Strength is...
Energy
Jenn Orantes says she was “speechless” when she learned she was nominated as a Susquehanna Style Woman of Strength.
“Growing up in Lancaster, Susquehanna Style magazine was for people who were doing things—and a lifestyle I honestly thought I couldn’t be incorporated into,” Orantes says. “To be named—I was not so much shocked, but speechless. It’s really energizing. I think of strength as internal—it’s that energy in someone, when you’re able to take the hardest pieces of life and come out for the better.”
Orantes, 30, is chief creative officer at Elume, alongside founder Melisa Baez and COO Sarah Payne. And it’s Orantes who gave the entrepreneurial start-up its name and logo, which embellishes journals created for entrepreneurs.
With a degree in digital media, experience in storytelling, directing, film, and a love of theater, Orantes’ career path first led her to Community Action Partnership where she had the opportunity to help rebrand the organization during their banner 50th anniversary.
“It was my beginning of storytelling in the nonprofit world—storytelling for people I wanted to support—people I grew up with in my own community,” Orantes says.
Along with community, Orantes is grateful for family, especially her mom.
“My parents came here from El Salvador and had great jobs. My mom, for example, went to college, so I grew up knowing a different type of world, but that all switched in high school,” Orantes recalls.
That’s when her mom was diagnosed with fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis, and the family struggled to make ends meet.
“I went from being priviledged to...seeing my mom having to let go of her pride, being thrown into that world,” says Orantes.
But several full-circle moments were to follow. First, Orantes helped support her family. Then, she realized she could use her skills to help others avoid the pitfalls of poverty. After her position with Community Action Partnership, Orantes transitioned to the nonprofit Assets.
“I was working with small businesses, leading some of Assets’ marketing boot camps, working with women who are so often taken advantage of when it comes to marketing—and trying to help them build brands that could compete,” Orantes says.
Through this time period, she crossed paths with Baez—and the two trailblazers put their heads together to launch Elume.
Now that Elume is branded, Orantes is transitioning out of day-to-day operations to fully tackle a position with the City of Lancaster—acquiring sponsorships and grants for city projects. She’ll stay on board as a consultant to Elume.
“Finding friends, to the point that I want to build something that has change and lasting benefits for others—I have been so lucky to find these two amazing women who are so smart, so strong—seeing each other shine,” Orantes says. “Honestly, we would love for this to turn into a Netflix show—how do these three women reshape businesses?”
Strength is...
Courage
Journaling is a practice that Sarah Payne could get behind.
“I love the vision journaling provides,” Payne explains. “The practice of writing and getting ideas onto paper is compelling. It makes everything feel clearer, and I take my journal everywhere.”
As COO of Elume, alongside CEO Melisa Baez and chief creative officer Jenn Orantes, Payne sees her position as “a doer” at the entrepreneurial startup that puts sustainable journals into the hands of fellow entrepreneurs.
“I see my role as making Melisa’s dreams happen—we joke that I’m the executioner,” says Payne with a laugh. “I’m excited to grow alongside and within Elume. We are a product-based business, but we’re really passionate about storytelling.”
Payne’s own story has taken her across the country. Originally from Massachusetts, Payne, 31, moved to the Susquehanna Valley to attend Messiah College, now Messiah University.
“I knew since high school that I wanted to be involved in economic development, so I majored in history, and peace and conflict studies, with a minor in economics, and did a lot of travel abroad,” says Payne, who tacked on a year with AmeriCorps near Washington, D.C., then an MBA in economic development where “my social enterprise class changed the game.”
Payne’s definition of business became reframed.
“It made me think about the role of business in the private sector—there are businesses and entrepreneurs who really do want to make a change,” says Payne.
An internship at Lancaster’s nonprofit Assets morphed into a position, which she has now held for five years.
“Lancaster is dealing with a lot of issues of inequality and poverty. All change is local, and I can be part of finding solutions at the local level, continuing to hold businesses accountable for their impact,” says Payne, who serves as Assets’ impact consulting manager. There, her path intersected with that of Baez and Orantes.
“Melisa has such good energy—people are drawn to her vision, to her as a person,” says Payne.
All women, Payne believes, are hard-wired with strength.
“I’m a raging feminist, and I do think strength is this idea of courage and resilience—I think it’s baked into our DNA as women,” explains Payne. “As a sex, we’ve been through so many things through the millennia. To lift up women doing badass things—it’s helpful to have that reminder that we’re made for so much more.”
Additionally, she believes Elume, as a company, exemplifies strength.
“Even though we’re a very small business, I think what we decided to do is strong. We’re elevating women in business, women of color in business, and entrepreneurs taking a different path. We provide simple and accessible sustainability.”
A first-generation American, Melisa Baez seems destined for a great American success story. Her parents, from the Dominican Republic, settled in New York, where Baez was born.
“We moved to Lancaster when I was 5, because my mom wanted us to be where there were more opportunities for education and change,” says Baez, who turns 37 in November.
Her career path led her to Philadelphia’s Temple University, where, as a sports and recreation management major, Baez was intrigued with “helping athletes give back to communities of color—I always had this ‘give-back’ mentality,” Baez says.
Back in Lancaster, she applied her vision to the Children Deserve a Chance Foundation, creating programs designed to mentor at-risk youth via leadership and college readiness skills.
Baez switched gears and began working with entrepreneurs through the women’s business center at nonprofit Assets—all the while, earning her master’s degree in sustainability.
“I spent my last year researching how to make entrepreneurship accessible,” explains Baez, while getting involved in groups such as World Economic Forum and their Global Shapers Community, as well as Opportunity Collaboration.
Oh—and she also caught the entrepreneurial bug herself.
“I decided to launch Elume while working at Assets, while earning my MBA, while having two children and getting married,” says Baez with a laugh. “I wanted to create a product that enhances entrepreneurs’ practice, and so many of them were journaling—needing time to pause, assess, reflect and then do.”
Elume, launched in December of last year, offers sustainably-made journals. Water and tear-resistant pages are concocted from a unique formula without tree pulp or water.
“It’s stone paper,” Baez says. “Without giving away our secret sauce, our partners developed the technology to take marble, repurposing the scraps, bringing it down to a powder, and using that to create the paper.”
Elume is powered by an all-woman trio including Jenn Orantes—“artistically and creatively a bit of a genius,” and Sarah Payne—"a brainiac, ally, champion, and fighter,” says Baez, who serves as CEO.
Elume’s social media channels offer content, like journal prompts, freely accessible to all.
“Personally, I truly believe in local impact being a strategy for sustainability and change, and my heart is still here in Lancaster,” says Baez.
How does Melisa Baez define strength?
“Oh man, this is kind of funny, but I literally just watched ‘Woman King’ with Viola Davis and it was phenomenal—when I think about strength I think about those women. I also think about my mom, my mentors, and teachers. The one thing they have in common—they’ve all had barriers and adversity, but they’ve overcome them by being consistent.”
For more info, see elumetheway.com and assetspa.org.
