The COVID-19 pandemic put a damper on many campus activities. However, the newly founded Arini Global was not one of them. Through Arini Global, students with a passion for entrepreneurship at NCC get a chance to work in cooperation with olive farmers in the small village of Arini, Greece.
“Arini Global was founded in March of 2019 and is currently being ran and operated in Naperville, Illinois. The company was created as a social enterprise, designed to import high-quality olive oil from one of the world’s leading olive oil producers, Greece,” according to the Arini Global website.
Robert Moussetis, professor of International Business Management and Marketing, has a background related to the olive oil industry already. As a former Greece resident, Moussetis had previous connections to olive oil farmers in Arini. In order to give his students a real-world experience, Moussetis looked to create new entrepreneurship opportunities on campus.
“I have been involved in olive oil in the sense that I have seen the harvesting and processing process. If you’ve ever been in Greece you’ll see that you’re always surrounded by olive trees. We went with olive oil because I proposed to some olive farmers in Greece to leverage prices in the United States,” said Moussetis.
Alexis Munoz, ’22, explained the extensive process on the back-end of web development. Munoz is behind the website and explained the creation of the virtual image of Arini Global. Moreover, this process involved professional web designers who reviewed the layout of the website.
“I would work with Wix to make the site (and) I worked with a professional over Zoom to consult on how the website is working and looking. It was really cool to have a professional’s eyes on it,” said Munoz.
To Munoz and Johnny Auge, ’22, the trip to Greece was a highlight in their memory of Arini Global. In the end, it left them with a larger world perspective. Additionally, they understood all the work done that brought the products of Arini Global from farm to shelf.
“We went to the processing plant where they take these sacks of olives that get dumped into the machines and step by step you see it become a bottle of olive oil,” said Auge.
Students will graduate alongside Arini Global and inherit the company. Technically, the students would be buying the company from Moussetis for a simple $1. However, Moussetis is looking forward to reaching out to other avenues of business in the near future. Students interested in entrepreneurship will have more opportunities from Moussetis as time goes on.
