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Nicodhia Laplante's story began in Haiti, within a close-knit family where love, faith, education, entrepreneurship, vision, generosity, and service were woven into everyday life. Long before she became a healthcare executive, educator, entrepreneur, nonprofit founder, or community advocate, she was being shaped by a family whose influence would remain deeply connected to the woman she would one day become.

Her childhood unfolded between family life and boarding school. At approximately seven or eight years old, Nicodhia began attending boarding school in Haiti. Although the structured environment of school became an important part of her upbringing, her connection to her family remained strong. She would return home and spend time with them throughout her childhood, continuing to experience the love, traditions, celebrations, businesses, conversations, responsibilities, and everyday rhythms of family life.

Nicodhia came from a financially established family with a long and diverse entrepreneurial history. Business was not something she first encountered as an adult; it was part of the environment she knew from childhood. Across generations, members of her family owned, operated, and sustained businesses that served both their family and the surrounding community.

Her grandparents were among her earliest examples of entrepreneurship. She grew up observing family businesses that had been established and maintained over decades. Their commercial activities extended across several areas, including construction materials, household merchandise, retail goods, food distribution and sales, cooperative-style commerce, and a bakery.

Some of those businesses operated almost like community marketplaces—places where people could obtain many of the things they needed for everyday life. Construction supplies, household necessities, food, and other merchandise were made available through enterprises that required organization, relationships, discipline, inventory management, customer service, decision-making, and consistency.

Her father embodied that same entrepreneurial and creative spirit. He operated a cinema—a local movie theater that provided entertainment and a gathering place for members of the community. He also operated a moulin à maïs, or moulin mayi, where families, including those with very limited financial resources, could bring corn to be ground for food preparation. It was a simple but essential service, and another early example for Nicodhia of how enterprise could simultaneously sustain a family and meet practical needs within a community.

But her father's vision extended beyond traditional business. One of Nicodhia's most vivid memories is of him creating his own football team from the ground up. The team was known as Cosmos. It was his project, his team, and something into which he invested both his resources and his enthusiasm. He organized the team, provided for the players, had their uniforms specially made, and financially supported what he had created.

For a young Nicodhia, these were more than activities happening around her. They were early demonstrations of what it looked like for someone to have an idea and then bring that idea to life—to organize people around a vision, invest in them, provide what was needed, and create something that had not existed before.

Her father was a man full of life. He was entrepreneurial, energetic, creative, and deeply memorable—a man whose presence brought movement and possibility into the lives around him. Although his life ended far too soon, the memories Nicodhia carries of him remain filled not simply with the pain of losing a father, but with tremendous affection and admiration for the man he was.

She remembers him with love. She remembers his businesses. She remembers his ideas. She remembers his team. She remembers his energy. And she remembers a father who, even within the limited number of years she was given with him, left an imprint strong enough to remain with her for a lifetime.

The diversity of her family's enterprises exposed Nicodhia to entrepreneurship in many forms—retail, food, construction-related commerce, entertainment, essential community services, and even the creation and sponsorship of a sports organization. Yet the greatest education did not come from simply knowing that these businesses and projects existed. It came from watching people build them.

From childhood through her twenties and into the beginning of her thirties, Nicodhia continued observing members of her family sustain businesses that had existed for decades. She watched her grandfather continue a longstanding family enterprise and saw firsthand that longevity in business required much more than financial resources. It required discipline, consistency, relationships, responsibility, adaptability, perseverance, and the ability to continue showing up year after year.

Long before she would establish organizations and businesses of her own, she had already spent years watching entrepreneurship in motion. She saw people make decisions. She saw people serve customers. She saw people manage responsibilities. She saw family members provide employment, maintain relationships, meet community needs, solve problems, take risks, preserve what previous generations had built, and continue creating opportunities for the generation that followed.

Entrepreneurship therefore became familiar to Nicodhia long before it became professional. But business, however significant, represents only part of the foundation of her story. The greatest foundation was love.

Nicodhia experienced the profound loss of both of her parents during childhood. Yet when she reflects on those years, she does not describe a childhood consumed by absence, deprivation, or sorrow. Her family surrounded her with such consistency, protection, affection, attention, provision, and care that the loss she experienced did not become the defining atmosphere of her childhood.

