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

May 27, 2025 Meredith Carroll Features, Student Stories cta, entrepreneurship, greater roseland, red line extension, vincentian mission

MBA students harnessed entrepreneurship to envision revitalization

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.”

For James Bort, Research and Experience Go Hand in Hand

June 24, 2024June 25, 2024 Meredith Carroll Faculty Focus career exploration, entrepreneurship, research, startups

By Jamie Merchant

A photo of James Bort — Photo provided by James Bort

“We always study entrepreneurs, you know? Looking at the employees of a startup is a little different.”

James Bort has a slightly unconventional outlook for a scholar of modern business.

“My dad was a line-level employee in a factory, and he had a very adversarial relationship with work,” he candidly shared in a recent interview. “So, when I started working for people who ran their own companies, that completely changed my view of what the world could be.”

An early exposure to the unique culture of startups — their collegial atmosphere, the give-and-take between employees and leadership — offered Bort a different model for understanding the workplace in the 21st century. That experience piqued an intellectual interest that motivates his research to this day.

Bort’s curiosity eventually led him to the academic study of startups, particularly the startup workforce. However, he points to the value of his on-the-ground experiences as an early-stage employee, entrepreneur, and musician for prompting the questions he asks about the modern workplace. Prior to joining academia, he was a software engineer, information technology manager, and restaurant owner in a career that spanned multiple industries. He even launched his own independent record label during his time in graduate school at Syracuse University.

It’s a research agenda shaped by art, science, and his personal history.

“Research is ultimately me-search,” Bort said, echoing the well-known statement of his graduate advisor, Johan Wicklund. “It’s a journey of self-discovery.”

Over the course of these experiences, the new assistant professor in the Driehaus College of Business became fascinated by the mutual lines of influence that run between startups and their employees: a startup is uniquely open to employee input and guidance, while at the same time it can serve as a springboard into future opportunities as the venture grows and evolves.

“There is this sort of bidirectional influence where you’re drawn to the startup because there’s endless opportunity, but then it influences you, in the sense that your career trajectory can be accelerated in some phenomenal ways.”

Storytelling as an Engine of Entrepreneurship

Having worked on both sides of the equation as a startup employee and an entrepreneur, Bort’s scholarly attention has recently been drawn to the role of narrative: to the power of the stories we tell to shape our perception of the world around us. For aspiring entrepreneurs, these stories can have an outsized impact on their career trajectories — or, as in his own case, on one’s research interests.

Bort’s background as a business owner indelibly informs his research in the field of entrepreneurship. Not only talking the talk, but also walking the walk is crucial, in his view.

“To have had that experience of like: it’s Wednesday, payroll hits tomorrow, and I’m still two grand shy. I have a day to figure this out — that hustle changes you as a human, and it certainly informs your approach to research.”

Our life experiences provide the raw material for the stories we tell ourselves. These, in turn, shape our perceptions of our own possibilities. For example, in a recent article published in The Journal of Business Research, Bort and his co-author, Henrick Totterman, found that “underdog” entrepreneurs — entrepreneurs starting from disadvantaged personal or economic circumstances — often have higher growth aspirations, precisely because of the adversities they have had to overcome.

But this work is not only relevant for specialists in the field. Bort’s students find it fascinating.

“The students love it,” he said. “I have units on neurodiversity and entrepreneurship and how we can flip these things into a strength. And [the students] really react strongly to it, because it’s becoming less stigmatized. It’s OK if you are depressed and going through it, because this is what the human experience is!

“The classic idea of the lone wolf entrepreneur, where everything’s perfect and you just see the success story — that’s not how it is. Really successful people struggle too.” It’s an empowering message for students crafting their own narratives as they set out on their post-college careers.

Bort is still getting to know the students and culture of the university. But he’s quickly getting a sense for what makes DePaul special. Teaching in the part-time MBA program has been particularly rewarding.

“They’re really, naturally curious and motivated. It’s one of the best groups I’ve had. When I did my MBA, it was part time as well, and it was really hard. So I try to construct the course to be like the course I would have wanted to take when I was in my MBA program!”

Message from the Dean

November 14, 2023November 14, 2023 Meredith Carroll Notes from the Dean education, entrepreneurship, global consortium of entrepreneurship centers, pitch competition, sports business

Driehaus entrepreneurship program ranked #10 in the nation; curricular innovations honored; and more good news from the Loop.

As the fall quarter draws to a close, we have much to celebrate here at DePaul’s Driehaus College of Business.

Two of our very own initiatives, the Driehaus Cup pitch competition and the Coleman Entrepreneurship Center, received top honors from our peers.

