She grew up just minutes from campus, but at Tippie, Ava Graf learned how far an idea and a little ambition can take you.
Homegrown hustle
Some students travel halfway across the country for college. Ava Graf grew up 10 minutes away and still managed to reinvent her world. Growing up in Iowa City, Ava imagined a new city, new people, and a fresh start. But when it came time to decide, a visit to Tippie College of Business changed everything.
“Everyone was so welcoming and nice. It felt like home, but in a completely new way.”
Ava chose Tippie for its strong business programs, the campus atmosphere, and yes, the in-state tuition. But once she got here, she realized she’d stepped into a version of Iowa City she’d never experienced before.
“Once I toured Tippie, it didn’t feel like settling. It felt right. Staying close to home ended up being the boldest decision I could make.”
So she stayed.
Grit up close
Ava’s entrepreneurial vision started long before college. She watched her mom transition from real estate to building an interior design business, shaping her own career with creativity and grit.
“Once I learned what entrepreneurship actually meant, I knew that was me. I’ve always wanted to be my own boss.”
She paired the entrepreneurship major with marketing, a natural fit. She calls the combination “the best of both worlds,” giving her the strategic mindset of an entrepreneur and the storytelling skills of a marketer.
She put both of those majors to work immediately.
A start-up from the start
After her sophomore year, Ava launched Dorm in a Box, an interior design service for student living spaces—helping students feel at home from the moment they move in.
She began working with Iowa athletes, a natural group of early adopters thanks to their hectic schedules and early move-in dates.
“They get here in June and move twice,” she says. “It was the perfect place to start.”
It wasn’t long before Ava realized that design was only part of the problem. Students also struggled with move-in logistics, storage, and figuring out what to do with their belongings at the end of the year.
So, she pivoted.
With help from the John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center Startup Incubator, Ava began transforming her business into a student storage and marketplace solution built around the real pain points she uncovered through hands-on marketing and customer research.
“Marketing taught me to understand customers. Entrepreneurship taught me to build for them.”
The accelerator allowed Ava to work on her business full-time, with structure, mentorship, and support.
“They pay you to work on your business,” she explains. “You’re fully immersed in it, but you’re not doing it alone.”
Turning ‘what if’ into ‘we did’
Ava calls Tippie’s culture motivated. Through her business fraternity, she found peers who push each other to do more.
Hands-on classes like Entrepreneurial Strategy gave her real-world insights, while a consulting project with the Iowa Heartlanders let her put ideas into action.
What stands out most to Ava is Tippie’s honesty about entrepreneurship.
“You’ll fail more than you succeed,” she says. “They don’t sugarcoat it.”
Her advice? “Join something. Tippie has a place for everyone. Talk to your professors—they actually care and know everyone.”
She describes the experience as a chance to test ideas with support before stepping fully into the real world, “It’s like dipping your toes in the water,” she says. “There’s a cushion.”
What comes next?
This winter, Ava heads back to Iowa JPEC as an intern, helping rebrand and shape the entrepreneurship program. After graduation, with plenty of ideas and room to explore them, she’s open to wherever the road leads—whether that’s staying connected to Iowa JPEC, heading to Chicago, or bringing her next big idea to life.
“If I could have a life with no boss, that would be the dream,” she laughs.
At Tippie, “what if” is just the beginning, and Ava is proof.