A freshly planted coffee tree takes four years to bear fruit. Like wine, it’s a crop that rewards perseverance. “We live such a fast-paced life that we forget that change takes time,” says Angelique Sina MA ’14. “For us to really transform, we need to be patient. I think that’s what’s balancing me.”

After earning her degree in communications, Sina was a special assistant on Capitol Hill and a consultant with the World Bank before cofounding the nonprofit Friends of Puerto Rico. Under that umbrella, she has begun programs to nurture young and women entrepreneurs, an ecotourism venture, and now a Puerto Rican social impact coffee brand, Café Ama Love. The company began selling a specialty blend of its Arabica coffee—the Congressional Reserve Blend—at the U.S. House of Representatives in July. Sales feed into scholarships for women and children.

Sina recalls that her mother’s family had a coffee tree because it was less expensive than buying beans. In the mainland U.S., she was struck to see blends in cafes that support developing countries. “I would always think, oh my gosh, no one thinks of Puerto Rico and we grow coffee! We’re closer and we have a higher poverty level sometimes than these countries. We need to let people know about our culture and our people, and also be in places of influence or otherwise we could be totally forgotten.”

So when looking for a funding route that wasn’t dependent on grants, coffee came naturally to mind. “I was thinking I would do something different, and coffee was a way of going back to our roots, what we were known for,” Sina says. “We can do so many things regardless of how small we are.”