Croft Alumnus Patrick Woodyard Featured in Alumni Review

Croft alumnus Patrick Woodyard (B.A. 2010), the co-founder and chief executive officer of Nisolo, is featured in the Fall 2014 issue of the Ole Miss Alumni Review.  The article explains how Patrick's experiences at the Croft Institute set him on a path to connecting talented shoemakers in Trujillo, Peru, with customers in the United States.  A poster hanging on the second floor of the Croft Institute depicting the United States alone on the planet with the tagline, "We are not alone," inspired Patrick to think of himself as a global citizen and led to the name of his company, Nisolo, which is Spanish for "not alone." 

Patrick joined the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College and the Croft Institute while he was already a student at the University, and the two programs made a very positive impact on his education.  "When I started at Croft and Honors, I was immediately engaged both around students that were extremely bright and teachers that were very brilliant who challenged us," Woodyard commented. "I really felt like that has a lot to do with where I am now."

Pictured: (Above) Shoemakers display a handmade leather shoe from Nisolo's manufacturing headquarters in  Trujillo, Peru.  (Below) Nisolo showroom at the company's corporate office in Nashville, Tennessee.