From barista to CEO

Rahul Balami is the CEO of ReyRey Café and an accounting and finance double major at Wright State. (Photos by Erin Pence)

We talk a lot about going further at Wright State University. It’s not because it’s something we aspire to; it’s a reflection of who we are. We’re motivated to achieve and driven to dream. And we attract people to our community who aspire to achieve more. People like Rahul Balami.

Balami is a second-year accounting and finance major from Chitlang, Nepal, who has always believed that taking small steps forward will lead to big adventures — and his first step toward Wright State was an internet search.

“I first searched all over the U.S. and started focusing on Missouri and Ohio because of affordability,” said Balami. “I found Wright State and saw how the business college highlighted their student experiences, student opportunities and projects. And they had a student-run cafe. I knew I wanted to work there from the beginning.”

So Balami started taking steps. Before completing an English exam or applying to Wright State, he signed up to learn more about coffee during a gap year.

“I’m really passionate about coffee. I have been since childhood,” said Balami, and knowing a possible opportunity existed when he arrived at Wright State was more than enough reason for Balami to step through the doors of Nepal’s Himalayan Java Barista Coffee School.

It paid off. During his first semester at Wright State, he overcame some challenges and landed the job he wanted.

Rahul Balami started his Wright State journey behind the counter at ReyRey Café and, within a year, advanced from barista to CFO and then CEO of the student-run business.

“My English wasn’t great, but professors were supportive and there was a lot of other help,” said Balami. “And when the students saw how passionate I was about coffee and was an international business student, they hired me as a barista my first semester.”

From there, it was Balami’s drive and character that led the way. After witnessing his work, care and kindness with customers, intelligence, and drive, he was named chief financial officer.

His work conducting cost analysis and streamlining budgeting helped improve profits for the business, and in one more semester, Balami was selected as the leader and CEO of ReyRey Café, which celebrated its 10-year anniversary and new location in Dunbar Library in January.

Wright State is the perfect size for opportunities like this to happen, but they don’t happen to just anyone. You definitely have to take the right steps. And even though he seemed to make it happen incredibly fast, it started with small steps in Nepal.

It’s a lesson that Balami learned from his own family: his father, a small-business owner, and his mother, whom he describes with a smile as a traditional — but very independent — woman who does a lot of service work, farms and gardens.

Balami said he won’t see his family in person until he graduates with his two majors in 2028, but he is already taking his next steps forward from ReyRey Café. Although he will complete this semester as CEO, he’s already begun an accounting internship that he learned about from an accounting lecturer who is a regular at the cafe.

“I’ve loved working at ReyRey, but I need to explore. I need to expand my limits,” said Balami, who hasn’t decided what his final destination will be. “I’m still exploring my decisions, but I don’t have to decide that now. I just need to determine what I can do better today.”

Someone’s mom is probably very proud right now.