Mark Sotomayor won’t get to walk at commencement this week, but it’s fair to say the Grove City College senior is a few steps ahead of most of his classmates when it comes to a post-college career.
Sotomayor is the CEO and founder of Treecup Tea, a small-batch tea company based in Evans City, a small town roughly 30 miles north of Pittsburgh.
“The two main things, flavor-wise, that set us apart are unique global flavors as well as healthy, low-calorie brews,” he said in a phone interview.
Founded in 2017, while Sotomayor was a sophomore, Treecup’s motto is “buy a tea, plant a tree” — for every bottle of tea that is sold, Treecup plants one tree in Haiti’s deforested Artibonite Valley.
Sotomayor, an entrepreneurship major, said he was drawn to social entrepreneurship both as a way to differentiate the brand in the marketplace and as a way to motivate himself beyond the pursuit of profit.