As you learned in the last issue of the Business Exchange, the Driehaus Cup is an engaging “Shark Tank”-style pitch competition that gives Business 101 students the chance to explore entrepreneurship early in their careers. In October, the Driehaus Cup earned the annual Curricular Innovation award from the MidAmerican Business Deans Association.

We already knew this year would be a special one for the Coleman Entrepreneurship Center (CEC). A hub of entrepreneurial community in Chicago, the center celebrated its 20th anniversary this October. Just before that gathering, we received fantastic news. At the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers annual conference (which boasted more than 700 attendees representing 300 universities from across 19 countries!), the Consortium honored our very own CEC with its Nasdaq Center of Entrepreneurial Excellence award. This award is given annually to just one university from among those with an enrollment of 5,000 or more students. It is regarded as the highest honor a university entrepreneurship center can achieve.

In no small part due to the success of these initiatives, our undergraduate entrepreneurship program was ranked 10th in the nation by the Princeton Review. I am so proud of this achievement. It attests to a culture of innovation at Driehaus. And this culture isn’t just created and sustained by our students, faculty and staff. It is also a product of our alumni and community supporters. Everyone I have spoken to involved in entrepreneurship at Driehaus can tell you this: Supporting entrepreneurs is a team effort. Our entrepreneurship program is only as strong as our connections. And those connections are strong indeed.

From entrepreneurship to sports marketing and management, this issue of Business Exchange is all about connections. You’ll read about the Coleman Center’s role as a hub of entrepreneurial community. You’ll hear how that community has supported Driehaus junior Gretchen Shuler as she launches a coffee business designed to empower foster youth. You’ll drop in on Director of Sports Business Programs Andy Clark’s (MBA ’87) “master classes” in networking. And you’ll hear about an exciting new program launched by Richard Rocco, associate professor of marketing, that promises to build bridges between research and industry.

In all four stories, you’ll find alumni and supporters of Driehaus and the Kellstadt Graduate School of Business. Some are mentioned by name. Others play equally crucial roles just off the page as mentors, as panelists and guest speakers, as pitch competition judges, as bridge-builders and change-makers.

If you are looking for ways to get involved yourself, the CEC would be delighted to hear from you. I would be too. Regardless, I am confident that you will find the stories of our students and faculty just as inspiring as I do.

Reflecting on 20 Years of Innovation and Vision at the Coleman Entrepreneurship Center

November 14, 2023 Meredith Carroll Features entrepreneurship, founder, pitch, social impact, venture fund

From mentorship to venture funds, learn how the Coleman Entrepreneurship Center has served as a hub of entrepreneurial community in Chicago.

Over the 20-year history of the Coleman Entrepreneurship Center (CEC), one definition of entrepreneurship has risen above the rest.

Entrepreneurship at its best is about meeting a need in your community.

As CEC Executive Director Bruce Leech (MBA ’81) puts it: “I want to honor the student who walks in here and wants to open a grocery store on the South Side of Chicago because there isn’t one — a business that will create jobs and sustain their family.”

It’s a definition of entrepreneurship that reflects what’s distinctive about DePaul University: A commitment to its Catholic, Vincentian mission of making education accessible to all. And promoting peaceful, just and equitable solutions to challenges faced by communities in Chicago and around the world.

The center’s work has garnered recognition. At this year’s Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers conference, which brought together 700 participants from 300 universities across 19 countries, the CEC won the Nasdaq Center of Entrepreneurial Excellence award. The award is the highest honor a university entrepreneurship center can achieve.

And when the Princeton Review released their rankings of university entrepreneurship programs for 2024? The undergraduate program at Driehaus ranked 10th in the nation.

Local solutions to local needs: A look back

Students in the audience for University Pitch Madness, an entrepreneurship competition hosted by CEC that brings together student teams from universities across the Midwest.

The CEC was founded in 2003. Its history stretches back decades before that.

Harold Welsch (BUS ’66, MBA ’68) was the founding chair of the center. Before entrepreneurship was a buzzword, Welsch taught students much like the ones Leech interacts with today: first-generation college students and others who are invested in using business to better their communities.

In the ’90s, Welsch’s focus on empowering small-business owners coincided with rising interest in entrepreneurship.

“Harold was kind of the godfather of entrepreneurship,” Leech says. “The people I look up to now looked up to him. He saw a need” to equip students to “help their family businesses, help their communities.”

Welsch’s work resonated with Mike Hennessy, CEO of the Coleman Foundation from 1995 to 2020 and a champion of entrepreneurship in Chicago. In 2003, with Hennessy’s support and a generous gift from the foundation, the CEC was born.

In 2023, the center’s mission — entrepreneurship as a way of meeting a local need — has proven as relevant as ever. If anything has changed, Leech says, it’s the scope. Students aren’t just bringing an entrepreneurial spirit back to communities in Chicago. From Honduras to India, they’re also making a difference around the world.

