An Early Start in Business for a Ross School Senior

Dillon Kab isn’t waiting until she graduates from college — or even high school — to jump-start her career in the world of business management.

The Ross School senior has launched her own business, called Connecs, in which she carries out fund-raising campaigns for nonprofit organizations — as if taking Advanced Placement classes, playing varsity volleyball and for a soccer league outside of school, applying for colleges, and serving as a class representative in the student government weren’t enough to keep her busy.

Through Connecs, Dillon creates fund-raising campaigns and marketing plans for nonprofits, including merchandising, website development, and social media. She runs the fund-raisers, too, and donates 85 percent of what she collects to the organization. The remaining 15 percent funds the business side of things, such as printed promotional materials and Internet hosting. She even runs two websites on her own, including connecs.net, her company’s main website.

Dillon’s first project is Ties for a Cure to benefit the Max Cure Foundation, which supports pediatric cancer patients and their families at the Stony Brook University Cancer Center. Selling designer ties that were given to her for her project, she has donated $2,000 so far to Max Cure, a charity introduced to her by her father.

Next up, Dillon has her sights set on helping the Curing Retinal Blindness Foundation, an organization founded by a family member who has children affected by that genetic disorder. For that project, Dillon is searching for a sponsor to donate goods or services she can sell in the same way she is selling the designer ties.

“So far, I’ve been constantly busy,” Dillon said. “But because I love what I’m doing and I’m giving back, I feel good and I get something back from my hard work.”

The effort is part of her senior project at the school, which requires each of its students to complete an in-depth project in an area of interest such as civics, arts, or science.

The senior project is “always daunting but really exciting,” said Dillon, who hopes to attend New York University’s Stern School of Business next year. “As you grow up here, you find out what you’re interested in. For me, it’s business.”

It’s fair to say business acumen runs in the family. Dillon is the daughter of Patricia and Vyto Kab, a pair of entrepreneurs who founded several businesses, including SleepTech, a polysomnography practice that had 18 hospital-based locations in New York before they sold the company in 2004. A former professional football player, Mr. Kab was a tight end with the Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants in the 1980s. The family lives in Southampton.

“Dillon is a born leader. She has been like that since she was little,” Ms. Kab said. “She is very determined, and when she puts her mind to something, she gets it done.”

The idea of connecting business with nonprofits is called social entrepreneurship, and it’s a subject Dillon said she first learned from her parents’ charitable work. She later signed up for an elective in social entrepreneurship taught by Carrie Clark, who is Dillon’s senior project mentor. Ms. Clark said her student’s idea is a unique one.

“We’ve had a lot of students interested in business . . . but very few students have been able to actually execute on a business idea, so it certainly stands out that way,” Ms. Clark said of Dillon’s project. “She has been so great about putting together so many moving parts in an innovative way.”