Business student and basketball player
After graduating from Notre Dame College Prep High School, Yann Kouotou committed to a D3 basketball program out of state. The university didn’t end up being the right fit for him and he left after his first semester. Yann arrived at Oakton the following spring looking for a fresh start and the opportunity to learn how to grow his small business.
I started at Oakton looking for some redirection and purpose in my life. I thought, at the time, that I wasn’t going to play basketball anymore. But I was playing in the gym and the coaches started talking to me about my passions and I decided I’m going to continue the journey playing basketball with Oakton. I see it as an opportunity to get a second chance. I feel like the community here at Oakton has been very welcoming and very accepting. I just knew right on the spot that this could be a place I could call home. I see it through my coaches and my teammates; we all have our own different backgrounds, our own different stories, and hearing and learning about all of them really emphasizes that we’re all here together for a reason.
That sense of purpose and community is the driving force behind Yann’s small business, Real Relaxed, a clothing and lifestyle brand he started in high school with a friend. Yann knows that the brand’s message about mental health has real potential to grow over time.
The message of Real Relaxed is encouraging people to stay calm through adversity. We want to convey the message that you're way stronger than you believe and it starts with your mind. We experience fear every single day as human beings. But fear is only an illusion at the end of the day. “Real relaxed” started off as a little catchphrase that me and my friends would say. I started to see more purpose behind it when a lot of people at our school started saying it in the context of mental health. I think the clothing brand might be the first step into something much more extraordinary, something that could be a game changer. Fashion really is a good thing. It's a way to express yourself. It's a form of art. Wanting to express yourself can make you feel more visible.
Yann is gaining skills at Oakton to help set a direction for the future of the brand. He’s taking his general education classes on a business pathway, which will set him up to transfer into a business program next—and hopefully, to continue playing a sport he loves.
I’m learning the fundamentals of running a business long-term. Because from my experience, this does require a lot of work and time and investment. I got to learn about the power of networking and how to build your social capital and the importance of maintaining healthy relationships. I see basketball as a way to build my business by telling my story and giving myself credit for being resilient. There are many opportunities in my life where I could have given up. But my motivation is to just keep striving.