Student Stories

In Collaboration with the CTA, Entrepreneurial Imagination Meets Historic Infrastructure Investment

Meredith Carroll Features, Student Stories , , , ,

MBA students harnessed entrepreneurship to envision revitalization

A group of student presents a poster with prominent depaul blues and reds, plus the CTA logo

A hub where pet owners can gather to meet neighbors. Urban agriculture using recycled water. Incubators for entrepreneurs and makers.

These were just a few of the projects that MBA students, led by Assistant Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship James Bort, proposed for a South Side community this winter quarter as part of DePaul’s partnership with the Chicago Transit Authority.

Writ large, the partnership harnesses entrepreneurship to drive economic growth on the South Side in conjunction with the agency’s historic Red Line Extension.

Students’ project proposals are the first step towards that larger goal. They demonstrate how entrepreneurs can capitalize on this massive investment in infrastructure, setting off a cycle of revitalization. To a much-needed infrastructure project, these projects bring entrepreneurial imagination.

“Entrepreneurship is fundamentally an imagined reality,” said Bort. “It’s about storytelling. It’s about your ability to be optimistic and empathetic.”

 

In collaboration with the CTA, focusing on a community with promise

The class focused their efforts on a once-booming stretch of South Michigan Avenue in Roseland.

CTA Director of Diversity Programs JuanPablo Prieto explained the factors that led to that decision.

“For every dollar we invest in transit, we get $4 in economic return,” he said. “We want the communities where we’re making these investments to benefit from that return.”

The CTA commissioned a transit-supported development study on the area, engaging extensively with community members. Students delved into that research.

With Prieto’s help, they also heard directly from community stakeholders. The head of the Chamber of Commerce came to speak. So did the local alderman’s chief of staff.

Stakeholder interviews ensured that students’ projects were grounded in the needs of the community.

“We moved from studying the history of Roseland to understanding who’s there today and what they need,” Bort said. “Only then did we move into ideation.”

 

Informed by stakeholders, projects focus on empowering local entrepreneurs

A group of students smiling and networking
Stefanie Slager, center, at the class’ poster presentation

On March 7, students shared their visions at a packed poster presentation. Faculty, staff, and students attended. So did CTA officials and community stakeholders.

“We were blown away by the thought, the intentionality, and the care that went into the listening sessions with the stakeholders,” said Prieto. “Each project had some element of what the stakeholders brought to the table.”

MBA student Stefanie Slager’s team shared a plan for a “living lab” for new entrepreneurs. There, they hoped, local founders and makers could launch businesses that would attract visitors to the neighborhood – especially in culinary arts, entertainment, fashion, and business innovation.

A box of fresh donuts sat on a table next to Slager. She’d picked them up that morning from Old Fashioned Donuts, an iconic 50-year-old, family-owned shop in Roseland: an example of the community’s existing strength and potential.

“When I went in on the day of the presentation, you could tell that everyone kind of knows each other,” Slager said. “How blessed are we to work with this community and hopefully make a difference? It is our goal for Roseland to again become the jewel of the South Side.”

A few groups over, MBA student Keiph Oliver and his team presented their plan. Like Slager’s group, they envisioned an entrepreneurial ecosystem – one that would equip residents with tools and resources to realize their own visions for the community.

“We want to create programs that bring businesses into high schools,” creating mentorships and job opportunities, explained Oliver. Exposing youth to a wide range of career paths was a priority.

“Exposure affects what someone believes they could be,” he said. “They don’t know what skills they already have. They don’t know how those skills could transfer.”

 

Looking ahead to the next phase of the DePaul-CTA partnership

Two professionals in blue suits deep in conversation at a packed networking event
Dean of the Driehaus College of Business Sulin Ba converses with CTA representatives at the March 7 poster presentation

In future phases of the DePaul-CTA collaboration, some students will partner directly with local businesses. Others will pick up where Bort’s winter quarter class left off, bringing select projects one step closer to reality.

For Bort, the projects attest to the vital role entrepreneurship plays in community renewal.

“Entrepreneurship is one of the most important elements for a community to succeed,” Bort said. “You need entrepreneurs working outside of the box, or working with resource constraints, figuring out how to make it happen.”

And, he added, you need initial investments in infrastructure to give those entrepreneurs a place to start.

“Without infrastructure, you really don’t have anything,” Bort added. “People have been fighting for this Red Line Extension for 50 years. What an exciting time to have been here for it.”

