Northwestern helps to develop and nurture educators, activists, entertainers, journalists, doctors, and so much more. Today’s Wildcats are tomorrow’s leaders. In this Class of 2014 Alumni Spotlight series, we hope to not only show some of the amazing projects and initiatives our classmates are accomplishing through their careers and personal work, but also to revel in the pride we as a community have in how much Northwestern alumni have achieved—and how much they are changing the world.
Natalie Edell
Demetri Elias
Catherine Franklin
Neel Kunjur
Natalie Edell ’14 always loved music. So it wasn’t unexpected when she launched her own music company, IndieU—a music platform to connect independent artists to college students. The access that her platform provides enables independent artists to gain traction and promote their music without having to seek out a formal record label.
During her senior year of high school, Natalie worked in the music industry; she got to work with a management company, and with various artists in L.A. By her freshman year of college, Natalie had even signed an artist to Interscope records! But she realized there were so many talented artists not making it. “I thought, ‘How are these artists getting noticed without the help of a label; how are they growing their fan base?’”
“I knew I wanted to create a technology to connect artists to students in order to help them grow a fan base, all while helping students discover their local music scene.” So, during her junior year, Natalie incorporated her company, IndieU. She recruited Northwestern students to join her team and help her grow the network.
Despite the challenges that go along with working on such a big startup endeavor, Natalie has enjoyed some great successes, including closing funding a few months ago and having a major presence at Northwestern’s Dillo Day—her company sponsored the second stage, and along with WNUR, they brought in 4‒5 local, independent artists to perform. “At any given time, there were 50‒100 people lined up to play games and win t-shirts,” says Natalie. “It was cool to see students embracing this and dancing and enjoying themselves. It gave me a vision of what this could become on a larger scale across the country and world.”
Currently, there are about 2,000 artists on the IndieU platform and 45 reps spread across 13 college campuses. In the next six months, Natalie hopes to secure additional capital. She wants to grow the network, expand to 100 universities including some in Europe, and throw music festivals on college campuses. “I want this to be a part of the college student's everyday lifestyle.”
Being at Northwestern allowed Natalie to participate in the incubator program where she was able to take classes like Principles of Entrepreneurship that fostered her entrepreneurial spirit. “Northwestern helped me realize that my ideas could become something more, something concrete,” she says. “I was also able to see all aspects of the entertainment industry by taking so many different kinds of classes. Northwestern allowed me to do everything I needed to in order to reach my goals and become successful.”
Although Demetri Elias ’14 graduated in 2014, he decided he hadn’t had enough of Northwestern! “I went straight to Northwestern’s campus in Qatar to work as the special assistant to the dean,” says Demetri. One of the most important parts of Demetri’s job abroad was working closely with the Student Affairs team to connect the campuses. “I helped Student Affairs put on many events, including helping with “Creativity and Innovation: A Student Showcase” at Northwestern’s Block Museum of Art on the Evanston campus. Members of the Doha campus came to showcase the Northwestern Experience in Qatar.
“My time at NUQ is really meaningful to me,” says Demetri. “The students over there sometimes feel disconnected from the main campus in Evanston, and I felt like I was doing my part to make that connection stronger.”
So what made Demetri decide to live in Doha? He has always loved traveling and volunteering abroad, and has been to 90 countries now (29 just this past year!). “I studied history at Northwestern with a focus on the Middle East, and I wanted to be in the region to see what was happening, so working at NUQ was a great fit for me,” he says. Qatar is only 30 percent nationals, the rest of the population is comprised of people from all over the world—students hail from Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine, South Asia, East Asia, Sudan, and beyond the Arab world. “It’s a very cool melting pot, and I enjoyed really getting to know people and happenings from all over the world.”
Demetri will be attending graduate school next September at the University College of London, where he will focus on transnational studies. Eventually, he hopes to work with international NGOs like the United Nations.
While at Northwestern, Demetri was heavily involved with Dance Marathon. “It was a priority for me because it’s such a good cause, and it’s inspiring to see so many people coming together to raise money,” says Demetri. “Not to mention that DM is also just really fun! It unites the whole campus.” Demetri even served as emcee one year.
He’s always had a philanthropic spirit: Demetri volunteered at an orphanage in India during his gap year between high school and college “Giving back has always been important to me,” he says. He currently gives back to Dance Marathon and is active in the Northwestern alumni community as a member of the Northwestern University Leadership Circle and a bronze-level member of NU Loyal.
