On her way to class at Rowan College of Burlington County, Louwinda Soy’s car broke down, hurting her grades and social life. As unpleasant as this was, it inspired something important: Baron Rides. 

Soy, who will graduate next May with a Master’s in Business Administration, depicts Baron Rides as a place where students can pay for transportation, not from random strangers, but from fellow students. 

“Think of it as a matching app. Instead of you finding your soulmate or partner for life, you find your fellow students, your potential friends. For example, not too long ago, my car broke down. So let’s say you’re a student and this happened to you, it would match you to other students already living nearby who you can carpool with,” said Soy.

In part, Baron Rides exists to help international students, who often have a particularly challenging time finding affordable transportation and student community spaces. 

“Born and raised in Haiti, I know how it is to learn English and live in another country,” said Soy.

To her, ride-share apps like Uber and Lyft can be overly expensive, and public transportation proves sporadic or unreliable. 

“I found out that so many students were struggling with transportation issues … Since we are students, and we know we don’t make money like that, it’s a consistent price compared to what’s out there. You can actually budget for it,” said Soy.

Each of these plays into her community-centric ambitions, involving the creation of community spaces linked specifically to Baron Rides. To her, our world is devoid of solid connection. She aims to be the solution. 

“In terms of buses and everything, I was really struggling … I want to move beyond Rowan. I want to move beyond having it just be an application. As life gets more complicated, it’s hard to make connections. So I want to make a community out of Baron Rides,” said Soy.

She met her cofounder, Pietra Oliverira, at RCBC, whose computer science background was indispensable. Oliverira returned to her home country of Brazil, but she remains Soy’s coding adviser. 

“The short answer: she is still part of the story of Baron Rides,” said Soy. 

The app’s name stems from RCBC’s mascot, Barry the Baron. At first, Soy tried changing it. But since Oliverira left, Soy liked it as a reminder of their close friendship. 

“Initially, we considered changing the name; we didn’t want the ties to a specific college. But after Pietra moved back to Brazil, I decided to keep it,” said Soy. 

Soy aims to create more apps in the future, all with her stated goal: bringing people together. 

“At this very moment, my passion is literally bringing people together. I don’t know if it’s because I was born in a different country, but it’s a passion of mine to connect people. Eventually, it may be something bigger,” said Soy.

Her ambitions extend beyond ride-sharing, into non-profit work and further entrepreneurship. 

“If I could put together students willing to learn to be social media managers, like for small companies … Having some sort of a media company run by students willing to help non-profits and stuff like that,” said Soy. 

At the moment, Baron Rides isn’t complete. She hopes to release it by September 2026 — the beginning of the Fall semester. 

“We will launch across universities in N.J. to really get feedback,” said Soy. 

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