Prieto echoed Bort’s sentiments.

“I want to reiterate CTA’s commitment to this project,” he said. “This was a promise that was made more than 50 years ago to this community. We are committed to delivering on that promise. And we are excited to go down this path with the community as we not only build the extension but support the development that will come with it.”

 

For students, a lesson in the power of place and purpose

Another lesson of the project? The power of place, in all its specificity: whether that place is Chicago, Roseland, or DePaul.

Oliver is a graduate of DePaul’s film program who plans, empowered by his DePaul MBA, to one day launch his own production company.

“A lot of what I think about as a filmmaker is Hollywood,” he said. “The entertainment industry found a city and set up shop. It created this entire infrastructure that, for a long time, had no competition.

“How do we create an infrastructure like that for Chicago? What does that look like? In my lifetime, can I not only create a company, but can I contribute to generating a higher standard and a better business infrastructure? One that will bring more jobs and allow people to stay here?”

From Bort’s perspective, the collaboration is uniquely suited to DePaul.

“We have this Vincentian mission. When we see an opportunity to help, we jump in. That’s our default,” Bort said. “How does a DePaul grad stand out? Things like this, maybe. There are pro-social elements; there are human-centered design elements, empathy elements. It’s really tangible. It’s hands-in-the-dirt. And you’re working together to figure it out.”

Business Analytics Capstone Class Sparks Industry Collaboration, Student Success

Meredith Carroll Features, Student Stories , , ,

Capstone class “challenges the status quo” of learning

A large group of students poses in front of a screen in a modern room

 

When the co-directors of DePaul’s M.S. in Business Analytics program, Khadija Ali Vakeel and Sina Ansari, embarked on rethinking the program’s capstone last year, they knew they wanted it to center on a collaboration with real-world companies.

This approach promised to set students up for success in industry. But it also posed challenges. Real-world datasets are often messy. Clear answers aren’t guaranteed. Distilling insights from data is as much art as it is science, demanding storytelling skills as well as analytical savvy.

In a word, the setup for the M.S. in Business Analytics capstone “challenges the status quo” of how most classes are taught, according to Vakeel.

“Students lead their own projects,” she said. “Students pose their own questions and find their own answers, supported by the instructor and industry partners. They are discovering things. It pushes them to think about their own creativity and storytelling as well as analysis — all in a very compact time of 10 weeks.”

Students offer companies a fresh perspective

Vakeel and Ansari launched the new, hands-on version of the capstone project in spring 2024. That year, with the help of a third-party mediator, Altheon AI, the program collaborated with Skyline Design and Valqari.

In fall 2024, the program began collaborating with Reyes Holdings, a food and beverage distributor that is the sixth largest privately held company by revenue in the U.S. according to a list compiled by Forbes. That collaboration has continued ever since.

Reyes has a vast logistics network with a trove of data to match. Powered by AI, cameras in truck cabs collect virtually every kind of data imaginable. Are drivers eating or texting while they drive? Are they leaving an adequate stopping distance?

Most of all, Reyes wanted to know, how effective were its coaching programs? What could it do to make its operations safer — and bring down costs in the process?

The company had in-house experts to answer those questions. But it also needed a fresh perspective.

That’s where DePaul students came in.

“The students have so much energy,” said Vakeel. “They think outside the box. When employees of the company are looking at the same data day in and day out, they might not be able to see what a fresh perspective from students can bring in.”

The power of data — from unearthing hidden stories to driving strategy

A small group of students poses in front of a screen in a modern room
The winning team poses with faculty and corporate partners from Reyes Holdings.

The brief for the project was intentionally open-ended. Student groups could choose which variables to look at, how to analyze them, and how to put them in context.

In capstone instructor Nidhal Bouazizi’s words, the project offered an invitation to “get a little messy with the data.”

“We were just given this dataset and the objective to enhance driver safety. There were no other real guidelines,” said Nithya Abraham, one of the students in Bouazizi’s latest winter quarter class. “That wasn’t because of our professor; that was the nature of the project. You have to play with the dataset and figure things out on your own.”

For Abraham’s class, that dataset was an intimidating file spanning over 100 columns and nearly 300,000 rows. Ongoing guidance from Bouazizi helped the student teams refine their approach. So did representatives from Reyes Holdings, who worked closely with the class throughout the term.

Some teams analyzed how factors like time and location affected risky behaviors. Others, including Abraham’s, looked at the firm’s coaching programs, comparing their effectiveness across different subsidiaries around the country.

