Jennifer Hoffer – Sports Editor
After his father’s funeral, Alex Audet said he struggled with life at hand and wasn’t sure what to do with himself. He said he knew he wanted to reach out and help others who are dealing with a loss. That’s when the idea sparked; Iron Path. Audet and his friends came together and decided they wanted to organize an outreach group for kids struggling in middle school, high school and college.
“We were all just eating pizza while watching Kevin Hart,” Audet said. “We had this idea that we’ve all struggled already and lost someone. We realized that students everywhere experience this, but there’s no national support network. This is a need that we are trying to fill.”
Audet said he wants Iron Path to eventually go national and international. He and his founders want to be and are trying to be that solution for students, to help them get through their struggles.
“We want to help them get through high school, and get through college,” Audet said. “We want them to ultimately have a future and get out of college and embark on their future careers without something holding them back.”
Iron Path was founded by Audet, who is the CEO of Finances and Operations and three of his friends; Anthony Huynh, executive vice president, Tyler Toto, chief executive of public and goal affairs and Theodor Tumba, president and CEO . Each student attends different universities ranging from the University of Bridgeport, to Pace University to UConn.
Iron Path was a name generated by both Tumba and Huynh. The name coincides with their mission which entails breaking down the walls of working in the community and helping people to get out of their negative mindsets and look at a positive future.
Each group member has a different, special message for the meaning of Iron Path and what it distinctively means to them.
Toto said Iron Path is the optimum path to your highest future.
“It means a chance to become your best and take on your most prominent opportunities to reach your fruitful future,” Toto said.
For Huynh, the iron represents the spiritual and mental fortitude that one has to cultivate to endure the journeys.
“The overall path represents the difficult journey that awaits all of us and the goal that is waiting there at the end of that path,” Huynh said.
Iron Path involves three main sectors, which include speakers, fitness, and scholarships.
Audet said their main sector is the speakers.
“We have motivational speaking all the time,” Audet said. “We reach out to schools and we connect with them, we go and speak for them. Our keynotes are usually about an hour long. They entail topics having to do with decision making and going to college and having a future after college.”
The group has a productive year to look forward to as, Audet said, they are planning conferences for the spring semester, two of which are located right here at Southern.
“We are speaking in Washington, D.C. on Dec. 25,” Audet said. “We are going to Los Angeles next semester, and speaking at many other schools.”
Iron Path also focuses on health and fitness. They have a website with forms to go on to check out. They also use social networking to help others for set goals and post testimonies and communicate about entrepreneurship and fitness.
The scholarship sector is an ongoing project, and is still in the works at this time.
“The scholarship is under wraps right now I can’t really talk about it now but its going to be awesome,” Audet said. “I’m really looking for support when we get it rolling and are able to get it on that national scale.”
The group has already been in contact with Apple Inc. and were offered a partnership with their outreach programs. Audet said they’ve gotten a lot of support from other companies, from emails from Apple, to emails from local companies like Pepe’s Pizza.
“We’re growing, we’re doing really well,” Audet said. “We’re going to start having staff meetings. I hope to write up a constitution over winter break and make Iron Path an official club on campus for motivational speakers.”
Each of the group members have dealt with some kind of loss themselves, whether it be an absence of a parent in their life or the sudden loss of a parent, family member or friend in the midst of their life.
Audet lost his father this past summer.
“I didn’t really know how to deal with it,” Audet said. “I grieved with my mom, I was there for her of course, but then I went right back to work, I’m not okay with losing my dad, but I’ve accepted it, I understand it, and I’m learning to live with it.”
Audet said starting up Iron Path helped him deal with his loss.
“Having my friends be there for me and being there for other people was really a big deal and played a large role in my growing process since my dad’s death,” Audet said.
As for the other founders, Tumba lost his father during his high school graduation.
Huynh grew up without a dad, and Toto lost his mom at a very early age.
“We’re all pretty familiar with the loss experience in the family,” Audet said.
Anthony Huynh’s story differs in that he has dealt with a loss his entire life. He grew up without a father and said while he was growing up he had a tough time dealing with it and filling that void.
“I became self destructive once I reached thirteen,” Huynh said. “I became involved with the street life because those people at the time were the only ones who showed me any love. The void wasn’t exactly filled, but it was numbed.”
Huynh said if it weren’t for Iron Path he wouldn’t know where he would be. It really moved him in the right mind set and got him back on track.
“Finding my best friends, my friends involved in Iron Path, and repairing my relationship with my mother helped a lot,” Huynh said.
Audet and his founders all have a mission set out for this company.
Tumba, a linebacker for the UConn Huskies, said that when they speak as motivational speakers, their goal is to ultimately influence the students and have them rethink the circumstances of their situations as positive.
“Reforging their determination and perseverance to succeed is key,” Tumba said. “From that they will gain the leadership skills that they need, which will then carry into their future careers and lives.”
Audet has met other motivational speakers that he said have helped him pursue this mission of beginning a business.
“I went to a business conference in California,” Audet said. “I think it means a lot when multi-billion dollar individuals with 400-500 companies tell young entrepreneurs like myself and others that their key to success was confidence and believing that they would succeed to get where they are. If I can hear that from them then, jeez, I could start a business then.”
Audet and his founders said they are very excited to see where this movement goes, and hopes the organization gets big. But they said they could use all the help that they can get.
“It’d be awesome for Southern students to be apart of this as it gets bigger and bigger,” Audet said. “I’d love for this to be the ground-zero front for Iron Path.”
As a motivational speaker himself, Audet said he is so passionate about reaching out to others, and hopes to transcend his motivational speeches to helping potentially save someone’s life.
“One thing I always tell others and remind myself of,” Audet said, “is it doesn’t matter how hard something gets and it doesn’t matter at all how bad you want something. It’s about the steps you take to get there. If you keep walking and know where you’re going, you’ll get to the same place either way. All it is about is if you have the drive and the dream to get there.”
