K-State Alumnus Makes Waves in Manhattan with Advocacy for Entrepreneurs
April 21, 2025
Sheila Ellis-Glasper ’10, alumnus of Kansas State University, is impacting her community with entrepreneurialism and advocacy through her social media and branding agency SEG Media Collective, and through Black Entrepreneurs of the Flint Hills, a nonprofit she founded. As an alumnus of the A.Q. Miller School of Media and Communication, Ellis-Glasper has applied lessons she learned at K-State to build community and make an impact for Kansans and the nation.
Ellis-Glasper, who recently served as the commencement speaker for the Fall 2024 College of Arts and Sciences graduation ceremony, began at K-State in 2005, with a major in print journalism and mass communication. She chose K-State for several reasons, including the in-state cost, academic scholarships and the student-run newspaper, the Collegian.
“I could work for the student newspaper and student publications straight away my freshman year without having to wait,” Ellis-Glasper said. “Whereas at other universities, it’s a class that you wouldn’t take until you’re well into your major… I would have had to wait a couple years, and I wanted to get involved right away.”
Beginning in the entertainment and lifestyle section, Ellis-Glasper worked her way through the newsroom from page designing, writing on the campus desk and being campus editor, to becoming editor-in-chief. It was during her time at the paper and K-State that she learned her “power in advocacy” and found her voice.
“What I noticed was, when I was at the Collegian, there weren’t many students that looked like me. I ended up becoming the first black editor-in-chief of the student newspaper, and that would have been back in 2007,” Ellis-Glasper said. “But it wasn't enough for me to be the first, I wanted to bring other people with me and I wanted to figure out why I was the first, because this paper was 113 years old.”
She founded a campus organization called Diverse Mass Communicators that aimed to help minority journalists, and hosted panel discussions aiming to bridge the gap between student publications, student organizations and student leadership.
Having majored in print journalism, Ellis-Glasper said that she later made the transition to marketing and entrepreneurship because she wanted more control of her schedule. “I just decided [reporting] wasn’t the life that I wanted. And so, I got into entrepreneurship,” she said. “I also realized that I was providing a valuable service to these businesses that I was writing about; so I started my own business as a freelancer, writing press releases for businesses and promoting them on social media.”
Ellis-Glasper also explored other avenues of entrepreneurship through the creation of a handmade jewelry business, Precious Heart Designs. “I created an Etsy storefront at the time,” Ellis-Glasper said. “It was my training ground of learning entrepreneurship, and I was doing it all by my son's crib side. I had a little jewelry table next to his crib, and I would take pictures and post them on social media.” That business grew to ship Sheila’s creations across the world and earn celebrity endorsements and partnerships.
Ellis-Glasper founded SEG Media Collective in 2016 to strategize for businesses, implement their branding and manage their social media. “When I first started, I was trying to be like other agencies that I already saw,” she said. “I learned along the way that I write my definition of what I consider success for me. And when you're trying to be like other people, that's not success. So I had to decide along the way: ‘What do I want this company to be? How do I want the company to show up and serve?’”
Following the founding of SEG Media, Ellis-Glasper created a non-profit in 2021 called Black Entrepreneurs of the Flint Hills. BEFH aims to advocate for access to capital for entrepreneurs. Through the organization, Ellis-Glasper had a large part in the city’s creation of a revolving loan fund for the community. “Any entrepreneur can access up to $15,000 for startup costs for their business, at a four percent interest rate, and when they pay it back, it goes back into this community fund so the next person can access those dollars.
“What we’re looking at with BEFH is addressing the racial wealth gap,” Ellis-Glasper said. “The gap just keeps widening. White families have 10 times more wealth than black and brown families in this country. And the only way for us to address this wealth gap is to do something that's going to move the needle. Promoting entrepreneurship and ownership is a way to move that needle.”
BEFH continues to focus on decreasing wealth gaps in Manhattan and surrounding communities. “Investing in black-owned businesses...would inject an additional $200 billion dollars into the United States economy. These are real numbers. When you look at the numbers, why would you not invest where the biggest opportunity is?”
Ellis-Glasper’s advice to current students is to find your purpose and build your career around that purpose. “Find your voice and who you are first, because otherwise, you’ll always kind of be unsatisfied…You’ve got to find alignment in your purpose,” she said. “What makes you tick? What are the things in this world that are heartbreaking to you? If that thing impacts you that much, then that's how you know.”
About the A.Q. Miller School of Media and Communication
The A.Q. Miller School of Media and Communication’s mission is to develop “skilled, mindful, creative, and ethical communicators who elevate voices and stories, lead transformation and innovation and practice influence and advocacy for good.” In line with its mission and the Next-Gen K-State plan, the School of Media and Communication continues to offer high-impact co-curricular opportunities for students to hone their skills.