A mindset, a skill set, an ecosystem: The CEC’s impact today

A mindset: Cultivating wonder

For Leech, teaching entrepreneurship starts with recognizing that entrepreneurship “isn’t a subject. It’s a skill set.”

It’s also a mindset: a way of engaging with your work regardless of your role.

“One of the best traits you can have as an entrepreneur is a sense of curiosity,” Leech says. “I relate it back to a childlike sense of wonder. At some point, as we get older, we get blinders on. We don’t question anything anymore.”

In teaching entrepreneurship, Leech says, his task is to help students cultivate curiosity.

“Even if you go to work for a big company, don’t just sit there and do your job,” he advises students. “Ask yourself: If this were my place, how would I do it differently?”

A DePaul student admires jewelry at the Coleman Center's Welcome Back Market. — A DePaul student admires jewelry at the Coleman Center’s Welcome Back Market.

A skill set: Internships with an impact

Cultivating an entrepreneurial mindset can benefit all students — not just those who see themselves as entrepreneurs.

Director of Emerging Company Programs Emily Doyle runs the center’s internship program. After the COVID-19 pandemic limited students’ access to work experience, Doyle says, “the need for internships skyrocketed.”

Fast-forward to this year, when the CEC received more than 120 applications for internships. This summer, 36 students participated in paid internships — many funded directly by donors — tailored to their interests and goals. Many of these students came from fields other than entrepreneurship, and many are international students.

Interning in an entrepreneurial environment gives students “unparalleled access to creativity, innovation and problem-solving,” Doyle says.

For many students, an internship is their first exposure to a work environment where there are opportunities to define your role for yourself. It can be daunting and rewarding in equal measure, Doyle says.

Companies benefit too. Interns have taken on significant projects, such as designing logos or launching branding initiatives.

“Students get to make an impact within just a few months,” Doyle says, “in a way that’s not possible at other kinds of companies.”

Put another way, the internship program not only prepares students for the workforce. It also helps students launch their careers while they’re still at DePaul.

An ecosystem: Creating a hub of innovation and connection

Indeed, according to Program Manager Kathia Hernandez (BUS ’22), many students are already engaged in entrepreneurship. They just don’t see it that way.

“Having a side hustle, making art, selling jewelry — all of that is entrepreneurship,” she says. She encourages students to visit the center even if they don’t have specific questions. “Just come in and tell us what you’re doing. We’ll figure it out together.”

This philosophy pervades the center’s work. It applies equally to the center’s role as a hub of entrepreneurial community in Chicago.

The CEC has long supported women in entrepreneurship. The Women in Entrepreneurship Institute — launched in 2018 and now housed in the CEC — supports and empowers women founders through all stages of their entrepreneurial journeys.

Yaxi Yang and Kimberly Moore speak at A Tech-Enabled Future Powered by Women Entrepreneurs, a panel discussion hosted by the Women in Entrepreneurship Institute in partnership with the Tech Unicorn.

Additionally, the CEC welcomes community members to participate in much of its programming. The Social Impact Incubator takes this community involvement to the next level.

Now entering its third year, the incubator brings together a small cohort of students, alumni and community members — all of them building businesses with a social impact.

For eight weeks, participants get a crash course in how to launch a business. In the process, they create community that can be hard to find elsewhere.

“The common mission of building a business really brings the group together,” says Coleman Chair of Entrepreneurship Maija Renko, who created the program alongside Leech. “You can’t tell who’s a student, who’s a community member. The learning goes in all directions.”

Sina Ansari, assistant professor of management and entrepreneurship at DePaul, pitches his business as a participant in the 2023 Social Impact Incubator.

Many participants of the incubator have gone on to host DePaul student interns. Others have offered up their expertise as mentors. The incubator and other community-focused programs feed into Chicago’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. Students, alumni and local communities all benefit.

Evolving in community: Looking ahead to the future

As the center looks ahead to its next 20 years, entrepreneurship will continue to evolve. The CEC’s role in Chicago’s entrepreneurial ecosystem will continue to evolve along with it.

The newly created Halperin Emerging Company Fund — which provides capital for DePaul to make equity investments in startups founded by DePaul students, alumni and select community entrepreneurs — is one indication of what that evolution might look like.

As an evergreen venture fund launched with a $3 million gift, the Halperin Fund gives students the chance to get firsthand experience with the venture-funding process. Two students sit on the fund’s board. Students participate in early rounds of the vetting process, hearing founders’ pitches and offering feedback.

In this way, education goes hand in hand with giving back.

“Even if it’s a no” on funding, says Doyle, who administers the program, “we can leverage our DePaul network to help businesses continue to grow. We can offer that partnership; we can offer that community.”

