There are no days off for Ashley Thomas ’14. As a single mother of a young daughter, a Care Coordinator for Catholic Charities, Diocese of Cleveland, and the founder of the Sevynteenth nonprofit, Ashley may look like she’s being pulled in a thousand different directions, but in reality, she’s the one pushing everything else forward.

For her, it’s about progressing her community — and it all starts with the children. With the birth of her daughter, Sevyn, Ashley became driven to help improve the educational system in Garfield Heights, which is why she decided to run for a seat on the school board. When she was sworn in, she became the first African-American person elected to the Garfield Heights City Schools Board of Education.

“I ran a city-wide campaign, knocked on a lot of doors, canvassed businesses and spoke to a lot of community members. Our school board hadn’t changed in 20 years but our student population did. Our district is about 85 percent minority and comprised of five schools. Our city just celebrated its 100th year and I’m the first African American elected for a full term on the school board. Our district offers a good education, and our board is working together to improve the way our district works. The community is very open about what they want to see happen and they were ready for a change!”

A talented petroleum engineer and a Big 4 accountant — together, they could succeed just about anywhere in the world.

So why would Scott ’11 and Rachel Worthington Burhnam ’12 return to the small-city life of Marietta to start up a fitness center in the heart of downtown?

“I don’t know if I’d want to do this anywhere else but here,” said Rachel, who co-owns Rockstar Wellness, LLC, with her husband, Scott, whose 8-to-5 job is as a full-time engineer for a natural gas distribution company. “To me, one of the great things about starting this small business is the community. We have a lot of support behind us — from the other businesses located downtown to the people in the community and the College. We have so many people on our side.”

The two met at Marietta as students — Scott studied to be a petroleum engineer and Rachel was focused on working as a public accountant at one of the Big 4 firms. Both graduated, left the Marietta area and reached their individual goals. They married in 2015. But the downturn in the oil and gas industry and another passion that the couple shared — fitness — soon led the couple to move back to the area.

“We had a lot of people tell us we were coming into an over-saturated area,” Rachel said. “We opened right on the heels of Planet Fitness, and there are so many other gyms in the area, but we felt really strongly about what we could bring to an area like Marietta.”

Scott is an avid runner and handles a variety of management and day-to-day operations at the fitness studio, which is located on Second Street. When the pandemic hit, the Burnhams were prepared to keep the fledgling business open.

“Mentally we were prepared,” Scott said. “It was one of those times that you just had to roll with the punches. That’s also how it is in petroleum engineering: you make the best decision with the best information that you have. Going remote was a challenge but we navigated it very quickly. We knew there was a demand and we just had to figure out how to provide it. Our clients were still there and they still needed to have what we had to offer.”