“When I think of students who best embody the values of Northeastern and in particular the ideas of these awards, I think of [Gabrielle Bailey]” says Tim Lannin, her professor and associate chair for undergraduate affairs in BIOE. “A great purpose drives Gabi—that of helping people.”

Gabrielle has proven that countless times during her years at Northeastern. Deeply engaged in Jewish life on campus, Gabrielle is vice president of social programming of Hillel. Her initiatives have brought students together and fostered a lasting sense of community. She chaired the Tikkun Olam committee during her junior year and built partnerships with service organizations across Boston. For example, she organized cooking nights for On the Rise, a women’s shelter, and cookie baking with developmentally disabled adults. Associate Director of Hillel Jen Stone says of Gabrielle, “Her ability to seamlessly manage logistics while ensuring that all voices are heard and valued speaks to her interpersonal intelligence and leadership maturity.”

Gabrielle also volunteers at Hebrew Senior Life, where she paints residents’ nails, visits them in their homes, and helps with community events. She is particularly proud of the intergenerational dances she arranges there. “A live band consisting of Northeastern, Brandeis, and MIT students performed oldies for a dancing crowd of student volunteers and senior residents,” she says.

Academically, she also excels. Gabrielle has a 3.98 GPA and has impressive research and clinical experience. Her capstone project was to design, prototype, and evaluate processes to improve the efficiency of algae as a biofuel. She was the second author of The Influence of Experimental Environment on the Mechanical Properties of Porcine Iris Stroma Using Micro-Indentation through the Laboratory for Soft Tissue Biomechanics. Fred Sebastian, PhD, mentored Gabrielle on this project and says, “She mastered MATLAB efficiently, coding essential components with precision and initiative. Gabi was not only eager to learn but also consistently sought out new ways to contribute, often anticipating project needs before they arose.”

In 2024, Gabrielle was a research intern at the Marcus Institute for Healthy Aging Research, Hebrew Senior Life, and a full-time inpatient nursing assistant at BIDMC—Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center—in Boston. “On a bustling cardiology floor, I learned that true character is a conscious, often challenging choice,” she says. She endured log hours and physical exhaustion, still choosing “compassion over convenience.” She says, “This intense experience underscored my desire to help patients and left an indelible mark on my approach to both care and research.”

After graduation in May 2025, Gabrielle plans to take two gap years as she applies for medical school. She will work as a clinical research coordinator at a Boston lab studying delirium prevention in older patients with insomnia.

Bob Deacy, CJ’80, never imagined his Northeastern social sciences degree would eventually lead to a long career in the energy industry. “I remember standing on top of an oil rig as we were drilling, and thinking to myself, ‘How did I get on top of an oil rig when I studied criminal justice?’” he recalls. Reflecting on a successful life built on seizing unexpected opportunities, Deacy notes, “It was all very surreal.”

Deacy’s professional journey began at Medford Vocational-Technical High School in Medford, Massachusetts, where he learned the basics of drawing, diagrams, and schematics that support an electrical education. However, at Northeastern, he pivoted towards criminal justice , graduating with a degree in the program’s namesake in 1980.

Deacy’s co-op experiences exposed him to different professional environments and allowed him to develop his leadership skills. At the Middlesex County Sheriff’s Department, his first co-op, he participated in everything from working in corrections to transporting alleged offenders to court. Deacy’s second co-op at First Security, a leading Boston security company, introduced him to business orientation, business development, and personnel management , which laid the foundation for his burgeoning leadership skills. “I attribute some of the jobs that I had with progressing me within my career,” he says.

Deacy developed the framework for his first postgraduate position at Stone & Webster, one of the country’s largest engineering firms, by leveraging his experience in guard service and security systems analysis. In this new role, he helped with security programs for large-scale nuclear plants—not realizing that he was beginning to transition into his next career phase. After moving to Michigan, Deacy began developing the security system for a nuclear plant, where he learned about the industry while applying his background in criminal justice and electronics. From this foundation, he hopped from plant to plant and state to state, working in a number of capacities, from fire protection systems to plant operations, before settling into a role with the Carolina Power and Light Company.

