Alumni Accolades November 2014

November 4 was a big night for Elise Stefanik (2002) in New York and Ben Sasse (1990) in Nebraska – Elise became the youngest woman ever to be elected to Congress and Ben is now the first Scholar to be voted into the U.S. Senate!

Neha Gupta (2014) became the first American to receive the International Children’s Peace Prize! Neha was honored for her work through Empower Orphans, an organization she began when 9 years old. The mission of Empower Orphans is to elevate the well being of orphaned and underprivileged children and empower them to succeed, by helping them help themselves. Desmond Tutu presented Neha with her award in The Hague, Netherlands on the award’s 10th anniversary. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Adan Gonzalez (2011) was named Coors Light’s Lider of the Year, receiving a $25,000 grant to implement a Latino leadership project for AVANCE-Dallas, a community-based, nonprofit organization that provides support and education services to at-risk, economically impoverished families. Watch a video of Adan’s recent Tedx talk here.

Jourdan Urbach (2009), Co-founder of Ocho, a video-sharing app received $1.65 million in funding from Shark Tank’s Mark Cuban, along with other investors. Ocho allows users to add voiceovers and control videos’ volume among other features.

Mehul Patel (1994) was named to The Urban Land 40 Under 40, representing the best young land use professionals from around the globe.

Camille Borders (2014) was named a 2014 Young Woman of Distinction, the highest honor in Girl Scouting.

Christopher Gray (2010), the Drexel undergrad founder of scholarship mobile app Scholly, was named on BET’s list of “Young Men on the Brink of Making It Big.” Gray just won Drexel’s annual incubator competition and will pitch on ABC’s “Shark Tank” later this season.

Core Foods, founded by CEO Corey Rennell (2003) , was named in the Top 100 List of the Bay Area’s Fastest Growing Companies.

Angela Harrell (1991) has been named the head of the ING Voya Foundation and Office of Corporate Social Responsibility. She began her new role on October 20.

Justin Pasquariello (1997) is featured in a Huffington Post article highlighting the importance of role models to children in the foster care system. Justin grew up in foster care and went on to start Adoption and Foster Care Mentoring organization.

Kathryn Minshew (2004), CEO and co-founder of The Muse, was listed in Glamour Magazine’s “35 Women Under 35 Who Are Changing the Tech Industry”.