The Garage x The School of Communication
The Garage is a community and physical space for every Northwestern student interested in entrepreneurship to learn, iterate, and grow. We offer students resources, programming, and mentorship designed to help build the skills and entrepreneurial mindset they need to succeed in any industry.
Students from across the University bring a wide range of diverse academic and personal experiences that enrich the entrepreneurial environment at The Garage through exposure to new ideas, ways of thinking and skill sets.
In the fall of 2022, there are 29 SoC students participating in programs at The Garage. Below are a few student stories.
Kathryn Hoffmann, SoC ’23
Kathryn is a participant in The Garage’s Activate program – designed to create an inclusive community and resources for Black Northwestern student founders.

Major: Communication – Leadership for Creative Enterprises
Project / Company: Treeify is a hardware and software duo designed to provide individual people with the means to combat carbon pollution by planting trees.
Herminio Bodon, SoC + McCormick ’24
Herminio is a third-year Ph.D. student building his startup, borinquen.ai. He is a current participant in The Garage’s Residency program and was a member of the spring 2022 cohort of Activate.

Major: Technology and Social Behavior
Project / Company: borinquen.ai helps people learn better with multimodal AI products.
Kate Lee, SoC + Bienen ’23
Kate is a member of The Garage’s Residency program building out her SaaS startup, Sync.

Major: Communication Studies
Minor: Entrepreneurship; Environmental Policy & Culture
Project / Company: Sync helps you take impeccable meeting notes by transforming your scrappy bullets into dependable, shareable, actionable minutes. The vision is to imprint an openly collaborative culture in organizations by taking the busywork out of communication.
SoC Students at The Garage
Tinker Program:
Katrina Li | Kathryn Hoffmann | Laya Hartman |
Carolyn Zou | Sauhee Han | Lela Gannon |
Kiara Hill | Vicente Castro | Lucia Delaini |
Mohammad Behroozian | Asta Ceesay | Sequina King |
Andrew Daniels | Michele Epps | Vincent Chen |
Residency Program:
Herminio Bodon | Kate Lee | Zegale Talmadge |
Leo McGuinness | Julia Chu | Emia Musabegovic |
Finnegan Rollings | Julia Neus | Eugene Brye III |
Arjun Kumar | Maddie Morse | Gretchen Raedle |
Eli Civetta |
Activate Program:
Kathryn Hoffmann |
The Garage x SoC News
Mike Raab, SoC ’12 named Executive Director of The Garage
Factions of Sol featured in The Garage’s Holiday Gift Guide
Jordyn Lemer, SoC ’23 selected as Little Joe Ventures Fellow
Factions of Sol, founded by Elam Blackwell ’22, reaches Kickstarter goal in 8 hours
Adala Makhulo, SoC ’23 featured in Opportunity Fund Update
Propellers visit Stephanie March, SoC ’96 in NYC
Questions?
Email us at thegarage@northwestern.edu