{"id":84,"date":"2020-11-30T16:55:26","date_gmt":"2020-11-30T16:55:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.ucomm.ncsu.edu\/web-platform-free-tier\/2020\/11\/30\/coffee-and-statistics-to-go\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T00:10:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T04:10:22","slug":"coffee-and-statistics-to-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.ucomm.ncsu.edu\/web-platform-free-tier\/2020\/11\/30\/coffee-and-statistics-to-go\/","title":{"rendered":"Coffee and Statistics To Go"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the past four years, Michael Evans has been on the go: moving from Pennsylvania to North Carolina, studying abroad in Prague, changing majors, growing into an entrepreneur. His next big leap is graduation and focusing on the nonprofit coffee shop he founded during his time here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Evans is graduating with his bachelor\u2019s degree in statistics in December. As part of the Accelerated Bachelor’s\/Master\u2019s degree program<\/a>, he\u2019s also on track to earn his master\u2019s in statistics from NC State next summer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He and his dad visited campus the summer before his senior year of high school and fell in love with the university. He decided to apply for the Park Scholarship<\/a>, but he already knew he wanted to join the Wolfpack even if he didn\u2019t get it. \u201cI was already pretty in love with NC State, and I knew this is where I was going to be regardless,\u201d Evans said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He got the scholarship. And through his connections within the program, he helped found 321 Coffee<\/a>, a coffee shop that employs individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Knowing that 80% of people with disabilities are underemployed, Evans and his fellow co-founders wanted to create a space where those people could find meaningful employment. What started out as a student organization that used dorm rooms as test kitchens evolved into a permanent stand at the State Farmers Market. He and his team didn\u2019t know how successful they would be; the night before opening day, they were focused on figuring out how to work the espresso machine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe next day, a crazy number of people showed up,\u201d Evans said. \u201cIt\u2019s still one of the busiest days we had. It was amazing to see there was a lot of support around this, and that was the moment we realized this would actually work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related<\/h2>
\nStudent Startup: Coffee Shop with a Purpose\u00a0 <\/svg> <\/span><\/span><\/a>\n\n\n\n321 Coffee Presents at National Entrepreneurship Conference\u00a0 <\/svg> <\/span><\/span><\/a>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Although Evans came to NC State majoring in engineering, a conversation with a professor about data analytics in sports piqued his interest in statistics. That\u2019s served him well, as he can see himself continuing to work at 321 Coffee after earning his master\u2019s in statistics next year. He already deals with the business\u2019s finances and logistics, and he\u2019d like to see the company grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe vision for 321 is to have multiple locations and, at least in the Triangle area, 321 Coffee would be a household name,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was amazing to see there was a lot of support around this, and that was the moment we realized this would actually work.<\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

He recommends future students be open about trying new things \u2014 like trying out statistics despite starting as an engineering major, or traveling across the world to study abroad in Prague for the summer. \u201cWe spent eight weeks in Europe, taking great classes and seeing things we\u2019d never seen before. It was an awesome, once-in-a-lifetime experience,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTake advantage of the opportunities at NC State because there are so many of them to explore what you are passionate about,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

This post was originally published<\/a> in NC State News.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false,"raw":"\n\n\n\n\n

In the past four years, Michael Evans has been on the go: moving from Pennsylvania to North Carolina, studying abroad in Prague, changing majors, growing into an entrepreneur. His next big leap is graduation and focusing on the nonprofit coffee shop he founded during his time here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Evans is graduating with his bachelor\u2019s degree in statistics in December. As part of the Accelerated Bachelor's\/Master\u2019s degree program<\/a>, he\u2019s also on track to earn his master\u2019s in statistics from NC State next summer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He and his dad visited campus the summer before his senior year of high school and fell in love with the university. He decided to apply for the Park Scholarship<\/a>, but he already knew he wanted to join the Wolfpack even if he didn\u2019t get it. \u201cI was already pretty in love with NC State, and I knew this is where I was going to be regardless,\u201d Evans said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He got the scholarship. And through his connections within the program, he helped found 321 Coffee<\/a>, a coffee shop that employs individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Knowing that 80% of people with disabilities are underemployed, Evans and his fellow co-founders wanted to create a space where those people could find meaningful employment. What started out as a student organization that used dorm rooms as test kitchens evolved into a permanent stand at the State Farmers Market. He and his team didn\u2019t know how successful they would be; the night before opening day, they were focused on figuring out how to work the espresso machine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe next day, a crazy number of people showed up,\u201d Evans said. \u201cIt\u2019s still one of the busiest days we had. It was amazing to see there was a lot of support around this, and that was the moment we realized this would actually work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related<\/h2>
\nStudent Startup: Coffee Shop with a Purpose\u00a0 <\/svg> <\/span><\/span><\/a>\n\n\n\n321 Coffee Presents at National Entrepreneurship Conference\u00a0 <\/svg> <\/span><\/span><\/a>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Although Evans came to NC State majoring in engineering, a conversation with a professor about data analytics in sports piqued his interest in statistics. That\u2019s served him well, as he can see himself continuing to work at 321 Coffee after earning his master\u2019s in statistics next year. He already deals with the business\u2019s finances and logistics, and he\u2019d like to see the company grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe vision for 321 is to have multiple locations and, at least in the Triangle area, 321 Coffee would be a household name,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was amazing to see there was a lot of support around this, and that was the moment we realized this would actually work.<\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

He recommends future students be open about trying new things \u2014 like trying out statistics despite starting as an engineering major, or traveling across the world to study abroad in Prague for the summer. \u201cWe spent eight weeks in Europe, taking great classes and seeing things we\u2019d never seen before. It was an awesome, once-in-a-lifetime experience,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTake advantage of the opportunities at NC State because there are so many of them to explore what you are passionate about,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n"},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael Evans is about graduate with his bachelor’s degree in Statistics. His next step is focusing on the nonprofit 321 Coffee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":85,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"source":"ncstate_wire","ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","ncst_content_audit_display":false,"ncst_backToTopFlag":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5],"class_list":["post-84","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-_from-newswire-collection-6"],"displayCategory":null,"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.ucomm.ncsu.edu\/web-platform-free-tier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.ucomm.ncsu.edu\/web-platform-free-tier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.ucomm.ncsu.edu\/web-platform-free-tier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.ucomm.ncsu.edu\/web-platform-free-tier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.ucomm.ncsu.edu\/web-platform-free-tier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dev.ucomm.ncsu.edu\/web-platform-free-tier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2279,"href":"https:\/\/dev.ucomm.ncsu.edu\/web-platform-free-tier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84\/revisions\/2279"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.ucomm.ncsu.edu\/web-platform-free-tier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.ucomm.ncsu.edu\/web-platform-free-tier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.ucomm.ncsu.edu\/web-platform-free-tier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.ucomm.ncsu.edu\/web-platform-free-tier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}