Often, the hardest part wasn’t sifting through data fields or crafting complicated predictive models. It was figuring out how to chart a course through the data that could lead to an actionable recommendation.

In that choice lay a key lesson of the capstone project: Data is only as useful as the recommendations distilled from it.

“We could have gone and talked about a thousand things, but we stuck to focusing on preventing near-collision events to align with the cost-saving objective,” said student Alyssa Kozal. “We wanted to make a strong recommendation. And I think that made our presentation strong too.”

Or, as Bouazizi put it: “recommendations are how you monetize the data.” Recommendations — and the narratives that connect recommendations directly to the data.

Ultimately, the story of the M.S. in Business Analytics capstone project isn’t merely about students’ considerable technical expertise, or even their creativity and drive in applying it to real-world scenarios. It’s about the power of connecting statistics to strategy — and about what happens when students get the chance to think like a leader.

Kozal and her teammates, Malika Diwakar and Srushti Summanwar, were among a select few teams who got the chance to present their findings directly to executives from Reyes Holdings.

“It was important to us to have a storyline,” said Diwakar. “Who are we? What was our objective in this process? We really focused” — inspired by guidance from Bouazizi, she added — “on explaining our entire thought process, beginning to end.”

That’s part of what the capstone class gives students, said Vakeel: the ability to tell stories not just about the data, but about the process of sifting through it. The ability, in that way, to connect a company’s operations on the ground now to its strategy moving forward.

“I’m not someone who can sit at a screen for eight hours coding,” said Abraham. “What I do enjoy is looking at datasets, drawing insights from them, and making recommendations based on those insights. The capstone solidified that this is what I like doing. This is where I want to build my career.”

For students and companies alike, the capstone opens up new possibilities

Business analytics is a growing field. Bouazizi and Vakeel cite a number of students who leveraged their capstone experience to secure internships. One of Bouazizi’s students even landed a full-time role working for a manufacturer of AI-equipped cameras like the ones Reyes uses.

“This hands-on experience puts our students at a huge competitive advantage,” said Bouazizi. “We’re not providing you with a case study somebody wrote. This is the real deal.”

This spring, the program will partner with LabelMaster in addition to Reyes. That will give students the opportunity to pick a project that aligns with their career goals. It will also, Vakeel stressed, be just as beneficial for industry partners as it is for students.

“I’d say that this is a call to action to Chicago-based companies who want to partner with us,” said Vakeel. “We are open to such strategic partnerships, and we would welcome them in the future.”

“The responsibility involved in these projects is very high,” she added. “But the students have made us proud. It is a win-win situation—for DePaul, for our students, and for the companies.”

Innovation, the Driehaus Way: A Message from Dean Sulin Ba

Sulin Ba College News, Features, Notes from the Dean, Student Stories

A Message from Dean Sulin Ba

Dear Driehaus alumni, supporters, and community members:

Welcome to the fall 2024 issue of Business Exchange. Read on to learn about how our faculty are advancing knowledge, how our students are building careers, and perhaps most importantly, how our alumni are forging change in their fields.

A group of smiling students poses with donuts, accompanied by Dean Ba in a bright blue, business formal dress
Driehaus Dean Sulin Ba, at left, serves donuts to students to welcome in the fall quarter.

The latest from the college

First, though, a few pieces of good news.

For the second year in a row, Driehaus was ranked a top school for entrepreneurship by the Princeton Review! Driehaus was ranked #12 among undergraduate programs and #15 among graduate programs. The rankings testify to the vibrant entrepreneurial community we’ve built in Chicago and around the world and to the entrepreneurial spirit of Driehaus grads.

You can read more about the news here.

I am proud and grateful to share that, thanks to a generous $2.6 million gift from Dr. Curtis and Mrs. Gina Crawford, DePaul is launching a Business Technology Leadership Institute. Housed right here in the Driehaus College of Business, the institute will facilitate collaboration with technology experts in DePaul’s Jarvis College of Computing and Digital Media.

Side-by-side portraits of a smiling, elderly couple in formalwear and stylish glasses
Dr. Curtis J. and Mrs. Gina Crawford (Photos courtesy of the Crawford Family)

Like so many of our faculty, students, and alumni, the Crawfords recognize that cutting-edge technologies have the potential to transform how business gets done. Indeed, much of that potential is already being actualized.

