When Doma Thapa arrived in Vermont in 2012, she had a high school diploma in hand but wasn't sure she'd find a job. A year later, she told her distant relative Chandra Pokhrel, "Uncle, I want to open my own store." Now in her twenties, the Bhutanese woman grew up in a refugee camp in Nepal. She attended cosmetology courses in that country and in India, then ran a small beauty shop in a market just minutes from the camp. In Vermont, Thapa's first job was at a soap factory. But later positions at beauty shops in Burlington Town Center and University Mall nurtured her desire to become an entrepreneur. Late last year, when Pokhrel, co-owner of Burlington Employment Agency, bought the building at 1 Intervale Avenue in the Old North End, he offered Thapa the opportunity to open her own shop. Today, Thapa's Threading Beauty Studio is one of half a dozen or so aesthetics shops run by Bhutanese women in the greater Burlington area. Since the first families from that community resettled in Vermont in 2008, the Bhutanese have made their mark on the local landscape with restaurants and clothing and grocery stores. So it's not surprising to see them making inroads in this area, too, said Ashley Michelle Fowler of Mercy Connections. Fowler is the nonprofit's communications and development associate and an instructor in the Women's Small Business Program. She sees the Bhutanese women's endeavors in the context of two decades of waves of immigration in Vermont. "What we see time and time again is that each refugee population from these different cultures tends to have an entrepreneurial bent, and they each take a different approach," Fowler said. "When the Bosnians first came in the '90s ... we started seeing more European restaurants," Fowler continued. "When the Vietnamese came, we saw an increase in nail salons and Vietnamese food shops and Asian markets." Likewise, women from various African countries have begun making products and selling them at farmers markets, she said. "It's a big responsibility owning a business," said Chandra Guragai, a Bhutanese woman who purchased a nail salon in Essex and reopened it last September as Creative Nails & Eyebrow Threading. For Thapa and Guragai, also in her twenties, it made sense to capitalize on previously acquired skills to establish a stable career. Both cited having more control over their working hours as key to…
When Doma Thapa arrived in Vermont in 2012, she had a high school diploma in hand but wasn't sure she'd find a job. A year later, she told her distant relative Chandra Pokhrel, "Uncle, I want to open my own store." Now in her twenties, the Bhutanese woman grew up in a refugee camp in Nepal. She attended cosmetology courses in that country and in India, then ran a small beauty shop in a market just minutes from the camp. In Vermont, Thapa's first job was at a soap factory. But later positions at beauty shops in Burlington Town Center and University Mall nurtured her desire to become an entrepreneur. Late last year, when Pokhrel, co-owner of Burlington Employment Agency, bought the building at 1 Intervale Avenue in the Old North End, he offered Thapa the opportunity to open her own shop. Today, Thapa's Threading Beauty Studio is one of half a dozen or so aesthetics shops run by Bhutanese women in the greater Burlington area. Since the first families from that community resettled in Vermont in 2008, the Bhutanese have made their mark on the local landscape with restaurants and clothing and grocery stores. So it's not surprising to see them making inroads in this area, too, said Ashley Michelle Fowler of Mercy Connections. Fowler is the nonprofit's communications and development associate and an instructor in the Women's Small Business Program. She sees the Bhutanese women's endeavors in the context of two decades of waves of immigration in Vermont. "What we see time and time again is that each refugee population from these different cultures tends to have an entrepreneurial bent, and they each take a different approach," Fowler said. "When the Bosnians first came in the '90s ... we started seeing more European restaurants," Fowler continued. "When the Vietnamese came, we saw an increase in nail salons and Vietnamese food shops and Asian markets." Likewise, women from various African countries have begun making products and selling them at farmers markets, she said. "It's a big responsibility owning a business," said Chandra Guragai, a Bhutanese woman who purchased a nail salon in Essex and reopened it last September as Creative Nails & Eyebrow Threading. For Thapa and Guragai, also in her twenties, it made sense to capitalize on previously acquired skills to establish a stable career. Both cited having more control over their working hours as key to…