16 Buffalo Business Autumn 2022
ENTREPRENEURIAL
OPPORTUNITIES
I
n 2020, Shareefa Albanna owned two businesses:
an Allstate insurance agency branch and Arabica
Enterprises, an international grocery market with
a takeout kitchen and catering services, both in
Lackawanna, New York.
As she was juggling both businesses—and amid a global
pandemic—Albanna decided to enroll in the M&T Bank Minority
and Women Emerging Entrepreneurs (MWEE) program, offered
by the School of Management's Center for Entrepreneurial
Leadership (CEL). The program creates opportunities for indi-
viduals leading minority- and women-owned enterprises into
advanced stages of business development.
In MWEE she discovered that sometimes the best business
move is to move on, and decided to sell the insurance agency for
a profit and focus on Arabica.
"It was in that program that I said, 'You know, you can be a
jack of all trades and a master of none—or you can be a master of
everything,'" Albanna says. "It's very rare, but I wanted to be the
anomaly—I just needed to learn when a business wasn't serving
its purpose anymore."
Aer completing the emerging entrepreneurs program,
Albanna received a phone call that would change the trajectory
of her life.
"I was planning on moving back to Michigan, but I got a call
from the CEL and they told me about an opportunity to enroll in
the Core program," she says. "I'm absolutely grateful that I took
that spot—the center is near and dear to my heart and it was one
of the main reasons I decided to stay in Buffalo."
That opportunity was a scholarship, which allowed three
MWEE grads to enroll in the CEL Core program last fall at no
charge thanks to a generous bequest from the late Ruth Huppuch
and the Orchard Park Presbyterian Church. Huppuch, a former
social studies teacher in the Orchard Park School District, le
her gi with the church to support projects that effect social
justice, advance educational opportunities and positively affect
those in need.
How one gift left a legacy with three local businesswomen
BY K E V I N M A N N E
Kenyana David and Nicole Davis in the CEL classroom. Photos: Tom Wolf
