MacKenzie Bush wants students to “fuel your dream”

While most college seniors are thinking about their first job after graduation, MacKenzie Bush was imagining something different.

“Many times when we graduate college, we’re told you have to jump right into corporate America, get a job right away,” Bush said. “And I was like, wait a second, I want to go see the world. I want to travel.”

About a year ago, Bush started posting about her travels on TikTok under the name @fuel.your.dream. The name is a nod to “Fuel The Dream,” the slogan of the coffee company Rocketcup Coffee. 

Bush said she reinterpreted the slogan, imagining it not only as the meaning that caffeine can ‘fuel’ you, but using it as a reminder to go after your dreams.

 “‘Fuel your dream’ really means to expand on what your soul is telling you to do,” Bush said. 

After seeing other solo backpackers on TikTok, she was inspired to try it herself. Once she graduated from St. Bonaventure University she took off for Europe, Colombia and anywhere else she wanted to go. Solo traveling taught Bush how to be more confident and independent, realizing she could travel and explore any country on her own.

“You have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. When I started to travel, I realized this really quick,” She said. “It is so uncomfortable and then you just keep going and it becomes so amazing and you meet so many different people from all over the world.”

On her trip to Colombia, though inspired by friends who had previously backpacked there, she recognized there was another motive for her visiting the country.

“I was able to come back to RocketCup and really bring the cultures that I met, especially in Colombia and Brazil where our coffee is from. I got to tell the stories and say things like ‘meet the farmers’ and [tell the farmers], ‘Okay, well, I have this coffee company back in New York and this is what we’re doing,'” said Bush.

The idea of RocketCup Coffee started in an entrepreneurship class at St. Bonaventure University, originally called “Revitalized Coffee Company.” The idea was for a coffee brand that focuses on revitalizing communities. 

Bush joined her former professor, Tom Cullen, to turn a student concept into a real business. 

In the past year and a half, Bush said they’ve opened two cafes, one in Olean, NY and another in Cattaraugus, NY as well as a roastery and a speakeasy.

Then their idea evolved, and Bush said their realization that the coffee brand started in a college classroom morphed into the idea of “college coffee.” They then started creating officially branded bags of coffee for universities. 

“We did a branded coffee bag for St. Bonaventure,” Bush said. “We got the trademark and the licensing with the school. We launched it and it was amazing. And then we started thinking, wait a second, I think this would be really cool in other colleges.”

A Buffalo New York native, Bush started reaching out to other universities, starting with University of Buffalo.

“I didn’t really know what I was doing but I was just going to try. I went to [University at Buffalo] and Niagara [University] and Syracuse [University] all in like the matter of two days,” she said. “Those were my first three schools that I went to to go and try to find the trademark and licensing person and just kind of figure out how to do some market research about how it works getting products into schools like Syracuse.”

Before launching in Syracuse, Bush said RocketCup Coffee partnered with United Way, for a local Day of Caring.

“They were painting a wall that day, somewhere in the city of Syracuse, I’m not sure where,” She said. “They brought cold brew and they were handing out free coffee to all the workers and it was just an amazing day.”

Bush and the team at RocketCup Coffee plan to continue building connections with alumni and student organizations.

“We recently signed a couple more colleges. We’re working on collaborating with more colleges coming soon,” she said. “Working with the students and giving back to the school…and giving back to the communities at the universities.”

One way RocketCup Coffee is giving back is with every bag bought, a percentage goes back to the university itself. 

“We’re just really hoping to grow the communities and give back to the communities at the universities since this is a university company,” Bush said. “We’re really excited about the possibilities.”

You can find Syracuse RocketCup Coffee at Manny’s on the Hill or on the RocketCup Coffee’s Website.