The Garage at Northwestern
The Garage is the place on campus for Northwestern students to experiment, collaborate, innovate and build new ideas. Students are supported by a diverse community of Northwestern faculty, staff and alumni who share a passion for entrepreneurship. The 11,000-square-foot space located in the university’s North Campus Parking Garage is currently home to over 60 student-founded startups. Twice a year, The Garage runs a pre-accelerator program, Wildfire, designed to prepare student teams for the next stage of their startups, be it an accelerator program, raising capital or bootstrapping their way to success. Over 1,000 students, faculty and staff visit The Garage each month for classes, office hours, events and workshops on entrepreneurship and innovation.
Innovation & New Ventures Office (INVO)
INVO catalyzes the translation of Northwestern innovations to benefit the public and promote economic growth. INVO offers resources for new ventures including fellowships, mentorship, workshops, pitch preparation and more.
Farley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (FCEI)
FCEI supports the creation of businesses that capitalize on innovations. It brings together faculty from an array of disciplines to develop a unique curriculum in which students experience the entire innovation/business lifecycle, from ideation to prototyping to business plan development.
Segal Design Institute
The McCormick School of Engineering’s Segal Design Institute focuses on educating the next generation of design innovation leaders. They offer courses and programming for designers, engineers, scientists, writers, doctors, performers, artists, managers and more.
Entrepreneurs, Pioneers, Innovators & Creators (EPIC)
EPIC is a student-led organization on Northwestern University’s campus. It partners with schools and centers across the university to provide events and programming for innovators and entrepreneurs.
Donald Pritzker Entrepreneurship Law Center (Chicago Campus)
This nonprofit, student-based clinic provides assistance to entrepreneurs who are making critical legal decisions. The Entrepreneurship Law Center is one of the first U.S.-based programs to provide intensive, hands-on training for students who want to be transactional lawyers or founders of startup companies.
A cross-university team has created the following presentation which outlines information and best practices for students who have or are interested in creating, or working on a business, during their time at Northwestern University. Please click here to download the
presentation.
NORTHWESTERN NETWORK MENTORSHIP PROGRAM
The Northwestern Network Mentorship Program is an online easy-to-use platform designed to cultivate meaningful mentorship opportunities for the global Northwestern community. Students and alumni can use the platform to connect with alumni in various career fields. Alumni from all class years, programs, and schools may participate as volunteer mentors or mentees or both; students may participate as mentees. These mentoring relationships are meant to provide valuable support and guidance to student and alumni mentees as they navigate their careers, explore new career paths, or consider graduate school.