It’s a community that will go with students wherever their journey takes them next — from neighborhoods in Chicago to cities around the world.

For Leech, it all comes back to the CEC’s mission.

“Let’s honor and serve the students we’ve got here,” he says. “If I can help them in any way, that’s what I want to do.”

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For Gretchen Shuler, Entrepreneurship Is Joy in Action

November 14, 2023June 25, 2024 Meredith Carroll Connections, Features careers, Coleman Foundation, entrepreneurship, foster youth, sustainability

Gretchen Shuler speaks into a microphone on a stage. Her hands are in motion, and she appears intent — Shuler at the 2023 Purpose Pitch competition

Gretchen Shuler, a junior entrepreneurship student at DePaul, has taken a whirlwind journey from ordinary student to student and entrepreneur. One emotion stands out above the rest.

For Shuler, entrepreneurship is joy.

“Entrepreneurship is enjoying what you do,” she reflects. “Entrepreneurs create companies because they want to do things in a different way. They want to bring their ideas to life and share them with others. That’s such a big part of it.

“Shuler is in the final stages of opening her business: ReBrewed, a fair trade and sustainable mobile coffee cart that will empower foster youth through employment and mentorship. ReBrewed is brewing every cup with a purpose.

The vision for ReBrewed is uniquely Shuler’s own.

As a high school student living in a single-mother household, Shuler relied on her job at a local coffee shop. There, she discovered her passion for coffee and experienced firsthand how flexibility and support at work made it possible to stay engaged in schoolwork and in her community while saving for college.

Supporting foster youth is central to Schuler, whose extended family includes several foster and adopted children. Throughout high school, Shuler also cared for and mentored foster children through an organization that started in Chicago, RePlanted.

The experience gave her an in-depth understanding of the challenges many foster youth face. Many lack access to reliable transportation, making it difficult to participate in extracurriculars, access employment or even attend school regularly. According to the Juvenile Law Center, over 50% of foster youth face incarceration by the age of 17. Children moved to five or more placements are at a 90% risk of being involved in the criminal justice system.

ReBrewed aims to change that.

Shuler envisions a workplace built around the emotional and financial needs of foster youth. Mentorship for employees will be part of that.

“Integrated into the workday, there would be an hour of meeting with your mentor,” she says. “Or you do your homework assignments while you’re at work, rather than when you’re in a home environment that might be chaotic, unsupportive or unsafe.” Shuler’s vision of mentorship is expansive. It’s not only about connecting youth with volunteer mentors, she says; it’s about connecting them to networks of support.

Gretchen Shuler reaches over a table crowded with coffee supplies to hand a student a cup of coffee — Shuler serves up one of ReBrewed’s first cups of coffee at the CEC’s Welcome Back Market

In this way, Shuler’s vision reflects her experiences at DePaul’s Coleman Entrepreneurship Center (CEC).

“If I had not been mentored throughout this process, I would be so lost,” Shuler says. CEC Program Manager Kathia Hernandez (BUS ’22) guided her through the process of setting up her LLC. The center’s mentorship program connected Shuler with Jazmyn Lopez, a Chicago-area growth strategist specializing in marketing and operational solutions. Lopez was instrumental, Shuler says, in supporting Shuler as she established her online presence and her continuing steps in opening ReBrewed.

CEC’s pitch competitions acted as their own form of mentorship. Shuler competed in, and won, the Student Innovation Expo in February 2023. She placed third in the student category of the Purpose Pitch competition later that spring. Over the summer, she was selected as the DePaul student representative for Pitch Madness. She placed fourth in this competitive, regional competition.

A ReBrewed cup, designed and sustainably produced in collaboration with Sharath Kalappa (CDM ’24)

Feedback from these competitions helped Shuler refine her business model. It got more streamlined. It became more focused on doing good, not only for the foster youth she’ll employ but also for the environment. She collaborated with Sharath Kalappa, founder of EcoPlate and a student in the M.S. in Business Analytics program at the Kellstadt Graduate School of Business, to create cups from sustainable materials. She sourced her coffee from Alma Coffee, a sustainable, farm-to-cup operation founded by Leticia Hutchins (BUS ‘16), whose family has been farming coffee in Honduras for five generations.

When Shuler reflects on her entrepreneurial journey, it’s about dualities: a willingness to ask for help paired with the ability to stand your ground. She has figured out how to delegate even as she found herself taking on role after role: founder, accountant, designer, barista.

“Entrepreneurship,” she reflects, “is that sense of holding your own ground, even when people don’t necessarily believe in you or in what you’re doing. It’s collaboration, independence, innovation, iteration – just a whole mosh pit of self-reflection.

“One last thing I’ll say: It’s about never getting comfortable. Never settling. There’s always something you can do better or affect more people. It’s about being open to change.”