Semifinalists Announced For Premier Pitch Competition ‘VentureCat’

From Evanston, Illinois: VentureCat, Northwestern University’s annual student startup pitch competition, has announced this year’s 25 semifinalists — six of whom will advance to the Public Showcase to compete for a share of more than $325,000 in non-dilutive funding for their business or project.

“Each year, VentureCat showcases the most promising student startups coming out of Northwestern and provides them with resources to take their ventures to the next level,” says Mike Raab, executive director of The Garage at Northwestern, the university’s startup incubator. “These students are proudly solving the problems that they see in the world, and can’t wait to share their progress with the community.”

The 2023 VentureCat Public Showcase is free and open to the public, and will be held in person at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, May 31 in White Auditorium of the Kellogg Global Hub, 2211 Campus Drive, Evanston, as well as livestreamed online. The competition is a collaborative effort between The Kellogg School of Management, The Garage, the Donald Pritzker Entrepreneurship Law Center, and The Farley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at McCormick School of Engineering.

VentureCat is distinguished from other pitch competitions around the globe by organizing competitors in industry-specific tracks. The track structure leverages the rich expertise of distinct schools from across the University in both graduate and undergraduate programs. Students apply to the program in one of five distinct tracks: Business Products and Services, Consumer Products and Services, Energy and Sustainability, Life Sciences and Medical Innovations, and Social Impact.

Competition day ends with the finalists taking the main stage to pitch one more time to an audience of hundreds of students, alums, and investors at the Public Showcase. The finals prizes are announced, including the grand prize of $150,000, and the audience votes for their favorite startup.

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In Baltimore, student volunteers prepare 356 tax returns for local residents

From Baltimore, Maryland: Student volunteers with the accounting department at Loyola University Maryland’s Sellinger School of Business prepared 356 tax returns for taxpayers in the Baltimore community, resulting in tax refunds totaling over $500,000 this season. The tax preparation services were provided free of charge for qualifying taxpayers at the Loyola Clinical Centers on York Road.

“Loyola embraces our role and responsibility as an anchor institution in the city,” said Mary Ann Scully, MBA ’79, dean of Loyola’s Sellinger School. “We care deeply about our neighbors. That care is evidenced year after year in the work that faculty, students and a growing number of business partners do for individuals and families to ensure they receive all available credits and deductions every tax season. In the process of assisting these individuals, we’ve collectively created more opportunity and equity in the community.”

Over 70 IRS-certified students, Loyola faculty members and professional accountants volunteered through the Volunteer Income Tax Assistant (VITA) program in partnership with the nonprofit Creating Assets, Savings and Hope Campaign of Maryland. This is the fifth year Loyola has hosted a site offering free tax preparation services.

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Yale SOM Dean Kerwin Charles elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences

From New Haven, Connecticut: Kerwin K. Charles, the Indra K. Nooyi Dean & Frederic D. Wolfe Professor of Economics, Policy & Management at Yale SOM, has been elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in recognition of his contributions to economics, the academy announced on April 19. Along with 268 other intellectuals, artists, writers, and distinguished leaders, Charles joins one of the nation’s oldest learned societies, whose earliest members included Benjamin Franklin and Alexander Hamilton.

“With the election of these members, the Academy is honoring excellence, innovation, and leadership and recognizing a broad array of stellar accomplishments,” said David Oxtoby, president of the American Academy. “We hope every new member celebrates this achievement and joins our work advancing the common good.”

Charles, who has served as Yale SOM’s dean since 2019, has been widely recognized for his scholarship on earnings and wealth inequality, conspicuous consumption, race and gender labor market discrimination, and other microeconomic issues. Before coming to Yale, Charles was the Edwin A. and Betty L. Bergmann Distinguished Service professor at the University of Chicago, and among other professional duties, he recently served as the vice president of the American Economics Association and is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He was recently also named a fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.

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