Uncontainable Ambitions

Maria Sartin ’24, an international student from New Zealand and recently-graduated business major, started an athletic clothing line in her dorm room and won Concordia’s annual Business Plan Competition this spring. Now she is aiming to represent her home country in the 2028 Olympics in track and field. “I’m really excited,” Sartin says. “My goal since childhood has been to represent New Zealand in the Olympics. That’s what I’m aiming for. Then I will focus on my business.”

Sartin hails from Hamilton, New Zealand, an hour south of Auckland. Her parents run a business that imports American foods to sell to supermarkets and corner stores. Sartin worked in the family business from a young age and dreamed of coming to the U.S. to attend college and run track. While her father is from Texas and she has family in that state, she fell in love with Concordia University Irvine during a visit. “Everyone was so friendly, and being a Christian campus and the purpose behind it was so cool,” she says. “It was my top option after that.”

She enrolled at Concordia in 2020, joined the track team and soon set the school record for 400 hurdles outdoor, 400 meter indoor, 4x400 indoor and outdoor, and the distance medley relay indoor. “We had the fastest hurdle crew at Concordia,” she says. “Three of us were provisional qualifiers for NCAA DII nationals, which is unheard of. Our 400 hurdle crew — which included Karen Best, Bethany Smithert and Madison Fearon — was ranked number two in the nation for the majority of the season.”

Better yet, says Sartin, her coaches were “great in developing my faith and challenging me as a person. It was one of the biggest reasons I committed to Concordia. I loved how faith is shared in the classroom and on the track as well. My coaches always applied things of faith and challenged me to grow in my faith. Being surrounded by a supportive community helped me grow as a person. My character has grown so much at Concordia in every way.”

As a business major, Sartin was also competitive in the classroom. During her freshman year she started an activewear line for women to promote positive self-image. She named the brand “Uncontainable.” “It goes with my lifestyle and values,” she explains. “I saw a gap with women feeling this need to be something society told them or others told them. I started Uncontainable to celebrate their uniqueness, to bring women together and get rid of the limiting beliefs that stop them from being uncontainable.”

The brand is about more than just clothing and seeks to advance a traditional Maori concept called hauora which speaks of spiritual, mental, physical, and social well-being. “I want to create a community for women to come together through social media or in-person to meet friends who support one another and encourage one another in the pursuit of their dreams,” Sartin says.

Her active-wear is brightly-colored, comfortable and stretchy, made from high-quality materials. When she launched it in fall 2020 she kept her products in her dorm room and had a try-on rack so students could wear the apparel before buying it. When orders began to come through her website, Sartin printed labels and shipped products via the campus mail room. She runs two arms of the business, one serving U.S. customers, one serving New Zealand customers. “I like to make products that look flattering on people,” she says.

She even created custom pieces for the Concordia track team and tennis team with Isaiah 40:31 printed on them, which reads: “But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.”

This year, Concordia’s annual Business Plan Competition seemed a natural opportunity for Sartin to refine her business plan and present it to judges for assessment. “I was trying my best to win it, as was everyone else,” she says.

In the competition, students spend several months developing various aspects of a business plan including a summary about the problem their idea solves, the specific market it serves, a marketing plan and full financial plan for spending the money they propose to raise, and projections on earning revenue and profit. Competitors give both short-form and long-form presentations to a panel of judges, answering questions. First place this year took a $2,500 prize, second was awarded $1,500, and third received $1,000.

Karl Hoenecke, interim dean of the School of Business & Economics, got to know Sartin when he served as her advisor for the competition. “The thing that struck me was she is incredibly poised when she speaks,” Hoenecke says. “She is very committed to her business and can speak easily about what she is trying to accomplish. The fact that she launched a business from her dorm room is the most remarkable thing, and it’s something we’re excited about and want to foster.”

Against admirable competition, Sartin came out on top, all while running track and being a full-time student. “The judges liked the whole community aspect of developing it into more than an active-wear brand,” she says. “I was really happy when I won because my competitors did so well. It was a great opportunity to develop ideas more and get clarity on my future direction.”

Because of her experiences at Concordia, Sartin feels more prepared to run a business. “I have more insight and critical thinking,” she says. “My Concordia professors were really great. They shared their personal stories of their businesses and how I can incorporate things into mine. The whole faculty at Concordia are there because they want to help students learn. They’ve had their own businesses and worked corporate, and genuinely care about the students. I highly recommend the business program.”

During her four years at Concordia, Sartin also served as president of the International Business Club and worked at the CU Active gym. As for her athletic goals, she missed qualifying for nationals in the 400 hurdles this year by 0.09 seconds, but her dreams remain alive as she has one more year of eligibility for track, and will run this coming season while earning her MBA at a Division I school in Arizona. She recently came in second in the 400 hurdles at the New Zealand championships and is going to Fiji this summer to represent her home country in the Oceania championships. Competing in the 2028 Olympics “is definitely possible with a lot of hard work and sacrifice,” she says.