Alumni have founded companies ranging from digital marketing to young feminist publications to cross-cultural cuisine.
Ashley Xie, Rooted Fare

Ashley Xie (MS ’20, Food Studies) is the co-founder of Rooted Fare, which was founded in 2021 and makes modern pantry staples by incorporating conventional Chinese ingredients with innovative flavors and textures from American cuisine. For example, the Rooted Fare’s Crunchy Black Sesame Butter reimagines the flavors of a traditional Chinese dessert called tang yuan as a spreadable nut butter.
Xie and fellow co-founder/childhood friend Hedy Yu were named to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Food and Drink category. The company’s other spreadable products include Pineapple Cake Cashew Butter and Chinese Almond Cookie Butter, and they also run workshops in Los Angeles on how to make traditional tang yuan.
“As second-generation Chinese Americans, we grew up in two worlds that were sometimes hard to navigate,” the pair says on their website. “There were so many ‘American’ things we loved, but in an effort to prove our ‘American-ness’ and be cool, we sometimes hid or rejected our family’s language and traditions. As we got older and went to college, we realized how little access we had to our food and culture and started to appreciate our Chinese heritage more—our moms’ food, Asian grocery stores, Chinese language. We began to connect with this part of ourselves, especially through food, and were inspired to create something both Chinese and American, like ourselves, that we could be proud of.”
Learn more about Rooted Fare in this blog post written by the co-founders.
Sarah Nesheim, Crafted

Sarah Nesheim (BS ’17, Media, Culture, and Communication) is the co-founder of Crafted, a drive-to-retail marketing platform that helps companies—especially small businesses—use digital marketing to drive in-store sales. Nesheim and fellow co-founder Todd Baldwin were named to Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Marketing and Advertising category.
Since 2021, Crafted has helped their clients run performance-based, retail-focused influencer campaigns to increase visibility and awareness, as well as leverage user-generated content to amplify the company’s brand on various social media platforms. Crafted specializes in retail, food, and beverage content and works with clients from large companies like Trader Joes, Entenmann’s, and Jack Daniel’s to smaller brands like Hella Cocktail Co. and Soom.
Chloe Xiang, Keke Magazine

courtesy of Chloe Xiang
Chloe Xiang (BS ’22, Media, Culture, and Communications) is the founder and editor-in-chief of Keke Magazine, a New York-based youth feminist magazine that challenges female stereotypes and instead works to portray women and girls as they really are.
“NYU and the Media, Culture, and Communication program greatly shaped my trajectory in media,” says Xiang in a recent Q&A article about her appointment to the Forbes 30 Under 30 Media category list. “Through my intimate study of various media, I not only traced the transformation of how we communicate but developed a critical understanding of how to view the information shared with us and how we can challenge it. These insights empowered the mission I came to college with: to make news and cultural coverage more equitable, nuanced, and representative of diverse voices.”
In addition to her role at Keke, Xiang is the social media manager at The New Yorker, where she manages multiple platforms for a total of 26 million followers.
Related Articles
Media, Culture, and Communication Alums Named to Forbes' 30 Under 30 List
Sarah Nesheim (BS ’17) and Chloe Xiang (BS '22) were recognized.
With 'Copy,' Alum Taylor Stout (BS '21) Cultivates Digital and IRL Communities
Taylor Stout, “literary it-girl” and co-founder of 'Copy,' credits the Media, Culture, and Communication major with instilling a desire to build spaces that cultivate community.
Helping Asian Americans Cook the Foods They Crave Most
The NYU Entrepreneurial Institute highlighted Rooted Fare, a startup co-founded by Food Studies alum Ashley Xie that partners and profit-shares with immigrant chefs to make Asian sauces for homemade dishes.