Deacy applied these accrued experiences to new projects at Carolina Power and Light, including constructing natural gas power plants and the pipelines that fed them. “I went into heavy construction for these power plants and pipelines, and then another opportunity arose, where the company wanted to get into natural gas drilling,” he says. “A couple weeks of that turned into a couple years, and the next thing you know, I found myself as the president of a company called Winchester Energy in East Texas.”

At Winchester Energy, Deacy leaned on his Northeastern curriculum and experiences to help guide the company through a buyout from legendary oilmen T. Boone Pickens and Doug Miller. “A lot of the curriculum that I recalled from the criminal justice program dealt with constitutional law, contracts, and things of that nature,” he says. “When you deal in oil and gas, you deal with a lot of leases and overall contract law. My Northeastern degree would always come into play and match up perfectly.” Even his electives in geology proved useful—specifically looking at the formations of mountain ranges to find where the highest levels of oil and gas was being produced naturally.

Now, as senior vice president of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Clinch River Project, Deacy has started building new gas turbines in the pursuit of decarbonization, overseen teams that have helped execute major destruction and demolition projects, and currently leads the development of a new small modular nuclear reactor for the nation’s largest public energy provider. Reflecting on his journey, he credits his Northeastern education for shaping the path that ultimately brought him back to nuclear energy. “I started my career with nuclear reactors, and 45 years later, I’m back working with them. Life always seems to come full circle, and a lot of it I attribute to my education at Northeastern.”

I started my career with nuclear reactors, and 45 years later, I’m back working with them. Life always seems to come full circle, and a lot of it I attribute to my education at Northeastern.”

“If I could have told myself in high school that I was going to work for the mayor of Boston, who is the first female mayor of Boston [and]….a mom whose kids go to the same school as mine…I don’t think I would have believed you. I try to remember that, and it does put a lot of things in perspective because I feel very lucky that I have the job that I have,” says Ellen Quinn ‘SSH’13, MPA’18, who serves as director of state relations for the city of Boston aside Mayor Michelle Wu. 

As a high school student in Quincy, Massachusetts, Quinn participated in local political campaigns. When it was time to apply for colleges, she had her sights on Northeastern. Aside from the campus being close to her family, the university’s co-op program and the resources the College of Social Science and Humanities offered to its students—including having former governor Michael Dukakis as a professor—prompted Quinn to apply early decision, knowing she could fully explore her interest in politics. 

Majoring in political science, Quinn quickly built her resume by taking advantage of numerous influential experiences. After completing her first co-op working at the Massachusetts State House for State Senator Michael Morrissey, she packed her bags to live in London for 12 weeks as a part of the Hansard Society Scholars program. She split her time between taking courses at the London School of Economics and interning at the United Kingdom’s Parliament, where she got assigned to Shabana Mahmood, one of the first three Muslim women elected to serve as Members of Parliament. “It was fun because, at least [in the United States], with politicians, their staffs are like 15 or 20 people. But [Mahmood] had one staffer and then me.” This meant getting to frequently interact with Mahmood while learning the administrative operations of a government office and conducting research to support the MP’s efforts of opposing budget cuts and communicating with her district at a town hall in Birmingham.  

After her experience across the pond, Quinn did not settle in Boston for too long. For her second co-op, she worked in the Chief of Staff office in The White House during President Barack Obama’s first term. Some memorable moments include giving official White House tours to visitors, attending the official welcoming ceremony for then-UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and connecting with White House senior staff. This experience helped Quinn narrow down her post-graduate career aspirations as she learned that she preferred state politics over serving in a federal institution. In her experience, “national politics didn’t feel quite as tangential…I couldn’t really feel the impact [we] were making…I liked state and local [politics] because you were a bit closer to the work you were doing.” 

With this understanding, Quinn believed working at the Massachusetts State House would be the ideal landing spot after she graduated stating that she “basically sent [her] cover letter to every single legislator [she] could think of.” Among those recipients was Speaker Robert DeLeo—whose son also happened to be Quinn’s teaching assistant in one of her American Studies courses. “In my cover letter, I was like ‘Oh, I loved my time at Northeastern. If you can do anything for a fellow Husky, that would be great,’” she recalls. That one line caught the attention of Speaker DeLeo, a proud Northeastern alumnus and University Fellow for Public Life, that he called Quinn inviting her to interview—and later be hired—for an open position. 

