Moving to a new city for college requires finding new businesses and services to meet daily needs. For Ole Miss parent Chlee Lisi, the solution for her daughters was compiling all this information together in a mobile app called The Local: Oxford.
Lisi is the mother of Ava Cathryn Henderson, a junior marketing student, and Elisabeth Kate Henderson, a high school senior from Meridian, Miss. She wanted an easy, accessible place for her daughters to find lunch spots, deals on dorm supplies, upcoming events and more.
Lisi launched The Local: Oxford app in November 2025 to answer many of the questions she saw circulating in various parent Facebook groups. She compiled the best student resources, campus opportunities, dining experiences and community information.
“I wanted to create one place where students and parents could quickly find reliable local information without having to search across multiple websites and social media pages,” Lisi said. “My goal was to make settling into Oxford a little easier and more fun.”
Chlee Lisi, founder of The Local: Oxford, poses with the app she designed. Photo provided by Chlee Lisi.
As a first-time Ole Miss parent, Lisi understood the struggles of assisting her child from afar. She said the app initially began as a simple local business directory.
“As I spent more time talking with students and parents, it became clear they needed much more than that,” Lisi said. “(The Local: Oxford) has evolved into a community resource that combines practical information with entertaining content.”
After researching how much it would cost her to hire an app developer, Lisi decided to give it a try herself.
“I don’t have a background in app development at all,” Lisi said, “I got to work researching app development programs and finally found one that was able to provide most of the features I needed and was somewhat user-friendly.”
For the next year, Lisi would work on the app in her spare time and gathered suggestions from her children and their friends on features to include. Lisi said one of the hardest parts was actually getting the app approved.
“I think we were rejected close to 10 times,” Lisi said. “Apple has very strict rules when it comes to safety measures within the app … so every public comment and image (posted to the app) has to be manually approved before it can be published.”
The app’s features include dorm and move-in resources, a “Life 101” blog containing college tips and life advice, restaurant recommendations, contact information for local vendors and professionals and Greek life recruitment information. It even contains a freshman directory where new students can connect with other incoming freshmen.
“The response has been incredibly encouraging,” Lisi said. “We’ve received great feedback from both students and parents, and many of our newest features have come directly from user suggestions.”
Lisi said she is currently developing an offshoot of the app, The Local: Starkville, and has the long-term goal of expanding into additional campuses across the SEC.
The Local: Oxford is free to download. Full access to student guides and exclusive content, such as discounts or promotions from participating local businesses, is available via a $1 per month membership.
For Lisi, creating a solution to the ever-evolving confusion that comes with a student’s first year at the university was an easy decision.
“The college years go by fast, and Oxford has so much to offer beyond campus,” Lisi said. “Being an Ole Miss parent has given me a unique perspective on the questions, concerns and excitement that come with sending a student to college.”
