By Neel Deodhar for The Montgomery News | August 26 2026
Montgomery is a town whose lifeblood is in its abundance of small businesses: ranging from the famous Route 206 bar Tiger’s Tale Bar and Grill—whose roots trace back to 1986—to the Allegra School of Music and Arts, which dates back to 1999 but just expanded into a new space in Montgomery in May.
Montgomery High School (MHS) students have recognized the importance of small businesses as well.
The Small Business Initiative Board: (from left): Danel Rodriguez, Ryan Patel, Dilan Mehta, Suchir Parikh, Yuvi Ahlawat, and Rey Sen.
This understanding led MHS senior Dilan Mehta to found the Montgomery Small Business Initiative (SBI): a “nonprofit, student- run consulting and internship organization” that aims to pair “motivated, business-minded students with local businesses to create mutually beneficial partnerships.”
Mehta, the organization’s president, teamed up with Suchir Parikh, Danel Rodriguez, Ryan Patel, Rey Sen, and Yuvi Ahlawat in his sophomore year, noticing that although Montgomery has programs for students interested in business, they were “largely theoretical” and “lacked real-world application.”
At the same time, they noted that Montgomery’s small business owners were “stretched too thin” to devote sufficient time to both day-to-day responsibilities and long-term growth. The team wanted to bridge this gap.
Two years later, the organization has more than 100 members and has provided more than 30 internships in areas such as marketing, sales, programming, and finance.
While interns are often stereotyped as coffee-runners relegated to filing paperwork, the ones at SBI have completed meaningful and impactful work.
At Ziplyne, an AI platform that helps corporations train employees on work platforms like Salesforce and Workday, MHS senior Brian Chen interns as a software developer.
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“It was great to apply the programming skills I’ve learned in the past to help a real platform,” he said, adding he “got to work directly with the software team and CEO to develop a new version of the application.”
Meanwhile, MHS sophomore Liyana Ansari interns at Kasia Market, where she helped make a promotional video for their new fried chicken ice cream.
“I’ve gotten better at video editing,” Ansari said, citing that the project “taught [her] how to take feedback in real time and act on it.”
SBI’s benefits are not limited to its interns, however. At the Montgomery Dental Loft, interns help track and budget finances, easing administrative work for the owner. Mark Manto, a local indie musician, had interns help him create music videos and promote his songs on Instagram.
Impressed with their work, he told The Montgomery News that “[SBI] is able to provide very qualified support for small, local PR and marketing requests.”
On another note, Bill D’Arienzo, founder of WDA Strategic Brand Marketing, had appeared as a guest speaker at one of SBI’s meetings. He expressed that the “number and depth” of the questions he had been asked were a pleasant surprise.
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D’Arienzo, who has a background as a marketing professor, is currently writing a marketing textbook that covers “how brands can [...] integrate AI without losing its own identity.” He noted that an intern from SBI is helping his team research for the process, bringing a younger perspective.
Although SBI’s board will graduate next year, they don’t intend for the program to end with them: they’ve partnered with the Montgomery Business Association to expand their reach, and are training a new, underclassmen leadership cohort to keep it running. SBI’s mission keeps true to the notion that Montgomery thrives on its small businesses. With the passion its students have shown, that idea is in good hands for now.