Their gift will empower our students to drive this change. More importantly, it will empower our students to drive this change in a meaningful way, informed equally by the subject-matter expertise, entrepreneurial spirit, and commitment to social good that already make Driehaus distinctive.

You can read more about the initiatives this gift will fund here. My gratitude goes out to the Crawfords for their generosity — and to the faculty, students, staff, and alumni who are already doing exceptional work in this space.

Driehaus is already driving change at the intersection of business and technology. Our Halperin Emerging Companies Fund recently invested $100,000 in Orgaimi, an AI tech firm specializing in data science models and predictive analytics.

In this issue

In this issue of the Business Exchange, you’ll read about how we’re working to prepare students for meaningful careers at the forefront of change. Students at the Northern Trust competition got the chance to delve into timely, real-world issues with guidance from industry experts. Opportunities like this don’t just set up our students for jobs after graduation. They set up our students for meaningful career trajectories, which will surely include jobs we can’t yet envision.

Read more about the case competition here.

Our faculty are also driving change by advancing our understanding of real-world issues. Read on to hear insights into how brands should and shouldn’t intervene in hot-button political issues and learn about the widespread, damaging phenomenon of weight-based mistreatment in the workplace.

Learn about pioneering research into weight-based mistreatment in the workplace.

Hear the surprising results of a study that examined how to approach discussing controversial political issues.

Underpinning so much of this work — as I know it underpins so much of your work — is the entrepreneurial spirit. The two alumni profiled in this issue, Triple Demon Dana Alkhouri and the late, prolific entrepreneur John Goode, embody that spirit.

Read the story of John Goode’s remarkable life and legacy here. 

Hear from Dana Alkhouri about making a career pivot and centering women’s stories.

In closing

Many of us are preparing to spend the holiday season with friends and loved ones: with members of the communities that make us strong. Although there are many challenges ahead, for Driehaus College, for DePaul, and for the larger world we live in, I find comfort in returning to what makes Driehaus what it is: our alumni and our students. Your passion — not just for innovating or forging your own path, but for taking others with you along the journey — are making a difference.

Sincerely,

Sulin Ba, PhD

Dean, Driehaus College of Business

For Driehaus Students, a Deep Dive into Forex Becomes a Testament to Teamwork — and a Launching Pad for Careers

Meredith Carroll Features, Student Stories

The foreign currency exchange market is endlessly complex and constantly shifting. For the institutions that trade on it, being able to do so seamlessly — and in a way that maximizes profits — is paramount.  

Four young men in suits -- three of them visibly related -- pose, smiling, in front of a modern, glass-walled classroom.DePaul students dived headfirst into the complexities of the foreign exchange market (also known as Forex) at the inaugural Northern Trust case competition on October 17 and 18.  

Co-organized by Driehaus’ BETA Hub and the School of Computing and sponsored by Northern Trust, the competition charged teams of students (who could compete on a business or technology track) with improving a hypothetical bank’s process for Forex, including cryptocurrency. With guidance from Northern Trust professionals, students had just over 24 hours to devise a workable solution — and sell it to a panel of experienced judges. 

Preparation, delegation, details — and trust

For the four Driehaus students who won the business track, the victory was a testament to the importance of preparation, delegation, details, and trust.  

“I think DePaul did a great job preparing us,” said team member Diego Villaseñor. “What really helped us was knowing how to do due diligence, how to do your homework, and how to ask the right people the right questions.”   

Diego, his brothers Fabian and Maximos, and their teammate Nick Lopez came in with a wide array of strengths. All seniors, their majors span accounting, marketing, management, and finance. 

“The last thing you want is to be stressed about your other team members,” said Lopez. “I don’t think there was a single moment where that happened. We were able to divide and conquer. I took over the cryptocurrency side, and I knew my part forward and backward. We knew that we could trust each other with what we were assigned.”  

Four young men in suits gather close around a whiteboardThe team had been working on building trust since long before the competition — or even their time at DePaul. The three Villaseñor brothers are triplets; Lopez is a longtime friend who grew up down the street in Orland Park, a southwest suburb of Chicago.  

The group found a room where they could focus. They brought in a whiteboard to jot down ideas. Diego, the group’s finance expert, brought in a second monitor. Feedback from the judges helped them quickly to home in on the main questions: 

“There are a lot of buzzwords when you talk about crypto in particular,” said Maximos. “You can come up with a lot of ideas. But how are you going to do them?  What are the legal parameters? Those are the common questions teams kept getting asked by judges.”  