There was no overwhelming emotional void around which her life revolved. There was simply too much love. Family kept them busy. Business kept them busy. Vision kept them busy. Education kept them moving forward. Helping people kept them busy. Serving others kept them busy. And above everything else, love kept the family connected.

Her relatives created an environment in which Nicodhia did not spend her childhood continually thinking about what she no longer had. Instead, she was surrounded by what remained abundantly present: family, security, education, faith, opportunity, encouragement, generosity, activity, celebration, protection, and possibility.

She remembers a good life. An interesting life. A joyful life. And above all, a blessed life. Her education was prioritized. Her schooling was supported. Her needs were consistently met. She experienced the joys that children remember—the toys, the celebrations, Christmas, New Year's, special occasions, family gatherings, school experiences, and the simple comfort of knowing that there were people around her who would make sure she was cared for.

She was never made to feel that her life had stopped because of what she had lost. Her family kept life moving. They gave her experiences to look forward to, opportunities to learn, family to return to, people who protected her, and a sense of belonging that allowed her childhood to remain full.

She was not raised to dwell on what was missing. She was raised within an environment that continually reminded her of what was present. Her family did not merely provide materially for her. They created a world around her in which she could continue being a child—learning, playing, celebrating, dreaming, growing, and imagining a future.

Among the people who left an especially lasting impression on Nicodhia was her grandmother. Her grandmother's life offered another kind of education altogether: the education of service. Even now, at approximately eighty-eight years old, her grandmother continues to find joy in helping people. Throughout her life, she has been known for caring about others, advocating on their behalf, preparing meals, cooking for people, giving what she could, opening herself to the needs of others, and finding genuine happiness in service.

Helping people was never presented as an occasional obligation. It was simply part of who she was. Watching that example taught Nicodhia that generosity could take many forms. Sometimes generosity was financial. Sometimes it was food prepared for someone who needed it. Sometimes it was speaking on behalf of another person. Sometimes it was making sure someone felt welcomed. Sometimes it was providing an opportunity. Sometimes it was simply noticing another human being and deciding that their needs mattered.

Those memories remain some of the most meaningful parts of Nicodhia's upbringing. They remind her that service did not begin when she founded a nonprofit. Leadership did not begin when she received a professional title. Entrepreneurship did not begin when she opened her first business. Advocacy did not begin when she entered healthcare. Those values had already been modeled around her.

She grew up watching people build businesses, but she also grew up watching people build relationships. She watched them sustain families. She watched them serve communities. She watched them create opportunities. She watched them care for people. She watched them give. And she watched them continue.

Her Haitian roots, her years in boarding school, the entrepreneurial legacy of her family, the businesses built across generations, the creativity and vitality of her father, the endurance of her grandfather, the extraordinary love of her extended family, the generosity of her grandmother, her education, her faith, and eventually her journey to the United States became different threads of one larger story.

Together, they shaped her understanding of leadership, responsibility, ownership, compassion, perseverance, generosity, vision, and legacy.

Looking back today, many of those memories carry an especially powerful meaning. They are memories of a childhood filled with movement—businesses operating, people coming and going, bread being made, food being prepared, customers being served, movies being shown, corn being milled, a football team wearing uniforms her father had helped create, family gathering, celebrations taking place, school continuing, people being helped, and ideas constantly becoming something tangible.

Life felt full. Life felt active. Life felt abundant. And life felt deeply connected to other people.

Those memories remain a source of strength and fulfillment for Nicodhia today. They remind her where many of her instincts came from: the desire to build, the determination to keep going, the ability to envision something before it exists, the impulse to help, the desire to create opportunities, the importance she places on education, and the belief that what a person builds should ultimately have meaning beyond themselves.

Perhaps one of the greatest lessons she carries from her childhood is that love is not only an emotion. Love can become an environment. It can look like presence. Protection. Provision. Education. Encouragement. Celebration. Opportunity. Advocacy. Generosity. Service. And the deliberate decision to make sure another person knows that they matter.

That was the kind of love that surrounded Nicodhia during her formative years. It gave her something far greater than memories of a comfortable childhood. It gave her a foundation—a foundation from which she would eventually build a life centered on leadership, healthcare, education, entrepreneurship, community service, and a continuing desire to create opportunities and care for others.