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OXFORD, miss. (AP) – Many college students have struggled to find an apartment that won’t break the bank while trying to find a roommate they can trust and one that suits their lifestyle.
Now, an app created by a new Ole Miss grad can help ease the house and roommate hunt for students living in Oxford.
Brea Givens graduated with a degree in finance in May 2021 and will launch Froomie on August 23, an all-in-one app that helps college students find roommates and find affordable, quality housing.
Givens herself passed the exam as a student and wants to simplify the process by working with universities, property managers and students through the application process.
“I moved to Ole Miss from Austin Community College in 2019,” she said. “I’ve been struggling to find a roommate to live with off campus and an apartment since I came to Ole Miss without knowing anyone.”
Givens did some research online but was disappointed that the school didn’t have many opportunities to help the students.
“I’ve spoken to a lot of Ole Miss parents and a lot of them are out of state so they don’t help their children find a place to live,” Givens said. “(Parents) can also download the app and see all of Oxford’s student residences.”
Givens first entered the Edwin C. Gillespie Business Plan Competition, an annual event hosted by the University of Mississippi’s School of Business, in 2020 and submitted an early version of the Froomie app.
“I didn’t make it to the finals at the time, but in the end I worked on it all of 2020 and went into 2021,” she said.
Givens entered the competition again in 2021, took first place with their app, and received money from the School of Business’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship to launch them.
Froomie enables users to search and filter student profiles to find the perfect roommate for their lifestyle, connect with other students in the school via an in-app messenger, view rental properties near their campus, and even direct property managers to contact.
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