Lauren Jordan’s skin-care company, Lo Jordan Esthetics, is located in the Corner Spa 7 in University City. (Photo by Derik Holtmann)

For Lauren Jordan, timing hasn’t always lined up, but her motivation to create a better life for herself and her two children has never wavered.

At every step along the way – a journey with big ideas still on the horizon – Jordan has powered forward with determination, whether that next important step involved something challenging, like going back to school to advance her education, or essential, like being a good mother or scary, like stepping out to start her own business.

This summer Jordan, a senior in the University of Missouri–St. Louis’ College of Business Administration, was awarded a scholarship named the Women’s Transformational Leadership Grant.

“Transformational” is a pretty spot-on way to describe Jordan’s journey.

Now, Jordan runs her own skin-care business – Lo Jordan Esthetics – where she’s able to set her own schedule, allowing for time to take classes at UMSL while caring for her kids.

Getting to this point was a winding path full of potential roadblocks.

She worked in the food service industry as a hostess and server, earned an associate degree from St. Louis Community College–Forest Park in 2017 and worked her way up from front desk associate to assistant manager at a spa. She then finished the esthetician program at Grabber School of Hair Design before earning an associate degree in business administration at St. Louis Community College–Meramec in 2023.

Jordan had enrolled at UMSL after finishing at Forest Park, but the timing wasn’t right with two small kids and a full-time job where her schedule was determined by somebody else.

Jordan has always been moving forward, even when the progress might have felt stagnated. The aptly named scholarship is a big budgetary help along the way.

“I did not think that I would get it, but I’m shocked and thankful that I did, especially one of that size,” she said. “I had never gotten a scholarship before. With my essay, I really tried to write from the heart, to show how this truly can affect me. I have been through a lot, so I was just trying to portray that this money would actually really matter to me.”

Jordan, who is pursuing her bachelor’s degree in business administration with a minor in entrepreneurship, is quick to thank the faculty members who took an active role in her scholarship quest.

“When I first came here, one of the things that stood out was I could tell how professors at UMSL want you to succeed,” she said. “We have all these programs and tutoring and other things, but you can tell the teachers here really, actually care about their students. I really appreciate that.”

That supportive, helpful environment was something Jordan noticed right away in her first UMSL experience, and a big reason she came back after she carved out an opportunity by starting her own studio and setting a more flexible schedule.

“Being here has reignited my fire, like when I went to esthetic school, and I was really excited to heal my skin,” she said. “I’m really excited to learn about more in-depth things that I don’t know. You think you can go to YouTube University and read this book, read that book, and you’ll get all the answers. But you come back to school and you realize that this is why people go to school, because it gets laid out for you. They tell you the important stuff.”

For Lo Jordan Esthetics, Jordan rents a room at the Corner Spa 7 on Delmar Boulevard in University City that’s owned by her friend and mentor Verniece Bailey, whom Jordan affectionately calls “my fairy godmother.” She sees clients by appointment Friday through Sunday. One of her favorite parts about owning her own company – aside from setting her own schedule – is being able to build relationships with her clients, instead of constantly creating turnover in a more socially sterile environment like at her previous job.

“I want to be different. I want to stand out,” she said. “I feel like you have to connect with your clients in order to do that, on different levels too. People come back to you because you get some type of feeling, and that’s what’s most important. You can give great service, but if you don’t help them solve an issue, or if they don’t feel that connection, they’re not going to come back. They’re going to find something else. I can really give them a customized regimen with their skin, and really dig deep into not just skincare, but their life as well.”

Jordan sees a degree from UMSL as a way to show other people what she’s always known about herself: She’s someone who is driven to accomplish great things in life.

“Being a young mom and going back to school for my bachelor’s, I feel like I had something to prove because I had kids young, and a lot of people were judgmental, and I didn’t have a lot of support,” she said. “I’ll never settle or give up on the lifestyle I want for myself and my kids.”

It lends credibility to her business, too.

“Right now with skincare, anybody can get their esthetic license to start a studio business, but I want to go beyond that,” she said. “I love skincare. I love helping my clients heal their skin and give them that nice flow, but I want to start other businesses. My sister, she’s a tattoo artist, so we want to open up our own space together.”

And that’s another benefit to earning a business degree from UMSL. With the lessons learned and connections made, she’s starting to see other possibilities open up.

“I want to get into real estate, and I want to also teach financial wealth and literacy to our community,” she said. “I just want to help people build businesses and do it the right way. I feel like something that’s lacking in the beauty industry is professionalism. You can tell when people aren’t in tune with their clients, they’re just doing it for money. I just also really want to teach that aspect, the business side aspect of it, because that’s really important.”

Jordan wants to use her journey of transformation to help others transform their lives, too. That’s very scholarship-worthy.