Quinn would spend the next nine years working in the Office of House Speaker Robert DeLeo, serving as special events coordinator and director of operations. During that time, she would plan various ceremonies in the Massachusetts House of Representatives and staff Speaker DeLeo for events across the Commonwealth. Simultaneously, Quinn obtained her master’s degree in public administration through Northeastern’s part-time program. Looking back at that time, Quinn explains, “[It] was a really great experience. I met a lot of people from across Massachusetts, and I love doing that and learning more about the state…I feel lucky that I got there, especially through a Northeastern connection.”    

When Speaker DeLeo stepped down at the end of 2020, Quinn had to figure out her next move. Acting on an interest in working for the City of Boston she developed in her urban studies courses at Northeastern, Quinn became involved with the Boston mayoral election to replace Mayor Marty Walsh. Admiring Michelle Wu’s work as a city councilor, Quinn volunteered for Wu’s campaign. She can remember her excitement when mayor Michelle Wu was elected and credits a few statehouse connections for helping her land an interview for the new administration, for which she was hired as the director of state relations. Approaching her fourth anniversary in this position, Quinn recalls some significant wins. From securing the city of Boston a seat on the MBTA board to stopping a loud Department of Transportation noise that was disturbing a school in West Roxbury, she shares that her ability to enact real change for Bostonians every day in her role is fulfilling and keeps her optimistic when facing challenges in her field. 

As Quinn expresses her gratitude for her current role, it is clear that her determination was the ultimate catalyst in achieving her professional goals throughout her career. Her advice to students interested in getting involved in politics? Quinn says, “Be willing to try anything because there are so many different aspects of the job. You could be more interested in campaigning, you could be working at a legislative [or] do executive…[Being] open and willing to try everything and do all the groundwork is important.” The next generation of policy changemakers at Northeastern should take comfort in knowing that just two short miles from Huntington Avenue, they have a fellow Husky serving as a strong role model in Boston City Hall. 

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Growing up in Bahrain, Fatema Janahi, E’22, MS’22, was always interested in environmental sustainability. Inspired by dialogues on reforming economies to be less dependent on the gas and oil industry, Janahi believed she would pursue environmental science in higher education—therefore it was a surprise when she joined her after-school robotics program. Despite not being enrolled in her high school’s sole computer science class, Janahi recalls being drawn in by the Lego Mindstorm sets available to students in the lab. “It was more [of a] curiosity to begin with [as] you did not need to have [coding] knowledge,” explains Janahi. This accessibility for beginners led Janahi to attend her first local recycling-themed competition—where she qualified for an international round—and witnessed how her new hobby intersected with her primary passion. 

This would not be the last time that Janahi’s curiosity and ambition would cause her to stray from an expected path. Despite not having any family who had studied abroad before, she chose to pursue her higher education over 6,000 miles away from home at Northeastern, without ever visiting Boston. She first heard about Northeastern when some representatives from the university visited her high school. After seeing photos of the Boston campus, she believed it resembled the colleges she saw in popular films growing up and instinctively knew Northeastern would be the ideal school for her.   

During her first semester at Northeastern, Janahi realized she did not see herself pursuing a career in a lab environment, so she switched her major from environmental science to environmental engineering. While completing her core engineering requirements, she was enrolled in a class that included a robotics project. “I really liked the creativity that came with engineering…and I actually had to learn coding properly [which] was fun. I liked to see what I was doing move around.” Reconnecting with an abandoned area of interest caused her to make her final degree change by majoring in computer engineering. Additionally, she took advantage of a BS/MS program—today called PlusOne Program—that incorporated a master’s degree in engineering management, satisfying a collaborative aspect that was missing in her higher-level computer engineering courses.    

