Geovanni Leiva operates his life – and his growing Little Rock-based business selling Guatemalan-grown coffee directly to the public – according to one simple motto: “Do for others what has been done for you.”

Leiva, who graduated from UALR’s Intensive English Language Program in 1999, said his guiding motto has its roots in the generous example of one Arkansas couple who met the Leiva family during a mission trip to Guatemala many years ago.

Garvin and Sally Abernathy of Bryant offered Leiva, then 18, the opportunity to pursue his passion for two things — learning the English language and computer programming — by allowing him to live with them and paying his educational expenses.

Leiva said coming to the U.S. was something he had dreamed of doing since harvesting coffee in Guatemala as a young child. Still, he only knew four English phrases when he first arrived in Arkansas, so he was more than a little nervous.

“I knew how to say my name, that I was hungry, how to ask what time it was, and where was the bathroom … so I had the essentials covered,” said Leiva, smiling.

For eight months Leiva studied the English language from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day at UALR.

Following his graduation from the language program, he became the first international student accepted to Pulaski Technical College, where his training prepared him for a career as a computer programmer.

In the meantime, he met and married his wife, Alana, a UALR alumna who graduated in 2004 with a degree in Spanish. By 2007, Leiva was a U.S. citizen and a proud father.

Leiva had the life he dreamed of, but something gnawed away at him during visits back home to Guatemala. Following one such trip, Leiva realized he had a higher calling.

“I kept coming back to the phrase, ‘Do what has been done for you,’” he said. “I wanted to do something to give Guatemalans the same good life I had been blessed with.”

Leiva explained that half of Guatemala’s workforce is comprised of farmers and coffee is the country’s most valuable commodity.

Yet, most producers get close to none of the profits. For about every $8 consumers spend on coffee, the Guatemalan growers typically receive only two cents, he said.

Leiva decided to change those percentages by cutting out the middle man.

Earlier this year, Leiva’s side job selling Guatemalan coffee turned into a full-time reality after he partnered with his dad and brother to found Leiva’s Coffee, which sells family-owned Guatemalan coffee directly to the public.

The Capital Hotel in Little Rock is currently one of the largest buyers of his product, which is also sold online in smaller units to eager customers across the U.S.

The company ensures that the extra money is poured into such things as flooring and fresh water wells for Guatemalan villages, medicine for the elderly, and education for the young.

“We pay higher wages because we can, not because we have to,” Leiva said.

In addition, Leiva says the coffee is just plain better tasting because it is sold direct and is never blended with coffees from other countries or even other Guatemalan farms.

“We are more concerned with quality over quantity,” he said.

“Maybe this is not a big thing in the grand scheme of things, but if I can impact just one village in Guatemala, then that is something,” Leiva added.

“Our goal is one coffee bean at a time; we are changing people’s futures.”

For more information about English as a second language, go to Intensive English Language Program.

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