On selling your idea

Once the team had the framework of a solution in place, they faced a second hurdle: How to sell their solution to a panel of judges in just under 10 minutes? And how to ensure their solution would be memorable?  

Fabian’s experience in sales helped them arrive at a solution. They would anchor their presentation around Carmen: a fictitious pension fund manager who needed her bank to be able to make trades on foreign assets.  

“It’s so important to make the information tangible,” said Fabian. “You can have great information. But if customers don’t understand it, what use is it?”  

“With the Carmen story, we were able to talk about a particular client and specific issues she might have,” echoed Maximos. “It really made our presentation come full circle.” 

Equally important was being ready to embrace the unexpected:  

“During the Q&A portion,” said Diego, “it was so important to defend your answers, to make sure the judges were able to understand. We had to get comfortable with being asked questions on the spot.”  

Connections, careers, and where to go from here

Four young men in suits pose, smiling. They are wearing nametags and lanyards.Reflecting on the experience as a capstone of sorts for their time at DePaul, the team returned to the value of making connections — to one another, to professionals, and to their careers.  

“I think a lot of times, students are nervous about doing a case competition – or to network with people there,” said Lopez. “One of the mentors we spoke with was the Senior Vice President of FX Technology and Product Development for Northern Trust. He’s a very successful individual – but at the end of the day, we’re all people. I think a lot of the success we had was connecting with people on a personal level.” 

All four teammates see direct connections between their experiences at Driehaus, in the case competition, and where they’re going next.  

Maximos will be starting a full-time role in HR at Plante Moran, where he’s been working part-time while he finishes up his studies.  

“A lot of what I work on relates back to this case study,” he said. “There’s a lot of communication. You need to be able to have trust, and to be able give and receive constructive feedback.”  

Fabian will continue pursuing his passion for tech sales in a role at Salesforce. This work, he hopes, will allow him to continue helping fellow Blue Demons advance their careers.  

Diego is choosing among competing offers in consulting. It’s an industry, he said, that speaks to his passion for project management and learning about new, complicated topics quickly — both skills he got to hone at the case competition.  

Lopez, who is graduating in June, is preparing to sit for his CPA exam. After graduation, he has an offer lined up with Apercen Partners, a boutique tax consulting firm for high net-worth individuals: the kind of setting where he may well be able to implement what he’s learned from his deep dive into Forex and cryptocurrency.  

When the team looks back on their time at DePaul, they think of opportunities like this case competition. Over time, the team said, such opportunities can accumulate into invaluable experience. 

“All four of us are first-generation college students. That, and coming from a Latino background, really lit a fire under us to make the most out of our time here,” said Maximos. “I think case competitions like this really help you build those connections and get experience. Win or lose, you’re still going to get something – and it’s those connections with those people.” 

International Student Spotlight

Meredith Carroll Student Stories , , ,

Two international students share their takes on Chicago, on finding their path and on the importance of mentorship

By Meredith Carroll

Serigne Dramé

What do I think of DePaul in a sentence? A school that gives you the tools and the flexibility to succeed.

Where is home for you, and how did you choose DePaul?

I’m from Senegal.

A headshot of Serigne Drame
Photo provided by Serigne Dramé

The “me” from 2019, when I applied to college, had a much different vision for my future. I wanted to be a game designer. And I applied to DePaul because it’s known for that. I was accepted to a number of different places — some in the U.S., some in France. What made the difference was that my sister was in Chicago and going to IIT.

Speaking of Chicago — what’s your experience been like in the city?

There’s this weird cycle. The winter gets so bad that you start thinking, “maybe Florida sounds nice.” But then the summer happens. And you think, “this is so nice I’m going to give it another try.”

I’ve taken bachata classes. For a time, I did pro wrestling. That’s the other thing about Chicago. It gives you so many possibilities. It’s international to an extent. And that’s the big draw.

The one thing I’ve noticed is that most people who live here think you’re from Chicago. That can be a good thing and a bad thing. The good thing: it’s easy to be integrated. The bad thing: people assume you know things — slang, expressions, politics — you don’t.

How did you go from studying game design to the degree you’ll be graduating with: a double major in Management Information Systems and International Business?

My first year was 2020-21. It was all remote. At the end of that year, I realized that I wanted to do more. MIS stood out because it offers this blend of business and technology.

MIS is one of those majors that you don’t hear a lot about. But what I like with it was that the core classes were business classes and the electives were technical — data analytics, databases, cybersecurity.

