We’re kicking off the New Year with a new cohort of the Skandalaris Center’s St. Louis Entrepreneurial Fellowship! Ten students have been selected to participate in the year-long program, which gives WashU undergrads a chance to explore entrepreneurship at the university and the St. Louis startup community. Each student had to apply and interview for a spot in the program.

“I am impressed with this cohort’s 2023 St. Louis Entrepreneurial Fellows, as they have shown a clear sense of the culture of innovation and entrepreneurship,” said Cyril Loum, Assistant Director of Venture Management. “I am excited to help these talented change-makers achieve their long-term career goals.”

The cohort of Fellows will begin their journey in the spring semester with Navigating the Startup World, a for-credit course co-lead by Skandalaris Center team members Cyril Loum and Giovanni Liotta, Venture Development Manager. The course is an introduction to the terminology of innovation and entrepreneurship, and will help Fellows develop the skills required to rigorously assess the risk/reward profile of new venture ideas.

“I am so excited to meet the new Entrepreneurial Fellows,” said Liotta. “This will be my first experience co-leading the program and I am so happy to work alongside and learn from an experienced professional like Cyril Loum in this endeavor. I am very much looking forward to helping students innovate and hopefully build great companies that leverage technology to create positive impacts for world and society.”

While many students leave campus for the summer, our Fellows will remain in St. Louis and take part in paid internships at early-stage startups around the city. The internships will provide valuable experience and give each student a front row seat to the daily challenges and successes of a business in its first years. In the fall, the Fellows will bring everything they’ve learned back to campus, where they will create and implement a capstone project aimed at identifying and addressing a perceived gap in the St. Louis entrepreneurial ecosystem.

The Skandalaris Center is excited to welcome the following students into our 2023 Entrepreneurial Fellowship and can’t wait to see what they will accomplish over the coming year!

Sachi Agarwal (Olin Business School ‘26)

Mac Barnes (Beyond Boundaries ’26)

Catherine Chung (Beyond Boundaries ’26)

Finn Doornweerd (McKelvey School of Engineering ’26)

Bram Hoffman (College of Arts & Sciences ’26)

Roger Li (College of Arts & Sciences ’26)

Ashley Lin (Olin Business School ’26)

Maieasha Rashid (Olin Business School ’26)

Nate Reyes (College of Arts & Sciences ’26)

Howard Yu (College of Arts & Sciences ’26)