Open Heart, Open Arms

Besley, at center with husband Robert, and their children (from left) Conner, a U.S. Naval Academy freshman; Luke, a high school sophomore; Kyle, a high school senior; and Lily, a high school freshman.

Photos courtesy of Leslie Beasley

FALL 2018 | DIVIDENDS

INTEGRITY

Open Heart, Open Arms

By Carolanne Roberts

Leslie Connor Beasley knows how to draw a listener into a story, almost as if she’s painting a lush portrait with shades of detail or describing an action movie filled with pathos and drama. But paintings and films are not reality; Beasley’s tales are true. And they are testimony to how a Mississippi State business education can be used for the good of others.

One such story she shares is about Odile, a woman from the Congo with five children, whom Beasley met and happily hired for her startup venture, Open Arms, that enables refugees in Austin, TX, to earn living wages.

“In the middle of the night, Odile’s village got pillaged by rebels, so she ran away into the darkness,” relates Beasley. “She took nothing but her children, got separated [permanently] from her husband and wrapped her own shirt around a relative’s baby – born as they fled – so the small group could keep moving.”

She adds, “Odile stayed on the run and in hiding for a year.”

Beasley stops, still overwhelmed at the ability of the human spirit to triumph over adversity. When she connected with Odile, the Congolese family had been transplanted to its new, confusing life in Texas. Open Arms made all the difference.

Odile, the first hire, learned sewing skills to produce fashion pieces from recycled t-shirts. Ultimately, she earned enough to obtain a mortgage on her own home.

The money earned by employees of Open Arms means more than material goods, Beasley claims. It also means dignity for these women, who come from South Sudan, North Sudan, Congo, Nepal and beyond.

“None of them wants to be dependent; each wants to provide for their families,” she says, “And to have a life of dignity and empowerment.”

Which leads to another story.

“Two of our women from North and South Sudan were widows,” she says. “One was Muslim, the other Christian, and their husbands had been killed in a conflict where the two religions were fighting one another – yet these women worked side by side at Open Arms and helped each other.”

Beasley loves the outcomes.

“This is a big part of my story and a big part of my heart,” she says, noting that she has always been led to help those in need. “My own family knew it when I was a little girl. I’d say, ‘That’s not fair!’ if I saw an injustice. Later – after I moved past wanting to be a dolphin trainer – I pictured myself running the Red Cross. By college, I chose business so I could take [my business training] into the non-profit world.”

COLLEGE OF BUSINESS | MISSISSIPPI STATE UNIVERSITY

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Beasley, at center with husband Robert, and their children (from left) Conner, a U.S. Naval Academy freshman; Luke, a high school sophomore; Kyle, a high school senior, and Lily, a high school freshman.

Beasley earned two business degrees at Mississippi State – an undergraduate degree in marketing in 1986 followed by a management-focused MBA. Those degrees were invaluable as she established Open Arms.

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“There I was at Mississippi State going through the College of Business, and I instinctively believed having a business degree would help me do work for social change,” she says. “When I established Open Arms, my business background was everything. The learning turned out to be so essential – the efficiencies, the marketing, the branding, the budgeting, setting up the systems – all of that came from my business courses. I particularly drew on the practical experiences we did during the MBA.”

MISSISSIPPI STATE UNIVERSITY | COLLEGE OF BUSINESS

The business curriculum also taught change, growth and opportunity. Those elements came into play two years ago when Open Arms shifted its model to contract manufacturing – producing products for companies like Ikea Foods rather than the earlier model of selling directly to consumers. The company now operates under Austin’s Multicultural Refugee Coalition, and Beasley has turned her talents to other efforts for good.

The mother of four, one of them an adopted daughter from China, serves as President of the Miracle Foundation, a non-profit organization that focuses on children living in orphanages around the world and aims to end institutional care of children by 2040.

“I have been a missions coordinator in the past and agreed to take on the role of leading this global initiative,” she says. “We’ve learned from hard data that growing up in institutions is the worst way to grow up.”

Beasley shares a laugh with the other ladies of Open Arms.

Beasley shares a laugh with the other ladies of Open Arms

DIVIDENDS | FALL 2018

FALL 2018 | DIVIDENDS

INTEGRITY

The goal of the Miracle Foundation is optimally to reunite children with their birth parents or, short of that, place them into family-like settings such as the foster home model. The news is good.

“Rwanda, which went through a terrible genocide, has agreed that orphanages are not the best idea for children,” Beasley says. “They stand as a beacon of light for other countries – they have deinstitutionalized and established family care. They did it. They did it! No more orphanages.”

Likewise, she notes, there’s been success in Romania and Moldova.

Through the Miracle Foundation, Beasley helps orphans in India and other countries across the globe.

She admits, though, “While we’re seeing a lot of courageous acts, there’s still a very long way to go in the world. It’s basically a human rights issue.”

Beasley says she draws her bottomless supply of energy from the people around her. At Mississippi State she agrees that she was the consummate “joiner.” More than that, she was a leader.

“I was a Roadrunner, an Orientation Leader for two years, President of the Bulldog Hostesses and President of Phi Mu sorority,” she shares.

In addition to jumping in, she listened and learned.

“I was deeply influenced by one of my mentors, Jimmy Abraham, who was in charge of Roadrunners and Orientation Leaders at the time,” she says, noting that his sayings still repeat in her head, guiding her along the right path. “He helped give me a sense of servanthood and appreciation for all the things that came along in my personal journey. He also instilled the deep sense of gratitude that I have for Mississippi State.”

This fast paced, conscience driven woman has journeyed to far ends of the earth – Uganda, Rwanda, you name it. She travels deep into villages and gets to know the people. It may seem worlds away from being MSU’s 1985 Homecoming Queen, but Beasley, amid the pomp, managed to add an element of her trademark social activism even to that honor.

“At the time, students escorted the Homecoming Court,” she says. “I wanted to be escorted by my dad. I was told no, that my escort must be a registered student, but I got routed to the President’s office, and he said yes. Since that day, I believe it’s only been fathers with their daughters – so I changed the tradition.”

Now she’s changing the world. Her own children have each traveled with her to Africa and have, as the mother puts it, “a good global perspective.”

As for the rest of us, this dedicated alumna suggests that we “start with what’s personal – there are so many places to be involved. Whether you’re helping your neighbor, your community, whatever you care about, plug in and give back. An opportunity doesn’t need to be across the world. It’s usually right over your shoulder.”

She continues, “I have this core belief that when others are better off, we are all better off. If you just take a stand for somebody or some group of people who are marginalized or oppressed, you get energized from that.

“What’s important is that you do something.”

COLLEGE OF BUSINESS | MISSISSIPPI STATE UNIVERSITY

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