazine and has interviewed a variety of A-list celebrities including Rene Zellweger, Marc Anthony, Mike Tyson, Eva Longoria, etc. She’s also in the process of editing and publishing her first memoir. 

Throughout her life, she’s overcome several eating disorders, depression, toxic relationships, immigration struggles and being a single mom. She turns the adversity she’s faced into motivation to help others improve their own life circumstances. Practicing meditation every day and focusing on a healthy lifestyle helps give her the perspective and spiritual healing that keeps her thriving in every aspect of her life. She spreads that healing to others through her volunteer work and mentoring young women journalists.

Jennifer Crowley left a 20-year career in the wine industry to find her true path helping others change their lives for the better. She took the lessons she learned as an executive and became a Certified Life Coach and Business Leadership Consultant. She’s inspiring change and helping small business owners become good leaders and create healthy cultures of success. 

Jennifer recently finished writing a book to inspire, prepare, and empower women to make changes in their lives. She includes step-by-step instructions to help them easily add healthful mental and physical practices and approaches to their lives. Currently, she’s working with a company to help her self-publish her book which should be available this Spring. 

Striving to be both a consultant and a coach to her clients, she instills in them the importance of summoning their inner strength to move beyond being stuck and put together plans of action to make important life changes. In doing so, she holds them accountable as they embark on their journeys. Jennifer takes her expertise and volunteers her coaching services to women who are motivated to make changes but have limited income.

Michigan native Tony Mattar first touched down in Chicago as a young student at Northwestern University. After completing his degree in Economics, he joined the Chicago Real Estate world learning as much as he could about the business as he rose up the ranks. In 2019, he and his business partner opened up their own Real Estate brokerage firm. He’s passionate about empowering his clients through education and invested in mentoring his growing team.

Beyond the world of Real Estate, Tony invests his time in his other love: fitness. After his tenure as a college swimmer (and qualifying for the 2012 Olympic Trials) he transitioned to high intensity interval training and Olympic lifting. He found the best way to marry his two passions by creating a Charity organization in 2018 called The Men of Chicago Real Estate. Every year he puts together a swimsuit calendar of agents in Chicago to raise money for LGBTQ initiatives in the city.

Kaitlin Armor is on a mission to empower the salon industry. Chicago suburb native, Kaitlin now is the Salon Manager for Salon 1800 in Lincoln Park. It’s a full’-service salon with a team of 40 employees that she coaches to provide excellent services and achieve high goals. She wants to see the younger generation graduating from cosmetology schools enter into a career field with higher motivation, higher commitment, and higher salary expectations. Her dad serves as her inspiration, coaching and motivating her from day one to be a good businesswoman with strong values. 

It’s safe to say that her dad was successful in teaching her these skills. While Kaitlin was working at Nordstrom before Salon 1800, she set a company-wide record for the highest-grossing sales event in a seven-day period. When she’s not managing the salon and coaching her 40 person team, Katilin works with Direct Effect Charities. She organizes her staff to participate in Letters for Santa and their Backpacks drive. Despite the fact that this year those drives cannot happen, they’re still giving back and doing a gift card drive during the holiday season.

John Choi’s parents, like many before them, immigrated to the U.S from Seoul, Korea in 1976 to give their sons a better life. Since then, John has carved his way graduating from the University of Illinois and receiving his Masters in 2018 in Financial Planning from The American College. 

Over the years, he’s worked his way up in the finance industry currently serving as CEO & President of Ephiphany Capital. His current professional focus is providing tax-efficient retirement planning solutions while at home he’s busy raising three children to become responsible adults who make a positive impact on society. 

When he’s not juggling financial planning or duties at home, John thoroughly enjoys serving at his Church in the children’s ministry and volunteering to feed the homeless at a local shelter.

Born in Mexico City, Mexico, Ernestina Perez came to the United States with her family in search of greater opportunities. She’s spent most of her life in the U.S. as an undocumented immigrant, graduating from UIC in 2013 and with her Masters in Counseling from Northwestern in 2015, finally receiving her US Citizenship the same year.

Regardless of her citizenship status, Ernestina has always been focused on her goal of helping others with their mental health. In 2019 she founded Latinx Talk Therapy, a speciality mental help group providing culturally competent and bilingual counseling services to the Latinx community.

Ernestina has a profound belief in the capacity for self-growth in the Latinx community, one that is historically underserved. In addition to mental health care services she also provides immigration evaluations, helps create jobs for the community and is involved in philanthropy. She’s a walking example of how anyone can be inspired to believe they can accomplish their goals.