The Activate Program

Activate is an 8-week immersive learning experience with the goal of making entrepreneurship more inclusive and accessible to Black Northwestern students. Activate welcomes all kinds of projects ranging from education or arts based innovations to technology development – any idea that a student wants to grow.

The winter 2022 Activate cohort at an in-person meet up at The Garage

Program Details

The program is open to full-time, Black students with a company, product, or service idea that they’d like to work on. Interested students should email thegarage@northwestern.edu. Activate seeks to serve students that might not be considering entrepreneurship as a path, or may not immediately think of The Garage as a resource for them, and do not have familiarity with accessing entrepreneurship resources at Northwestern. The program kicked off in the summer of 2020 with an inaugural cohort, and now runs ever fall, winter, and spring quarter.

A cohort of 8 students is selected each fall, winter, and spring quarter to meet for 8 weeks. The cohort meets as a group for 1 hour each week. In addition, each student is paired with an accomplished Black professional for bi-weekly 1-on-1 mentorship. Students put together a proposal to receive up to $1,000 for expenses and materials related to building and experimenting with their idea.

The program helps students develop skills like:

Brainstorming a new idea for a product or service
Identifying the need for a new product or service
Designing a product or service that will satisfy customer needs
Communicating a plan and vision for a new product, service, or company
Networking
Communicating a new idea in everyday terms

“The Activate program provided me with the mentorship and peer-support I needed to bring my project to fruition. I’m so grateful I was chosen to take part in this one of a kind program as an undergraduate because I learned timeless business skills such as marketing, problem solving, and financial management that allowed me to bring my magazine, From The Homies With Love, to life.”

Asha Yearwood

SoC ’23

“I found it incredibly motivating to be connected with and have guest speakers who are Black entrepreneurs in their own right. I think entrepreneurship is a very long process that consists of constantly having to pivot in addition to the barriers that currently prevent Black people from being able to get involved in it. So seeing Black entrepreneurs who have found such great success with their businesses just served as a reminder for me that it is possible.”

Anastacia Chineme

SESP ’22

“[Through Activate’s programming] I gained confidence in myself and discovered that although what I do may not ‘look’ like a typical startup, I am indeed an entrepreneur.”

Nolan Robinson

SoC + Weinberg ’21

“I think Activate is a phenomenal step in allowing individuals to believe not only in themselves, but the importance of their uniquenesses in shaping their world and the world of others…Thank you to the Garage for enhancing me and giving me the platform to enhance others.”

Kwabena Yamoah

TGS ’21

Program Benefits

Award

Up to $1,000 to spend on an entrepreneurial project.

Accountability

A weekly check in with your peers and program manager to keep you moving forward on your project.

Mentorship

1-1 mentorship with an accomplished Black professional.

Cohort

A group of Black peers working on new ideas.

Participants

Inaugural Cohort

Winter 2021

Spring 2021

Fall 2021

Winter 2022

Spring 2022

Fall 2022

Winter 2023

Current and Past Mentors

Craig Carter, McCormick ’07

Cheyenne Cazaubon, Pritzker ’19

John Franklin, McCormick ’18

Caleb Holland, Weinberg ’20

Ashton Keys

Steve Larosiliere

Rachele Louis, Kellogg ’19

Michael McGee, SoC ’10

Shaquille Roberts

Vedant Seeam, KSM ’21

Malik K. Thompson, McCormick ’02

Tony Wilkins, McCormick ’79

Tristian Williams

Marcelo Worsley

Kwabena Yamoah TGS ’21

Background

Thirteen percent of the U.S. population is Black. Yet according to a recent article on Crunchbase, just 1% of venture-funded startup founders are Black. According to a recent article from Bloomberg “from the infancy of the internet in 1990 to the unicorn era of 2016, 0.4% of people who received venture capital were Black, according to a study by Harvard University.”

At Northwestern, 10% of the class of 2024 is Black or African American. Yet, only 4.2% of students in The Garage’s Tinker program and 7.8% of students in The Garage’s Residency program identified as Black or African American. Activate aims to close that gap.

The Garage is committed to supporting underrepresented entrepreneurs. In 2018, The Garage launched the Propel program to support female Northwestern students, and in 2020, The Garage launched Activate to encourage diversity and inclusion in entrepreneurship for Black Northwestern students.