Meet Our Executive Director

Ariana Smith was born and raised in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and graduated from Shaker Heights. Upon graduation, she attended John Carroll University focusing on entrepreneurship and business management.

Growing up, Ariana loved finding different ways to serve her community, work with youth, and developed a strong passion for entrepreneurship. She was even selected as a Growing Up CEO Award recipient in 2009 and was sent to Boston, Massachusetts to receive the award.

By age 12, Ariana had launched her first business and began competing in business plan competitions in North East Ohio. Within a year's time, she was afforded several opportunities to travel and compete against other young entrepreneurs from across the country!

At the beginning of her professional career, Ariana spent over a decade working in the customer service industry while simultaneously educating students on the importance of literacy. It was during her time teaching, that she first realized she wanted to further her impact by starting her own nonprofit organization(MOTIVATE). She wanted to create a space where youth and adults could be provided with resources and opportunities that could be used to better their lives or further their community impact.

Ariana’s connection with youth has grown substantially within the last decade. As an educator, Ariana has worked to instill lessons focused on entrepreneurship, leadership development, and character building. In her roles as an educator, mentor, youth advocate, and coach, over 5,000 students have been impacted thus far. Ariana’s goal is to help to develop and empower leaders of all ages to positively impact our communities and ultimately change the world.

In addition to currently serving as MOTIVATE’s Executive Director, Ariana continues to educate youth on the importance of building an entrepreneurial mindset and has recently begun coaching youth and adults on best practices needed to take their businesses to the next level. She is also working on building a culturally relevant curriculum focused on entrepreneurship, life skills, and business coaching.