Putting School to Work Long walks in high heels inspired two women to create something easier on the feet--with a little help from their university.

Wouldn't it be nice if your college helped your business make money? Susie Levitt and Katie Shea thought so, and during the course of their senior year at New York University, they enlisted the school's faculty, staff and even the PR department to help them launch a fashion company based on solving a single problem: Their feet hurt when they walked in high heels.

The two were working as summer interns on Wall Street and bonded over their complaints about covering the long blocks to and from work in heels.

"They were killing our feet, but we didn't want to give them up because we aren't the tallest people out there," says Levitt, 22. "So we came up with the idea of emergency footwear."