Women’s Summit 2013 was a daylong event of speeches, breakout sessions, and networking held at Cedar Crest College. This year I attended a breakout session that was exceptional from beginning to end.

Field fresh strawberry pies from Vegan Treats. Photo courtesy of Vegan Treats

The session was entitled “Dreams to Reality: Entrepreneurial Success Stories.” Sally Ullman, photographer, was the moderator and gave the introductions. All of the presenting women delivered great talks, but it was Danielle Konya’s interesting and humbling speech that really impressed me.

Danielle owns Vegan Treats, a vegan bakery located on Linden Street in Bethlehem. As she told us, she didn’t set out to be an award-winning bakery chef (which she is), she just wanted to stop eating anything that came from an animal. Her story, best told by herself, is heartwarming and sincere.

What I want to highlight is this: I believe that, although she didn’t know it, Danielle had all the ingredients of being a great entrepreneur all along. She has passion, energy, support, high energy, flexibility, integrity, and she’s a risk taker. She started out small and is still growing. She admits it’s not easy and it takes lots of hours but she is happy she did it. I wish her much success in the future.