Alumni Story: Catherine Zdunek

My name is Catherine and I am currently a sophomore at Northwestern University studying Chemical Engineering with a minor in Biotechnology. In addition to my engineering courses, I also mix music at my radio show with Northwestern’s radio station. While I have always been interested in the sciences, particularly chemistry, I also want to learn more about entrepreneurship and how it connects to engineering. While I have thoroughly enjoyed my engineering courses, I also hope to expand my knowledge in the areas of business and entrepreneurship. With this interest, I sought out various opportunities that I could participate in outside of the classroom. This is how I came across Sage Corps!

Global Internship

I participated in the Sage Corps program this past fall and was paired with a sustainable tourism startup based in Amsterdam called Sea Going Green. Sea Going Green works with tourism companies across the globe to help improve their sustainability with environmental impact assessments to help reduce their waste and energy consumption and with various other methods that are specific to each company.

I had a wonderful experience working with Sea Going Green and was able to learn a lot through my internship and the Sage Corps program. I worked as a Business Development Intern to help curate and create content for the startup. My main project was to create a webinar series that would be marketed towards tourism businesses that had been struggling due to COVID-19. The main platform that I used to design the series was Canva, which I had used in the past for smaller projects. I learned a lot on how to utilize all of Canva’s functions to create marketable content towards potential clients.

I also spent a lot of time researching data and press releases from the UNWTO and used what I learned, combined with previous business guides that Sea Going Green had created, to design a three part webinar series that could be marketed to help these struggling businesses. In addition to advising tourism companies, the webinars also had an emphasis on the importance of improving sustainability within one’s business. I really enjoyed having the opportunity to express my creativity through a cause that I feel passionate about, while learning more about how sustainability positively impacts businesses and how easily it can be implemented.

Sea Going Green had a great work environment and really encouraged me to use my knowledge as an intern for their company and to help make a positive impact on the environment.

Skills Training

In addition to participating in my remote internship, Sage Corps offered a multitude of workshops, such as resume building and salesforce training, which really helped me learn the fundamental skills for entrepreneurship. I had never been exposed to customer relationship management (CRM) platforms and found it very valuable to learn how to use them.

I was also paired with a program manager, Megan Bartlet, who helped me improve my resume to best showcase my skills and accomplishments to potential startups and for my future endeavors. I also had the opportunity to attend various remote Q and As with Sage Corps alums and real entrepreneurs working in the field. I was able to ask them questions about their personal experiences creating startups and for advice as an aspiring entrepreneur. My university has a small startup hub, called The Garage, which helps students create and manage their own startups. I have always wanted to participate in this program and I really feel that all these skills I learned through Sage Corps have helped me prepare for my future in entrepreneurship.

Takeaway

Especially as an engineering student, I normally would not have the opportunity to do these things in the classroom, so I found it extremely valuable to have this learning experience. The Sage Corps community was so supportive of all the students and still holds a strong community even after completing the program. Sage Corps is an amazing program and I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with Sea Going Green and the Sage Corps community!