Andrea Pasquan Entrepreneur. Adventurer.

 

“I wasn’t trying to be nomadic,” Andrea Pasquan says almost near the end of our interview, but “that’s where life was kind of taking me.”  When she describes the past fifteen years of her life, though, after graduating from Azusa-Pacific College in 2004 to being hired as Angler’s Covey’s Executive Assistant in May of this year, she uses terms like “pilgrimage,” “mission,” and “big experience person.” And, oh, the experiences she has had.

 

 

From 2009-2010, Andrea volunteered with World Race, a Christian-based organization, and traveled to eleven countries in eleven months to do this work.  Each country presented a new challenge, a new opportunity. She worked with the homeless in Ireland and with women who had been in sex-trafficking in Thailand.  She worked with the organization again, in 2011, this time leading a trip with college-aged women to Thailand and Cambodia to again work with the women in the sex industry.  “In the end, this work felt like a pilgrimage,” she said. 

 

Upon her return to the U.S., Andrea spent time with friends in Tennessee as she transitioned back into American culture.  She made her way to Charlotte, North Carolina where she channeled her entrepreneurial energy to create a small business called Urbean.  She bought and, with help, converted a 1965 Airstream into a small, mobile boutique.  “It was a dream of mine to start this. I didn’t want to get too far down the road and then regret that I didn’t do it.”

 

 

Out of the boutique, she sold fair-trade goods made by artisans who have overcome dire conditions in their lives: poverty, prostitution, sex trafficking. “Every piece that I sell has a story behind it.”  Two years ago, though, a hurricane blew through Charlotte.  Her tow vehicle was crushed by a fallen tree.  And Andrea took it as a sign that maybe her six years in Charlotte were coming to an end.

 

She packed up her goods and headed west.  Her Urbean brand is now part of the Eclectic Co co-op, a multi-vendor co-op in downtown Colorado Springs. 

 

In May, she applied for the executive admin position at the Shop and was hired.  “I love how the staff is really a little family. That’s really cool.”  Andrea noticed that the people who come into the shop are “regulars, a community. They come into the shop and talk with the staff like they’re all buddies.” 

 

Andrea’s day-to-day job duties include assisting with purchasing, HR stuff, and compiling the e-blast as David Leinweber and Jon Easdon gather the content.  She gets opportunities to help with the marketing efforts and merchandizing – two of her creative outlets that blend some artistic touches with her business degree from Azusa. 

 

Her outdoor passions in the past have mainly been around hiking and backpacking, but if you hang around a fly fishing shop long enough… well, you learn how to fly fish.  Andrea has taken the intro to fly fishing classes the Shop offers because she wanted to experience what it takes to become a fly fisher.  “I was so impressed with how the instructors break it down.”  She’s been out a couple of times, now, and, from the looks of it, is getting into this adventure of fly fishing.

 

 

 “Angler’s Covey” she says,” is a good fit for me.”  Welcome to the family, Andrea!