Sarah Levy, Owner, S. Levy Foods Sarah Levy didn’t know anything about sociology when she entered Northwestern University, but she knew that someday she wanted to start a bakery. After graduating from North- western with a major in sociology, she enrolled in Chicago’s French Pastry School and spent some time interning at local bakeries and restaurants. A year later she started her own bakery in her mother’s kitchen. Today Sarah owns and man- ages S. Levy Foods, which operates food concessions at air- ports in New York, Sacramento, Phoenix, and San Diego. Like many small-business owners, Sarah does anything and everything in a typical workweek, from consulting to blogging (“Simply Sweet”) and serving as brand ambassador for Callebut chocolate, Karo, and Fleischmann’s yeast. She is also the dining editor for Today’s Chicago Woman maga- zine. A gifted publicist, Sarah once participated in a Food Network chal- lenge that involved baking a three-foot animated dinosaur cake. Through Sarah’s Pastries & Candies, a bricks-and-mortar store she once owned in downtown Chicago, she contributed to several charities, including Meals TAKING SOCIOLOGY TO WORK on Wheels, Common Threads, and For the Love of Chocolate Foundation. Sarah saw the connection between business and sociol- ogy in her introductory sociology course, in which she used this textbook. Learning about how people interact, she says, has broadened her horizons and taught her how to step back and analyze a situation from a sociological perspective. “In my job, I am constantly interacting with people—employees, customers, vendors,” she explains. “I think one of my great- est strengths is my ability to get along with people from all sorts of backgrounds, and make everyone get along with each other and work together towards the same goal.” LET’S DISCUSS 1. Have you ever thought of starting your own business? If so, what do you think the key to your success might be? 2. Would business have been a more practical major for Sarah? Why or why not?