Becca Berkenstadt, Marketing Intern at the Coleman Center and President of S4E, shares her behind the scenes perspective on what it was like to give away the S4E Scholarship for the second consecutive year.

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It is not often that college students want to spend money on anything other than pizza or beer, but DePaul students break that stereotype. This year, generous DePaul students donated both their time and money at S4E fundraisers. The money from the fundraisers goes toward a scholarship that S4E gives away to a DePaul entrepreneurial student every year.

Each spring S4E puts out an application in the Coleman Center office and sends it out to all the members through the mailing list. The applicants are required to fill out a series of questions about themselves, as well as write a two page essay about entrepreneurship. After their applications are complete, they turn them into the Coleman Center and sign up for a time to make a ten minute presentation to the judges.

The night before the judging, the members of S4E bonded over baking cookies and brownies for the judges. On the actual day of judging, Raman Chadha, Executive Director of the Coleman Center; Jim Haluczak, President of Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization at DePaul; and Rania El-Sorrogy, Founder of S4E, gathered in the DePaul Center to hear the six students present their ideas about entrepreneurship. I prefer to take myself out of the judging process because I form friendships with some of the student applicants, and therefore it would be a conflict of interest for me to be a judge.

I was particularly excited to have Rania join the panel of judges this year because she put her heart and soul into establishing and continuing this club. I share Rania’s enthusiasm for S4E and agree that is not just club, but a place for students to learn how to be charitable and innovative while creating lasting connections with other entrepreneurial-spirited students.  

While the judges deliberated about which student deserved the $1,500 scholarship, I observed that they were using both the ideals of the Coleman Center and of S4E as criteria for their decisions. At that moment, I felt proud to be part of the Coleman Center and S4E because they are both reputable organizations that represent the Vincentian attitude that DePaul advocates.

The overall experience was positive and eye-opening, and I look forward to the process next year.      

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