Every year, high school graduates head out into the world and impact it in remarkable ways. Only two and a half years have passed since the Class of 2013 graduated from East Noble High School, but 21-year-old Brianna Lehman, one of its top ten students, has already built a success story of her own. It is found in a little coffee shop on the corner of Main Street and William Street here in Kendallville.

This blue-and-pink building is Joanna’s Dealicious Treats, which is named after its former manager, Joanna Deal. Lehman first started working here at the start of her senior year in 2012. She never imagined herself managing it just a few years later, and she never expected it to be so much work.

“The hardest part about running Joanna’s is keeping track of all of the moving parts,” Lehman said, “because there are so many different aspects to a food-based business, as opposed to, like, the Strand, because we operate on only goods. We don’t offer services, so if we’re out of coffee beans, I can’t make any coffee, [and] I need to make sure that I have enough whole milk and skim milk to get me to grocery shopping day, and I need to make sure that I make a coffee syrup order, so that it’s large enough so that we qualify for free shipping.”

Operating a small-town coffee shop requires much more than attention to details alone, though. Social skills and a genuine love for interacting with customers are both a must. In fact, Lehman’s favorite part of her job is meeting with customers on a weekly or daily basis. She knows a majority of her customer base by name and knows a greater percentage by drink. She knows to ask someone how the surgery of his or her loved one went, and she knows if someone is allergic to a certain type of milk or even if they dislike certain syrup flavors.

“Brianna does an amazing job providing the best service,” said former East Noble student and coffee shop regular Jaden DiGirolamo. “She serves every cup of coffee with a charming amount of humor and a smile.”

And that is her goal.

“In a market that tells customers that whatever they want is correct and [that] an employee has to bend over backwards to give them exactly what they want, I think it’s important to give customers a thing of value that they don’t expect, like a homey atmosphere and a good conversation, a welcoming personality,” she said. “Just kindness and patience and so many things that you don’t experience when you go to many food establishments. You know, people are in a hurry, and they don’t care to listen and really invest in the lives of people, but I think that’s the most important thing you can do, is invest in others.”

The interior of Joanna’s Dealicious is homey, all right. Situated in the old Klinkenberg Pharmacy, it boasts old-fashioned wood floors, a long emerald counter, alternating brown and blue barstools, and a staircase leading up to a loft that overlooks it all. Full bookshelves are built into the walls and bring the shop to life with alternating colors of teal and scarlet. A whimsical black ladder stretches from the floor to the ceiling on each wall and can be moved along the bookshelves. At the sight of them, customers tend to mention the library scene from Beauty and the Beast, Lehman’s favorite Disney classic.

Former East Noble student Birdena Graber, who completed her senior year at the end of first trimester, frequently stops by the coffee shop simply because she loves “the atmosphere and the coffee and cookies.”

“I’ve had many customers tell me that they feel very comfortable when they come in,” Lehman said, “and if I’m not working one day and someone else is, they’ll say that it just feels different. I pride myself on trying to make people feel at home. I never want to make anyone feel like they don’t belong or they’re not welcome, because they are welcome and I want to make them feel like their experience is a good one.”

Lehman added that she would love to see more teenagers stop by for a drink, cookie, or bowl of ice cream. She has used skills from her marketing college courses to expand the coffee shop’s presence on Instagram and Facebook. According to Lehman, Joanna’s number of followers has “increased quite a bit” on both social media platforms.

Lehman graduated in May of this year from Ivy Tech Community College. She obtained an Associate Degree in Business Management and independently paid for her schooling with the help of her earnings from the coffee shop.

“You can read about how to run a business and take college classes and do activities and projects, but there is nothing that will teach you more about running a business than actually running a business,” Lehman said. “I’ve really learned that it takes a lot of behind the scenes work—a lot of, you know, time off the clock to really get things done.”

On a slow day Lehman bakes around four dozen cookies, which are the size of a small dinner plate. On a busy day, however, she might make around eight dozen cookies, which include snickerdoodle, peanut butter, and (Joanna’s famous) chocolate chip. In addition to coffee and cookies, Lehman serves homemade soups and sandwiches, and she even sells more than half a dozen flavors of ice cream during the summertime. These are the gastronomic tools that Lehman uses to reach out to her community and to brighten the lives of other people.

She never thought that this is what God had in store for her.

“I was originally going into creative writing, and two weeks before graduation I just had an epiphany,” she said. “I changed my mind, and I wanted to be a small business owner, and so I, you know, changed my major to business administration, you know, despite all the people that mocked me and said, you know, ‘That’s the number one least-used degree in the world.’ Here I am, and I’m using it, and it’s amazing because I never would have thought that I would be, you know, manager of a small business, or do anything social—talk to people all the time. It’s very amazing what different opportunities can do to change your life.”

Choosing a career is no small decision. It is perhaps one of the largest choices a person can ever make. Lehman is well aware of this and has shared her story with a few struggling teens. She can relate.

“If you have an idea of what you want to do, don’t hold onto that idea too tightly,” she said. “If other doors open, pursue other opportunities. You know, it’s worth looking into because that might turn out to be something you love way, way more than what you thought you wanted to do.”

This barista is bursting at the seams with positivity and friendliness. She spends five or six days a week at Joanna’s Dealicious Treats, bustling from the kitchen to the counter to serve and to socialize with her customers, regulars and one-timers alike. It is not unusual to find her laughing with a customer at the counter.

Joanna’s is very dear to her heart. She has worked there for three years, and her fiancé, a fellow small business-runner whose family owns the coffee shop, proposed to her there one slow March afternoon earlier this year while she was working. Their wedding is this Saturday at St. John Lutheran Church. The future is bright for Brianna Lehman. She is doing what she loves and giving back to the community in which she was raised.

What greater story than this could she possibly share with her customers or classmates?