Penn State senior's shirts help motivate

Sometimes all you need is a little motivation.

And a good T-shirt.

Abu Fofanah wants to make sure you have both. That's what you get with Motivational Apparel - MoAp for short.

Fofanah, a Pennsylvania State University senior from Delaware County majoring in supply-chain and information systems, didn't go to college to sell shirts.

He wanted an education, and he wanted to play soccer. The Special Olympics set him on a new course.

During the summer of his freshman year, Fofanah was working as a conference assistant when the university hosted the event.

"I didn't know they were going to impact me so much. It was eye-opening," he said. "Every day they hear what they can't do from other people."

Fofanah, who was born in Sierra Leone, wanted to merge his sports background with the never-say-die spirit of the Special Olympians.

He designed two shirts with encouraging messages. One read, "Time to Grind"; the other, "Life Has No Limits."

He made 30. They sold out, and MoAp was born.

"I had to walk around with a backpack full of T-shirts," Fofanah said.

At the Penn State trustees' meeting in November, Fofanah was featured as an example of someone who was getting the most out of his university experience. If you haven't met him, the trustees were told, it's just a matter of time.

That's how MoAp had a small boom when the singer John Legend came to campus. Fofanah got a shirt into Legend's hands, and his Facebook account exploded.

Similarly, he found a mentor in the designer Kara Laricks when she came to Penn State.

Fofanah said those T-shirts have morphed into passion for the fashion industry and for motivational speaking.

In January, he will go to Milan, Italy, to study fashion for a year, turning his business over to someone else to operate while he focuses on learning the things he hopes will make him one of the top designers in the country.

"Life leads you in so many different directions," Fofanah said.

It's a great slogan. It almost belongs on a T-shirt.