Kristen Hansen, a strategy student at the BYU Marriott School of Business, is learning to be intentional about her relationship with technology. “If my body and mind are always on social media, I’m not enjoying the natural, beautiful parts of the world,” she says. Realizing that she is not the only one wrestling with technology use, Hansen hopes to use the tools she is acquiring as a strategy student to help others address their digital habits.
Hansen knew she wanted to study business after serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Las Vegas, where she witnessed the growth of a small community outreach center that she volunteered with. “It was really interesting to think about how the center was growing and how they could optimize their processes,” she explains.
After finishing her mission, Hansen returned to BYU and began looking into the different programs at BYU Marriott. She decided to apply to the strategy program after hearing two strategy students talk about their experiences growing startups with the BYU Marriott Sandbox program and gaining consulting experience through internships.
In fall 2023, Hansen grew from her own experience with BYU Marriott Sandbox, a program run by the Rollins Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology that provides funding and mentorship to students as they start their own businesses. Hansen’s mentors encouraged her to start the entrepreneurial process by identifying a problem she was passionate about solving. Inspiration came as Hansen reflected on her own personal relationship and journey with social media.
“I had a really bad relationship with social media; it negatively affected my mental health, my body image, and my sense of self,” Hansen describes. In her teenage years, Hansen began diverting more of her attention to consuming social media, a habit that continued into college. “Right after my mission, I fell back into the spiral of doomscrolling all the time,” Hansen shares. But there had been a time when Hansen’s world had been much bigger than her six-inch screen. In fact, she had loved growing up on a farm just outside of Logan, Utah, where she gained an appreciation for God’s creations as she helped her family raise cattle and crops.
Realizing she didn’t want to spend her life consuming social media, Hansen started researching digital wellness strategies. She wanted to restore the ratio of creation to consumption that she had experienced growing up on a farm. Instead of endlessly scrolling through the experiences of distant connections on Instagram, Hansen started investing in real-life experiences with close friends. And instead of constantly consuming the posted thoughts of others, she now writes her own newsletters about digital habits.
So when asked to start a business surrounding a problem she is passionate about for BYU Marriott Sandbox, Hansen drew on her personal experience and started Ignite, which aims “to educate and empower people to have healthier relationships with technology,” Hansen explains.
Currently, Hansen operates Ignite as a nonprofit business, but she aspires to transition it into a for-profit enterprise to reach more people. “I want to learn how to run a consumer startup really effectively, because I think that’s where I’ll be able to have an impact,” Hansen says. “I’m interested in helping people live a fulfilling life. And for me, that’s most directly impacted by how we engage with the world.”
To learn more about running startups, Hansen interned with Leland, a startup based in Lehi, Utah, that helps people achieve career and education goals. That internship turned into a full-time job offer that Hansen accepted and will start after graduating in April 2025. One of the highlights of the internship for Hansen was building something impactful with people who inspired her—which has also been one of her favorite aspects of the strategy program.
Hansen attended a dinner early on in the program with other women in strategy where she was inspired by their ambition. “For a while, I had the thought, ‘I can’t work in business as a woman,’” Hansen shares. “It was so fun to be in that environment and realize that there’s so much opportunity through the strategy program and so many people who are helping me become a better person.”
Hansen has felt more optimistic about her future as she has grown relationships with people instead of her phone—especially since the mentors she has gained have helped her uncover her passion for digital wellness and business. “Without the mentors at BYU Marriott that I’ve met, I truly would not have had any of the opportunities that I’ve had.”
Ultimately, Hansen believes that God has high expectations for people’s ability to change the world and improve their lives. She believes that instead of becoming complacent with her life—and her digital habits—she can design her life in a way that balances creation and consumption. “I love the idea that we are cocreators of our life with God,” Hansen says, “and that God made us to create.”
