Issue link: http://tcnj.uberflip.com/i/1545320
31 SUMMER 2026 impressed enough to offer Ogbonna a full-time role at Little Words only a few months later. As vice president of community impact, Ogbonna creates partnerships with nonprofits like Sad Girls Club, which provides mental health resources to women of color, the Stork Foundation, which offers financial support to people who can't afford the staggering costs of IVF, and F*ck Cancer, which promotes early cancer detection. Generally, those partnerships involve creating custom bracelets, with $5 from each sale going to the nonprofit. From its days in the dormitory, before it was a brand or had a name, Little Words has always been about making a difference, so the partnerships Ogbonna builds are as essential to the company as the jewelry it sells. "I call her my consiglieri," Carrig says of Ogbonna. "She's the person I can go to morning, noon, or night." Thank you to our donors Because of you, TCNJ is stronger. Whether you gave through scholarships, academic programs, athletics, or transformative student opportunities, your generosity has made a meaningful impact across our entire campus. Thank you for walking alongside our students on their journeys and for your continued investment in the future of the college. For additional information, please contact the Office of Development at 609.771.2218 or tcnjfund@tcnj.edu. Scan here to help us take TCNJ excellence to even greater heights. The fact that Carrig hired both her husband and her best friend makes perfect sense, given the company's ethos. "I think what makes working here really special is that most of us are friends," says Ogbonna. Carrig has learned to be what she calls "more precious about my time," doing her best to think about work when she's at work and to think about her family when she's with them. She's still, of course, the same person her husband describes as "someone who has insane optimism in her fingertips and can probably work harder than anyone." She just does it a little smarter now. To underscore that point, Carrig sticks out her wrist, where a stack of beaded bracelets acts as a collective cheering section, and stretches out one in particular so that its message is clear: "in the moment." ■ Leslie Garisto Pfaff writes for a variety of national and regional publications including The New York Times, Parents, and New Jersey Monthly. Peter Murphy is a frequent contributor to TCNJ Magazine, and if we were to bead a bracelet for him it would say "fine focus."