The Garage x Weinberg
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 were over 90 Weinberg students participating in programs at The Garage, working on projects spanning an impressive range of industries. Below are a few student stories.
Alex Bahram, Weinberg ’23 & Gleb Blekher, Weinberg ’24
Alex Bahram and Gleb Blekher participated in The Garage’s summer pre-accelerator program, Jumpstart, and are current members of the Residency program. Alex was also a participant in the Fall 2022 cohort of The Garage’s revolutionary leadership development program for student founders, X-Factor.

Major: Economics
Project / Company: JupiterDX is building a platform for patients with chronic illnesses to share data with loved ones, care providers, and researchers.

Major: Economics
Minor: Computer Science & Entrepreneurship
Project / Company: JupiterDX is building a platform for patients with chronic illnesses to share data with loved ones, care providers, and researchers.
Jack Burkhardt, Weinberg ’24
Jack is a member of The Garage’s Residency program, where he and his team are incubating their startup, Overture Games. They also participated in the Jumpstart program and won third place + $2,000 at the end-of-program Demo Day.

Major: Computer Science
Project / Company: Overture Games develops video games for music students that they play with their instrument.
Naomi Aisen, Weinberg ’23
Naomi is a member of the Propel program, The Garage’s program for female student entrepreneurs.

Major: Mathematical Methods in the Social Sciences (MMSS)
Project / Company: Gather is a passion project to empower university students to cook healthy and creative group meals in their college homes by providing a low-commitment meal kit delivery service, catering to college students’ sometimes unpredictable schedules.
Bella LeSage, Weinberg ’25
Bella is a participant in The Garage’s Residency program, where she is incubating her startup, hostU. She is also a participant in the Fall 2022 cohort of the X-Factor leadership development program.

Major: Economics and International Studies
Minor: Entrepreneurship & Business Institutions
Project / Company: hostU is a medium-term shared economy rental platform exclusive to college undergraduates, graduates, and faculty.
Sofia Meléndez, Weinberg ’25
Sofia is a member of The Garage’s Residency program, incubating her startup, BearRoom. She and her team also participated in The Garage’s pre-accelerator program, Jumpstart.

Major: Computer Science
Project / Company: BearRoom is elevating the traditional tabletop experience by creating a space for people to play their favorite board games – transforming their phone into a controller and a tablet, laptop, or TV into the board.
Weinberg Students at The Garage
Tinker Program:
Yujia Xie | Sahil Seth | Jordan Checkoff |
Rohan Wedam | Dora Hu | Lauren McDonnell |
Bryden Behrens | Zahra Hussain | Erica Zhou |
Jin De Zhang | Jacob Pomerantz | Alex Meza |
Vincent Yang | Laura Félix | Hannah Zhang |
Mikhail Melnichuk | Roy Zhu | Naomi Aisen |
Victor Rodriguez | Kellen Bryant | Emma Drisko |
Abigail Coffey | Hailee Kim | Varoon Enjeti |
Jacqueline Chui | Heidi Hazelrig | Tony Yang |
Tom Choi | SeoRa Kim | Xamantha Laos Cueva |
Sara Kurniawan | Jessica Li | Dhruv Patel |
Sarah Talbert | Ilana Fingersh | Irena Liu |
Kang Hyun Ki | James Carlin | Terry Chen |
Adam Valiji | Emilio Alvarez | Austin Firestone |
Jeremy Neto | Gerardo Perez | Kiran Moore |
Sara Bouftas | Nam Vuong | Thomas Langford |
Jack Moses | Ali Lee | Angel Pimentel |
Theodore Horn | Austin Shi | Colleen Charchut |
Dean Uata |
Residency Program:
Abhishek Shah | Alessandra Mariano | Alex Bahram |
Bella LeSage | Bryan Sanchez | Caitlin Smith |
Jack Burkhardt | Jake Connell | Jasmine Javaheri |
Lily Glaubinger | Maddie Morse | Mercedes Sandu |
Shareef Jabba | Sofia Meléndez | Stanley Jia |
Will Hoffmann | Zahra Hussain | Hannah Zhang |
Arjun Kumar | Ashley Guo | Aspen Buckingham |
Chris Reyes | David Bogner | Hanjune Lee |
Jenna Kim | Jiayan Luo | Julia Chu |
Minseo Kim | Noah Edelman | Samar Saleem |
Steven Jiang | Tasneem Abdalla | Varun Goel |
Jumpstart Program:
Ashley Guo | Aspen Buckingham | Gleb Blekher |
Minseo Kim | Sofia Meléndez | Stanley Jia |
Jack Burkhardt | Jake Connell | Mercedes Sandu |
Steven Jiang | Alex Bahram |
Propel Program:
Nicole Markus | Jessica Li | Sarah Talbert |
Abigail Coffey | Erica Zhou | Alessandra Mariano |
Naomi Aisen |
X-Factor Program:
Bella LeSage | Alex Bahram | Stanley Jia |
The Garage x Weinberg News
Weinberg Students win big at Jumpstart Demo Day
Weinberg Students featured in Chicago Inno’s ’25 Under 25′ List
JupiterDX Team Spotlight: Featuring Alex Bahram ’23 & Gleb Blekher ’24
BearRoom Team Spotlight: Featuring Sofia Meléndez ’25 & Minseo Kim ’25
Questions?
Email us at thegarage@northwestern.edu