Farley Center Introduces Morehead Family Innovator Fellowship
Farley names two undergraduate students as Morehead Family Innovator Fellows
The Farley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation has launched the Morehead Family Innovator Fellowship, a 10-week program that provides stipends to undergraduate students who wish to pursue an entrepreneurial activity full-time over the summer.
The fellows will each receive $6,000 and work with Farley Center faculty and mentors. They also will have access to University spaces, including at the Farley Center and The Garage.
“Students often have to table their entrepreneurial activities over the summer so that they can earn money," said Hayes Ferguson, Farley Center director and clinical professor. "Thanks to the generosity of Northwestern alumni, we'll be able to pay students to work on early-stage ventures that are meaningful to them.”
The fellowships, funded in part by a donation from Jennifer (BS '00; MBA '08) and Brad Morehead (MBA '05), are open to any Northwestern undergraduate who has taken one or more classes at the Farley Center. Projects can span various areas, including technology, social impact, arts, and more.
This year, two students have been awarded stipends. They are:
Ashley Guo (’26)
Cognitive science and learning and organizational change major with an entrepreneurship minor and Segal Design Certificate
Guo is a co-founder of ReCat, a relationship app that provides a gamified way for young couples to build healthy communication habits. She took part in The Garage program Jumpstart last summer and participated in the Bay Area Immersion Program this winter.
“My goal for the summer fellowship is to successfully launch our minimum viable product and iterate on our current app, focusing on extensive user testing to gain crucial insights,” Guo said. “This will prepare us for a bigger launch in the fall, ensuring our product meets the needs and expectations of our users.”
Emma Rens (’24)
Biomedical engineering major with Segal Design Certificate
Rens works for Greenwell, a nonprofit startup founded by a Northwestern alum that seeks to influence health systems to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Rens has received a Fulbright Scholarship to research sustainable healthcare innovation in the Netherlands starting in the fall of 2024. Read more about Emma’s experience here.
“I'm super excited for the opportunity to work for Greenwell, a nonprofit startup focusing on medical environmental sustainability,” Rens said. “We are hopeful that our digital platform will unify patient and provider voices to fight for climate action at the level of health systems.”