MIdland teen graduates with academic, business success

Rachel Westphal, pictured here in Midland Civic arena in Midland on Friday, June 12, 2015, is Midland Christian School salutatorian. She also started a business called LiveKuhn, which produces pads for figure skaters and other athletes. Westphal, a figure skater, thought of the idea after an impact-related hip injury kept her off the ice for a year.

(David C Bristow | MLive.com)

She was a figure skater at 51/2, an entrepreneur at 15 and her high school's salutatorian at 17.

Rachel L. Westphal is among those featured among our online series Top Grads 2015, highlighting valedictorians and salutatorians from high schools across the Great Lakes Bay Region.

She graduated second in her class of 10 from Midland Christian School with a 4.07 grade point average.

Westphal's business, LiveKuhn, sells crash pads -- PeacePads, as she calls them -- that soften the landings of the hip and tailbones of figure skaters, snowboarders, skiers and horseback riders on four continents.

In the fall, Rachel plans to attend Calvin College. She figures she can juggle being a CEO with college the same way she handled it in high school, with extracurricular activities that included drama, ballet, track, downhill ski racing, skating and French at Delta College.

"I was a figure skater who couldn't find padding that works the way I wanted it to, so I started to make my own," she said.

"I wanted the edges to be tapered. I wanted them to be flexible, because some out there were really flexible and didn't work or weren't flexible at all. I drew up my design, and I knew of a company that has the materials that absorb 94.7 percent of impact shock."

She took a loan from her college fund -- since repaid in full -- and went into business, creating the molds, developing a website with Bay City's Ohno Designs and amassing inventory.

At any given time, she has 300 pads or more on hand, ready to ship to online customers. She keeps them in the home office.

Rachel is her own social media manager, product developer and marketer. Her parents, David and Lori Westphal of Midland, pitch in sometimes, pro bono, to help fill online orders.

The Stable in Saginaw and Crystal Mountain in Thompsonville, Michigan, sell LiveKuhn products, as well.

LiveKuhn has shipped PeacePads across the United States as well as to Canada, Italy, France, Switzerland, Austria, Japan, Hong Kong and the Phillippines.

In college, this CEO doesn't plan to major in business. She does that on a daily basis already.

She plans to study pre-medicine and eventually to become a doctor.

"I'm not going to get rich off this," she said of LiveKuhn, which uses the German word for "bold" in a nod to her heritage.

"I've paid back the money I owed myself. I'm not going to become a billionaire. I just really enjoy being able to help people. I've enjoyed seeing how my idea went from just being an idea to being a product and helping people around the world."