From living in a shared space for the first time in Hastings Hall to navigating a new city, Janahi admits that she dealt with culture shock. To mitigate this, it was vital for her to find a sense of community on campus. She joined Northeastern’s Arab Student Association, which she later became president of, and the Women’s Interdisciplinary Society of Entrepreneurship, colloquially known as WISE. In WISE, she spent one semester in the WeBuild cohort. “I had an idea for a digital agency because I love marketing, and I wanted to build a platform for small businesses. Instead of people trying to find them on Instagram, I built a directory where businesses could sign up and…list their business” in a centralized place.         

After she graduated from Northeastern, Janahi had to hit pause on her venture to focus on her first post-graduate role at Google. However, recently, she rebranded it under a new name, Palm, with her Bahrain-based business partner. Today, Janahi explains that Palm is an “e-commerce website” where designers in the Middle East and North African region can sell fashion apparel with an emphasis on community building “to empower people to work together.” The benefits of having these businesses collaborate are that they “get exposure from each other’s audiences,” and consumers can buy unique clothing pieces. Janahi’s innovative venture that gives back to her community back home earned her recognition for a 2024 Women Who Empower Innovator Award.    

With two Northeastern degrees and a business certificate via the Galante Engineering Business Program, Janahi began a new chapter in New York City as a technical program manager with Google’s cybersecurity team. She believes that her two co-op experiences, one as an embedded software engineer at Emphysys—a company that develops technology for the medical, life science, and industrial equipment industries—and another as a software engineer at Motorola, enabled her to empathize and communicate with her team of engineers. “Having been a software engineer, I understand how [engineers] see things and I can relate to what [they] go through. A lot of project management is change  management [and seeing] what works for your team.”    

Janahi plans to continue her role with Google and invest in Palm for the foreseeable future. She shares that she has enjoyed her unique experiences with the tech giant. From visiting the famed Google headquarters to traveling around the world, Fatema has come a long way from the young curious student in Bahrain. As to how she juggles her jam-packed schedule? Fatema can draw on the lessons she learned from a mentor she connected with through WISE. She reflects that Tracy Fink, a proponent of mindfulness and fellow Northeastern alumna, came into her life at the right time. “She would help center me when I needed it [as well as getting] me into really good habits like journaling and just taking a breath,” says Fatema. Equipped with all these foundational tools from Northeastern, Janahi is set to continue being a trailblazer in any industry she touches.     

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You may have seen their viral blush star in countless TikTok makeup tutorials, heard about their recent celebrity-studded benefit to raise money for mental health resources, or know the beauty brand’s founder, actress and singer Selena Gomez. As a social media and content assistant manager, Louise Dechelle, AMD’18, understands the gravity of working at Rare. “The messaging behind the brand…being able to express your individuality and valuing mental health…it’s super empowering to be a part of that revolution and the next generation of beauty lovers because we’re not just posing and being pretty. It’s really about playing with makeup, making it your own, and loving the way you are. Love your rare, as our latest campaign says.” 

Growing up in France, Dechelle chose to specialize in language and literature for her international baccalaureate degree, where she studied English, Spanish, and Italian. When she learned about Northeastern at a college fair in Paris, the university’s global emphasis and co-op program immediately appealed to her. “[The co-op program] was super important to me because I know that’s how you build relations.”   

Entering Northeastern with dreams of working for National Geographic, Dechelle believed that majoring in journalism would best position her to obtain a co-op at the coveted company. After realizing that many of her journalism courses centered around American sports and politics—which she wasn’t too familiar with—Dechelle praises her advisors for accommodating her evolving interests by allowing her to design her degree. “I knew what kind of companies I wanted to work with, but I didn’t know how to get there. [My advisors] made it easy for me to create my degree…I was able to mix video with communications and digital art—and this whole social media world was still developing…I changed [my major] three times, but I was able to tick the boxes and still finish in five years.”  

Despite all the changes to her undergraduate degree, Dechelle remained in the College of Arts, Media and Design. The small class sizes allowed her to take artistic risks with her classmates and have valuable one-on-one time with her professors. She gives kudos to a handful of influential professors—including David Thames, Mira Cantor, Jamal Thorne, and John Kane—for encouraging her to trust her creative abilities and their expertise being constant sources of inspiration for Dechelle. 

