Student leaders creating a positive impact: Rebecca Mitrea, Kevin Felisme, Olena Cruz and Bevon Joseph, with Business Dean Misty Johanson (photo by Kathy Hillegonds)
Whether they are millennials or members of Generation Z, DePaul business students and recent graduates were born to lead.
Ninety-one percent of millennials aspire to be leaders, the Millennial Leadership Study survey conducted by WorkplaceTrends.com found, and nearly half of those surveyed define leadership as “empowering others to succeed.” Meanwhile, according to Forbes magazine, surveys of Gen Z (those born after 1995) show that this latest generation to hit campus wants to “make their mark, in part, by making our society better than past generations have managed to do.”
Grounded in Vincentian values, DePaul provides opportunities for students to exercise their interest in socially responsible leadership from the minute they come onto campus as first-year students. Campus-wide initiatives like New Student Service Day and the annual Vincentian Service Day, and projects led by the Steans Center and Campus Ministry, allow students to become change-makers in the Chicago community DePaul calls home. In 2018 alone, DePaul students completed hundreds of thousands of community service hours.
At the Driehaus College of Business, students develop their leadership talent through classroom lessons, experiential learning, student organizations, mentorships, internships and even their own businesses ventures founded with the help of the Coleman Entrepreneurship Center and other resources. These opportunities produce young leaders who get to work immediately at solving marketplace and societal problems, inspiring peers to reach new, heights and pushing the boundaries of achievement on campus, in business, in sports and in the community.
In the following stories we highlight four soon-to-be and recent DePaul business graduates who are pursuing different paths but have one thing in common: they use their business acumen to lead and empower others.