Demetri credits Northwestern with helping him to become a well-rounded person. “There were always a lot of different things happening on campus and it felt so inclusive,” he says. “I wanted to get involved in everything, get to know different people, and go outside of my comfort zone. For example, when I came to Northwestern I never even thought I would join a fraternity and then I ended up being the philanthropy head.” In addition to that, Demetri worked on theater shows and was Willie the Wildcat!
“I wouldn’t have turned out to be the person I am without the values and goals I nurtured at Northwestern.”
In college, Neel Kunjur ’14 knew he liked science but wasn’t sure what he was going to do after his time at Northwestern. “Luckily, I found some professors in electrical engineering at McCormick who kept me fascinated in electrical engineering and I eventually came to see just how many cool opportunities there were in my field.”
Neel followed one of those “cool opportunities” straight to his current role as an Avionics Integration Engineer at SpaceX, a space company dedicated to launching commercial satellites and conducting re-supply missions to the International Space Station. He works on the avionics systems (the power, guidance, and communication for a vehicle) for Dragon, the capsule that docks with the Space Station.
Coming out of college, Neel really wanted to focus on a career where he could hone his skills as an electrical engineer, but most of the jobs he came across seemed to lack opportunities for hands-on experience. “I went to a SpaceX information session and met some of the engineers and loved how everyone was so passionate about the work they did,” says Neel. “I was faced with a chance to work on some of the coolest technology I'd been exposed to and learn from some of the brightest engineers in the industry. I jumped at the opportunity.”
Within the first six months at SpaceX, Neel learned a great deal about power systems and circuit design by actually applying what he'd learned at McCormick on real, high-impact projects. His greatest challenge came while he was working on the CRS-7 mission. “An anomaly early in launch caused us to lose the vehicle,” says Neel. “I'd spent much of my first six months preparing the avionics systems on the vehicle for launch, and to see it all go away so quickly was pretty painful. That being said, I learned a lot about how to focus on finding a solution rather than feeling sorry for myself.”
Neel thinks back on the impact Northwestern made on him: “Northwestern gave me the skills to succeed at any engineering job. The University does a great job of teaching you the fundamentals of engineering and exposing you to a wide variety of disciplines, and with that kind of knowledge, you can jump into any project in any field and be successful.”
A couple months into her first job out of co
llege, Catherine Franklin was given an incredible opportunity: Vosges Haut-Chocolat’s CEO took a chance on her in asking her to lead the launch of Wild Ophelia, Vosges’ sister brand. With all of the ingredients sourced in the United States, Wild Ophelia boasts the same high quality chocolate and unique flavor profiles of Vosges but at a lower price point.
“It was so exciting,” says Catherine. “I was at the helm of overseeing the launch and activation of a whole new brand.” With a BS in Communication Studies, a minor in cognitive psychology, and an IMC certificate from Northwestern University, Catherine used her knowledge of marketing and consumer behavior to execute a successful strategy.
“Working there was like working for Willy Wonka,” says Catherine. “I would snack on the freshest truffles that came directly out of the factory attached to the corporate office. The CEO truly is a creative genius,” says Catherine. “She is committed to female entrepreneurship. So it was important to her that female entrepreneurship be a focal point alongside chocolate. A percentage of Wild Ophelia’s profit is donated to women’s organizations that fund female entrepreneurs.”
While Catherine enjoyed working for a company whose mission she believed in, she saw the next couple years as an important time to learn as much as she could, recently deciding to move to Slalom Consulting. “It was (literally) bittersweet to leave Vosges, which had been such an indescribable opportunity,” says Catherine.
Catherine joined Slalom Consulting’s nascent marketing department. “One of the most interesting aspects of being at Slalom is how cool it is to be in the Chicago branch, one of the first marketing departments at the company; we are at the forefront of making decisions that affect Slalom as a brand internationally.”
“In both of my jobs, I’ve been challenged to think creatively and critically every day—and much of that ability is from the education I received at NU.”
While at Northwestern, Catherine constantly found herself inspired by everyone around her. She especially loved balancing being part of the student-athlete community and participating in Greek life. “I was challenged every single day,” says Catherine. “Northwestern taught me how to be independent and confront challenges. I was constantly pushed out of my comfort zone. Northwestern prepared me for the real world.”