Julia Ford is the Manager of The Davenport Coffee Lounge, a student-run coffee shop at the School of International Service. A low-income student and first-generation college student, she hopes to see The Dav become a community for students to come together and find a sense of community.

Julia Ford sees community in everything, but she sees it strongest at The Davenport Coffee Lounge.

Ford, the manager of The Dav, a non-profit student-run coffee shop at the School of International Service, said she wants the coffee shop to promote community.

She was once a student employee, too. In 2019, her third year of studying journalism and theater at American University, Ford was offered Federal Work Study for the first time and applied to be a barista for The Dav. The coffee shop accepted Ford and it became her second home, she said.

“I come from a low income background. I’m a first-generation college student,” Ford said. “Before coming to The Dav, I never really found a place that I could call home at AU. I kind of felt like an outsider.”

Now at 25-years-old, Ford manages The Dav full-time.

Ford oversees a team of 47 students, she said. While she has two assistant managers to assist running the coffee shop, she is the only full-time staff member.

“I’m doing hiring, inventory, billing, ordering, equipment management and all that kind of stuff,” Ford said.

At times, the job can feel overwhelming, she said.

“There’s only so many hours in the day,” Ford said. “And I think we are really lucky that we are doing so well as a business — but at the same time, it makes it really hard to kind of keep track of what’s going on in there, just because we are always super crowded and stuff.”

The hiring process takes up a lot of Ford’s time. Over the summer, she reviewed 190 students’ applications for the fall semester. She ended up hiring six of them, a hiring rate of 3.2%.

With the heavy workload of hiring, billing and everything in between, Ford said she often finds it difficult to ask for help. This year more than ever, Ford has begun leaning on her staff, specifically the upperclassmen who have worked at The Dav for a few years, she said.

“It’s nice to have them step in and do some of that kind of admin work, but, yeah, I would definitely say just like, overall, it’s challenging,” Ford said.

Students help brainstorm and experiment with recipes for the drink of the month program, one of Ford’s favorite parts of the job, she said.

Each month, The Dav adds three new drinks to their menu in collaboration with on-campus clubs and organizations. The goal is to raise money for student-led initiatives and charitable causes, Ford said.

Ford said she played a big role in developing the program. When she began working at The Dav, they were raising money for clubs, like the club soccer team who were seeking new uniforms.

“When I took over as manager, I kind of saw that there was a disconnect, I think in general, just between the community at AU because of the pandemic, and there was also a lot of room for need,” Ford said.

Ford ramped up the number of drinks in the program and started donating to charities to help the campus community at-large.

“And so I kind of transformed the drink of the month program,” Ford added. “Now we partner with three groups every month. We raise money for charity and stuff, and we’ve raised thousands of dollars, which is super, super cool.”

Ford has also enjoyed designing and drawing the chalkboard signs for The Dav drinks of the month.

“It’s always so nice to have people walk by me and say ‘Oh my gosh, I love the sign!’” Ford said.

In the future, Ford wants to go back to school and pursue a creative career path. She has a wide range of interests, including queer studies, history and art, and would enjoy studying anything related to those fields, she said.

Aside from handling the logistics of The Dav, Ford is dedicated to fostering a welcoming environment.

“I think that it’s kind of cool because in SIS, there’s a lot of people coming through; not only students, but professors. People who are working at the school, people visiting the school,” Ford said. “And I think it’s really cool that we can have all these different jobs and come from all these different places in the world, but we can still connect over a cup of coffee.”

According to their website, staff members pride themselves on working hard to offer quality drinks with kindness.

That comes through as Ford trains her staff, too.

“I think something that I always emphasize to my staff is to have grace,” Ford said. “Both with yourself, with your co-workers and with the community.”

She believes that cultivating this mindset can transform the campus community.

“I think there’s a lot of times where simply getting a coffee can make or break your day,” Ford said. “And so I always just kind of tell them, ‘If you do get a customer that’s upset, or trying to take it personally, just give them a smile, give them what they ordered, and send them on their way.’”

Recently, she received a call from a Washington coffee shop where one of her graduates was applying for a job. The graduate had listed Ford as a reference for the application.

“At the end of the call, they were like, ‘I just want to say, I went to AU and I love The Dav so much, I always think of The Dav when I’m running this place,’ and so it’s definitely cool,” Ford said.

The call reminded her of the coffee shop’s broader influence.

“I think it’s kind of easy to forget that we do have an impact outside of the AU community, or the AU community at large,” Ford said.

Ford said that she loves when people tell her about the impact The Dav has had on their lives.

“I’ve had a lot of employees tell me ‘I was thinking of transferring out of AU, but I stayed because of The Dav,’” Ford said. “And so to be able to create that kind of community and to provide this space for kids who are just like me is so special.”

Correction: A previous version of the article said Ford is a first-generation American. She is a first-generation college student, not a first-generation American. 

This article was originally published in Issue 35 of AWOL’s magazine on November 19, 2024. You can see the rest of the issue here.