It’s more applied. And there’s the versatility. Looking back, if I had been a Computer Science student, I don’t think I would have gotten my M&A internship. I was able to take applied finance classes, and that allowed me to do well in the technical interviews.  The big advantage is the flexibility.

Searching for jobs and internships as an international student can be especially challenging. What has the experience been like for you?

I did two internships during my time at DePaul, both of them at EY. In September, I applied for a job at Deloitte. I heard back from them in January. And I got it. I feel lucky. There was a lot of hard work involved; but still, I feel lucky. The market is hard. And most employers don’t sponsor visas. There’s a lot of pressure; if you don’t find a job quickly, you’ll have to return to your home country.

The school of business has been really helpful for two reasons. I mentioned the flexibility aspect. But there’s also the fact that we’re in Chicago. Chicago is a big market; there’s a lot of professionals. Even beyond the career fairs, everyone has connections. You can just ask faculty after class, and they’ll connect you to someone.

How would you sum up DePaul in a sentence?

DePaul is really, for me, an example of it is what you make of it. If you leverage the Career Center, the knowledge that you get from classes, the connections, the career fairs, the software resources, you can go far.

What do I think of DePaul in a sentence? A school that gives you the tools and the flexibility to succeed.

 

Suchita Farkiwala

I have come to see the world from a bigger, broader perspective. Every day, there are things that I am learning, things that I am unlearning and things that I am relearning.

Where is home for you, and what has your experience at DePaul been like?

I come from Ahmedabad in Gujarat, India. Currently, I commute from Morton Grove, where I live with my family.

DePaul is in the heart of Chicago. So you get the best of the big city experience. The diversity at DePaul is incredible. People come here from all over the world.

A headshot of Suchita Farkiwala
Photo provided by Suchita Farkiwala

What were your career goals when you arrived at DePaul, and how has that changed?

I am an accounting undergrad. When I started, I simply wanted to make money, get a stable job, and make my family proud. Basically, I wanted to live the American Dream. But DePaul changed the way I see my life, what I want to do in my life.

Now, I want to give back to the community. I want to do something that impacts the lives of others. My professors inspired me to follow their path. One day, I want to come back to DePaul as a professor and help others so that they can be another success story from DePaul.

Mentorship has been a central part of your experience at DePaul. Tell us more about that!

Faculty at DePaul have been incredibly supportive of me, even before I started my journey as an accounting major here. Within the accounting department, Kent Klaus and Margaret Tower have been especially helpful. They pushed me to apply for on-campus jobs. They encouraged me to pursue an internship at Deloitte – and I got it.

Ever since I got that internship, I’ve tried to help other students so that they can get this chance too. I sit down with them: help them to get better grades in accounting class, get their resume done, practice interviewing with them.

Outside of that, I have been active with International Student and Scholar Services as a mentor. Mentorship is a gift that keeps giving. It’s made me grow so much as a person, as a professional. I’ve met so many new international students and learned so much about their cultures. It’s given me the chance to be the reason someone feels seen, heard, cared for, and valued.

What’s your favorite advice to give your mentees?

I tell them: Any time that you feel that your question is too dumb to ask, ask me. At DePaul, I have never found a person who said no to me when I needed help. Regardless of whether my question was academic, professional, or just about learning the basic ways to survive in Chicago.

Miracles don’t happen in a snap. Don’t rush. Give yourself some time to experience the magic of DePaul.

Finally: Don’t think that you are different. Think that you are unique. It will change the way you think about yourself. At DePaul, we celebrate that. There’s no pressure to fit in. So be yourself.

What’s some memorable advice you have received?

My accounting professors and a mentor from Deloitte both told me: Use your career as a canvas. Ask for what you want. Do whatever makes you happy. Accounting is very, very tough. It’s a tough major; it’s a tougher profession. So never feel like you can’t do this. Take the initiative.

My father always tells me: The only way to grow is to help other people grow. The only way to heal is to help other people. So don’t come back home with a trophy unless you are already committed to paying it back to those who made it happen.

How has DePaul changed you?

My professors have been here for me, my friends have been here for me. My supervisors and colleagues have been incredibly supportive.

My mentors always tell me, “don’t expect less for yourself.” They made me believe that.

I have come to see the world from a bigger, broader perspective. Every day, there are things that I am learning, things that I am unlearning and things that I am relearning.

My success is a shared success of my family and my DePaul community.

Now, DePaul feels like a home away from home.