In this series of articles, we feature some of the members who make up our amazing sisterhood. They all come from different backgrounds and have different passions and talents, but they all share one commonality: They are Tri Delta.
Pree Walia, Northwestern, has always had strong connections with other women. The youngest of three sisters, Pree felt right at home living in the Tri Delta house for two years.
“I was surrounded by amazing, dynamic women,” she says of her time in the house. “We had different interests and aspirations, and there was a bond that really kept us going.”
Through Tri Delta, Pree learned how to support women and how to be supported by other women.
Her commitment to supporting women led her to founding Preemadonna, a smart female lifestyle company that focuses on girls and women by providing them with technology relevant to their lifestyle. One such piece of technology is the Nailbot — a nail art printing robot that allows women to instantly decorate their nails with their smartphones.
The idea came to Pree during a vacation in Spain when she was trying to get a manicure in an unfamiliar city. She wanted a device that would create nail art instantly, using something people always have on hand — their smartphone — as the controller. “I didn’t know how I was going to create it at the time, but I knew I was going to figure it out,” Pree recalls. “I knew women, I knew hardware, I knew how to build things from the ground up and how to raise money.” That’s precisely what she set out to do, and the result was the Nailbot.
But the Nailbot is much more than just a device used to create nail art — it also provides young girls with a platform to delve into programming and design.
“Right now teen girls and preteen girls are learning to program their own printers, and they’re learning how to digitally design using Photoshop and Illustrator,” says Pree.
A history and gender studies major, Pree might seem like an unlikely candidate for a venture in the tech world. She started her career working in politics before moving on to startups.
“In college I loved American political history. What I love about politics is that these people had a dream, a vision for the future, and they were able to build a coalition and campaign around it. It inspired me, and I decided I wanted to work in American politics — I wanted to make people’s dreams a reality.”
Pree worked in Washington, D.C., for a short time (while living with all Tri Deltas) before moving to Silicon Valley to work on a gubernatorial campaign. Afterwards, a mentor encouraged her to go to business school. After getting an MBA from the University of Chicago, Pree began doing marketing strategy and business development for startups.
For Pree the experience of working on political campaigns and the experience of working on startup ventures is similar: “Startups are very much like political campaigns — you’re building dream and a vision,” she says.
The vision Pree is building with her own company is the idea that being smart and feeling beautiful are not a contradiction.
“I love being smart and pushing my mind, and I love feeling beautiful,” she says, adding that feeling beautiful means different things to different people. “Preemadonna is a community for girls who are smart, beautiful, dynamic and creative. My company is built by girls for girls. Girls are helping us build the community, making it better. Tri Delta taught me how to support women and how to be supported by women — through Tri Delta I learned how to be better.”
There are more than 200,000 Tri Deltas around the world who make up our sisterhood. Tri Delta wants to hear from YOU! What makes you unique? Tell us on social media using the hashtag #IAmTriDelta.