#WildcatWelcome at The Garage

It’s an exciting time at Northwestern. As the leaves start to turn, we start seeing seas of purple as we welcome new transfers and the class of 2021 to campus. This year. The Garage participated in Wildcat Welcome--a week full of activities for new students to get to know each other, their new home, and find out what resources, student organizations, and opportunities await them. First, we headed to the Resource Fair, held at Norris on Thursday, September 14. We had nearly 1,000 freshman and new transfer students stop by The Garage’s table to learn more about what we do and how to get involved in the entrepreneurial and startup community at Northwestern. We also partnered with Resident team Brewbike to offer free cold brew coffee, which may have helped our cause just a little considering the fair began in the morning.

On Friday, The Garage (which is 11,000 square feet by the way) was crawling with purple! We had between 350-400 freshmen visit The Garage to hang out, eat a Chipotle burrito, try out our AR/VR lab and meet some student founders. New students got to see our modern and innovative co-working space first hand, try out the newest future facing technologies, see our state of the art Makerspace and learn about how to get involved. Here are the five ways new transfers and incoming freshmen can get involved at The Garage.

1. Join a club. There are so many student organizations dedicated to innovation, entrepreneurship, and tech at Northwestern including EPIC, Global Engagement Summit (GES), Design for America (DFA), the Institute for Business Education (ISBE) and Women in Business (WIB), many of which meet at The Garage. Head to our website to learn more.
2. Join a startup. Residency application might be closed for this quarter, but you can join an existing team and get perks like 24/7 access to The Garage and an invitation to Family Dinner. Get to know some of our Resident teams here.
3. Take a class. The Farley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation focuses on curriculum, and ENTREP 225 is the perfect introduction to the principles of entrepreneurship.
4. Sign up for Office Hours. We have a network of vetted experts to help you get your idea off the ground. Sign up on our website to talk to a staff member or an Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) about your startup idea.
5. Follus us. Become a part of The Garage family and keep up with what we’re doing on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and even our monthly newsletter where we highlight our favorite things, like Chicago startup news, student founders, and upcoming open events.

We can’t wait to meet you. Love,The Garage