Moreover, in one of her CAMD classes, Northeastern professor Michelle Carr organized a trip to Toth+Co, an advertising agency in Boston’s South End neighborhood. Dechelle, who recalls being impressed by the agency’s presentation, was ecstatic when her professor informed her that the connections she met at the office admired her inquisitiveness and offered her a co-op position. Looking back at that time, Dechelle says the energy of that environment was perfect for her first co-op experience. She vividly remembers her and the creative team exchanging their most outside-of-the-box ideas with Toth+Co’s CEO in anticipation of pitching to renowned companies like Lululemon or Coca-Cola. When she returned to Northeastern after this exciting experience, she had a newfound clarity to invest her creativity in a social media advertising career. 

For her second co-op, Dechelle lived out her dream of working at National Geographic Learning, where she focused on “assets for English second language speakers” while building “digital interfaces for apps” and proofreading content from a collaboration with Ted Talk. Reflecting on her co-op experiences, Dechelle believes that gaining perspective from a startup and a Fortune 500 company equipped her with a strong foundation in her post-graduate career journey, which began with a digital production freelancing position at National Geographic.   

Further, Dechelle embraced the chance to study abroad in New Zealand, a program she envisioned taking part in when a representative from Northeastern told her about the university’s global opportunities years prior. Taking courses on art conservation, she is grateful for an eye-opening field trip to an Indigenous town where she witnessed how one community preserves their culture in their everyday lives through their meal preparations and dances. Aside from that, exploring the country’s natural beauty was one of her highlights. “I think that’s why I moved to California. I could experience New Zealand again with the national parks,” Dechelle adds with a laugh. 

Her career at Rare is the other reason she planted her roots in California. As a member of the company’s marketing team, Dechelle aims to generate excitement for product reveals with posts on their social channels. Apart from massive launches that require the entire team’s participation, Dechelle shares that her manager “empowers” each team member by delegating different makeup items to them. When this occurs Dechelle’s tasks include “brainstorming the content for the product on all of our social channels, capturing the content, helping the community [in real life] events, gathering all the assets, briefing the creators for [user-generated content] campaigns…[and] just scouring social, finding ideas.” In her day-to-day life, she curates weekly newsletters for her team, a task she carried over from her time at an influencer marketing company, that features a rundown of new products, trends on social media, and an analysis of the creator market. 

Another aspect Dechelle loves about her team at Rare is how it resembles her favorite aspect of her time at CAMD. Being in a “women-fueled environment,” reminds her of the intimate “classes where you can share ideas” with your peers and grow from their feedback. Much like the brand’s mission, Dechelle adds that they are all aligned under the company-wide goal of creating content that “reflects the values that are inclusive [and] authentic.”    

As she continues to grow in her role, Dechelle hopes to be a leader who motivates others to find inspiration on social media while leading imaginative brainstorms with her co-workers. For now, Dechelle teases that 2025 already looks like an exciting year for Rare. As the lovers of the beauty company impatiently count down the hours until the new year, they can bet that with the creative insights from Dechelle, the social promotion for Rare will be flawless. 

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“It’s a phenomenal education that you’re getting at Northeastern, says Nick Fanandakis, DMSB’79. This school is now thought to be one of the premier institutions that exists today, not only academically but also because of its second to none co-op program.”

Hailing from a suburb, south of Boston, and now living in Pennsylvania, Fanandakis took a winding path to Northeastern. After spending a year and a half at a college in Connecticut, he transferred to the Boston campus, drawn by his interest in Northeastern’s signature co-op program. “I really liked the idea of having the opportunity to try out the field that I believed I wanted to engage in once I graduated”, he says.

The co-op program allowed Fanandakis to calibrate his professional trajectory and opened the door for an illustrious career. His original plan was to graduate and work for one of the Big Eight accounting firms. However, after a co-op assignment, he decided he was better suited for the Industrial Sector. Fanandakis pivoted and after graduation went to work for the DuPont Company where he would spend the next 40 years of his professional career.

