What started as a friendly relationship online, led to a love connection spanning from coast to coast for Cameo Torres ’23.
The nearly 3,000-mile distance between her and her boyfriend, Malcolm Wheaton ’19 & ’20, was a major hurdle in their budding relationship. She was living in the Pacific Northwest, while he was pursuing his degree at SUNY Potsdam, and it was time for them to close the gap.
“I was in Washington, and I was like, ‘You know, I think I’m ready to go back to school, I’ll go to SUNY Potsdam.’ The area isn’t as different as some people would think. It still felt like home, which was comfortable for me,” she said.
In 2019, she moved to northern New York and immediately enrolled at SUNY Potsdam to pursue a degree in business administration—the first step toward her dream of one day owning and operating her own cannabis bakery. Torres took one business class after the next, creating, and refining business plans for her future bakery. “In multiple classes, we had to write business plans, and that was exactly the business I chose every single time, from the moment I was a freshman. Each time it was more detailed with more information,” she said.
From accounting and marketing to a course specifically focused on cannabusiness, she continued to expand her understanding of what it takes to become an entrepreneur. One professor in particular, Dr. Christa Haifley, had a significant impact on her success. “I absolutely loved her classes. I was not the greatest accounting student, but I kept taking accounting courses because I wanted to be in her classes,” she said.
When she heard about Haifley’s Cannabusiness class, it was the perfect combination—her favorite professor teaching a business course about the cannabis industry. “I loved the class. I thought it was cool to not only learn the history behind cannabis, but how it’s moving forward now,” she said.
With so many legal issues surrounding the new industry, she learned about best practices for launching her new business. “I want people to know what’s in my baked goods. I’ll be using cannabutter and cannaoil, and you will be able to see exactly where the oil and butter are from,” she said.
Torres has excelled as a student at SUNY Potsdam, landing on the President’s List her final three semesters in a row, while working extensively in the Lougheed Center for Applied Learning. Leaning on skills from her marketing classes, she proved to be a vital resource in the department, helping to promote student services ranging from internships and study abroad opportunities, to assistance with resumes and career services.
During her final semester, she used social media as a tool to engage with her classmates, and hatched an entertaining plan to showcase international study abroad opportunities through a stuffed animal's journey. She partnered with Simisola Macaulay ’23 before her trip to Paris and Tanzania, and they made plans for Macaulay to bring Asra, a fuzzy sidekick wearing a Potsdam jacket. “She took pictures of him as he traveled around the world with her, and I posted them online,” Torres said. “It was fun showing everybody that this is what you can realistically do.”
Torres received her degree in May, and has already landed a job as a marketing specialist at SeaComm Federal Credit Union in Massena where she will be working on print advertisements and assisting with their Pay-It-Forward program, the latter of which is designed to assist the local community through random acts of kindness.
Torres views her time at Potsdam as a launchpad for her career. “Once I knew I wanted to start my own bakery, I was like, ‘Ok this degree is part of an investment in my business, this is step one,” she said. “There will be multiple steps, but SUNY Potsdam was my first investment.”
Article by Jason Hunter