Olandria Carthen said she is finally experiencing financial freedom.

As AFROTECH™ previously told you, the Decatur, AL, native previously worked as an associate sales specialist at Otis Elevator until July 2025. She is now living out her dreams, including modeling down a runway, and is booked and busy with a slew of brand deals as a result of her time on “Love Island USA” Season 7.

As keynote speaker during the Her Conference “Butterfly Tour” stop at Texas A&M University, Carthen credits her friends for running her social media and creating a professional email on her behalf while she was in the villa. With brands reaching out during the show, she was able to come back to thousands of requests for partnerships.

Friends Set Her Up For Success

“My friends even made a professional email for me for brands to contact me while I was in the villa. They were emailing them back… Handling all of that,” Carthen said during the Her Conference event. “I came back to an inbox with over thousands and thousands of brand partnerships. So as soon as I got my manager I was like ‘Here’s my inbox.'”

She continued, “My friends literally set me up for success. All of these brand partnerships you see like getting like out the gate, they did that.”

Her partnerships include:

• Microsoft
• NYX Cosmetics
• Aveeno
• Vaseline
• Sweetgreen

“Being able to actually experience financial freedom, it’s something I’ve always wished,” Carthen expressed on stage.

Funding Her Studies At Tuskegee University

Carthen’s pride in her friends mirrors her enthusiasm for Tuskegee University, which she highlighted in her partnership with Microsoft, promoting its Copilot, an AI-powered assistant. According to her LinkedIn, she graduated in 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in logistics, materials, and supply chain management.

Growing up in a single-parent household and as the first in her family to attend college, she said she had to figure out much of student life on her own. This also included paying for college. She recalled having to get creative because she was “broke” at the time.

This included calling an old landlord to get work cleaning rentals for about $200 here and there, she said. Since graduating high school, she spent her summer working 12-hour shifts at a plant, the same job her mother, Felicia, had. Carthen shared that this taught her to work hard so she could have better opportunities with a college degree. But keeping busy to cover her college expenses also contributed to her not securing an internship until her senior year of college.

“I would continue to push myself every single day until I got the degree,” Carthen told the audience.

Determined, Carthen even wrote letters to request financial assistance.

“Back then it’s like, ‘How am I supposed to come up with this?’… I would like write letters,” she mentioned on the panel. “I would print out my transcript, I would print out my balance and I’d write a note like, ‘Hey, I’m Olandria Carthen. I’m from Alabama first-generation college student. Here’s my grades. Here’s my student ID number. Here’s the number to the bursar (the office that collected tuition at her college). All I need is a chance. I want to get my degree. No one in my family is able to do this. Can you help me? You don’t have to give the money to me’… I kid you not, y’all. I would check my account every single day. Balance is cleared, paid.”

She received support from Tuskegee University’s financial aid as well, which she visited frequently. “Money was flowing,” she admitted. The office helped her find unclaimed scholarships that she qualified for so she could apply them toward her balance. She also received assistance from locals and school alumni who had scholarships.

“Where there is a will, there is a way,” Carthen expressed to the Her Conference attendees. “I didn’t come from money. So, it’s like I have to get in how I could get in.”