“When you graduated back in 1979, you would select your top three or four companies, that were visiting the campus to conduct a 45-minute sit down interview for future employment. If the company, due to scheduling, was unable to accommodate a full session you were permitted to conduct what was called a handshake interview. Here you would introduce yourself to the recruiter, provide them with a copy of your resume and tell them you are very interested in the company and would love the opportunity to have a more formal interview.” DuPont was one of those companies for Fanandakis, and that handshake interview led to him being hired as an accountant in Wilmington, Delaware.

Fanandakis spent the next four decades advancing at DuPont. Although he started in their accounting and business analysis division, he quickly moved into operations, sales, marketing, HR, and several other business roles where he held the titles of vice president and general manager, in addition to Group Vice President. In 2009, he was appointed chief financial officer of DuPont—one of the largest corporations in the world.

“I said ‘Guys I haven’t done finance since the first year I was hired at DuPont,’” he recalls. The company was eager to select someone who had come up through the business ranks as the next CFO.” After I got the role in 2009, I kept it for 10 years until 2019 when I retired. I am proud to say I held the role as the longest seated CFO in the company’s 200-plus year history.

Fanandakis credits the co-op program with providing the foundation for his success. His advice for younger Huskies hoping to follow a similar path? “Take advantage of the co-op program while you are going through your education,” he says. Professional success, in his view, comes down to a few elements. “You’ve got to manage your own career. Don’t wait for someone else to manage it for you. After I would receive a promotion, I would right away say, ‘What do I think my next assignment should be? How can I best position myself for this next assignment? You should always be preparing yourself for your next role. Second, never have the job you took over be the same when you leave it, always be looking for ways you can improve the role and increase the scope of your responsibilities. Lastly, you have to be somewhat lucky, being in the right place at the right time. That’s not to say sit back and wait for things to happen, anything but that!”

You’ve got to manage your own career. Don’t wait for someone else to manage it for you.”

Nick Fanandakis, DMSB’79

Northeastern Alumna Antonia Sousa showcases the content creation skills she developed during her co-ops and College of Arts, Media and Design courses at NBCUniversal. 

By Brianna Mitchell

“Working in late night has been really exciting because I’m editing clips that go on social that very same day…it’s the most rewarding thing because you’re instantly seeing how that’s performing,” says Antonia Sousa, AMD’23. One of her favorite projects she recently worked on was editing “Kevin Hart and Seth Meyers Go Day Drinking,” an installment of a popular interview series on “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” which amassed over a million views on YouTube.    

Whether you are looking at metrics or the occasional re-post by Kevin Hart, there is no doubt that Sousa’s talent resonates with the talk show’s audience. Sousa, a native of Peru, is currently participating in NBCUniversal’s Page Program, a competitive application-based cohort of young professionals who receive exposure to different areas of the media conglomerate. After completing her first two rotations of corporate communications with Telemundo and collaborating with the social media team on “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” she is currently embarking on her final assignment with the video team on “The Today Show.” Additionally, she will assist the “Saturday Night Live” social media team by cutting and captioning videos. 

On the outside, Sousa’s academic and career trajectory may seem kismet. Especially since Sousa’s father attended Northeastern and credits NBC programs like “Saturday Night Live” and “Seinfeld” for teaching him English. However, Sousa admits that her journey to 30 Rock was riddled with uncertainty.   

After spending two years at a specialized art school in the Savannah, Georgia, Sousa transferred to Northeastern, believing she could thrive in an environment that would narrow down her academic direction. In her two years at Northeastern, Sousa acted on that belief by majoring in journalism and getting involved on campus. With intent to “contribute to something apart from [her classes]” she joined the Huntington News, Avenue Magazine, and became a CAMD Ambassador.  

Sousa credits these experiences with more than just professional development—they laid the foundation for personal growth. For example, navigating challenges like losing a re-election bid for a social media position at Huntington News made a profound impact on her. She notes that dealing with rejection taught her “to not let it sway me in the wrong direction” and to approach “opportunities with an open mind [while] never feeling entitled to anything.”    

Sousa took those lessons to heart and carried that perspective with her to two influential work opportunities—a co-op at Wayfair and an internship with Universal Music Group. Sousa recalls on her first day at Universal Music Group, the company switched her from the marketing team to the audience development department. Despite her initial hesitation to take on a data-driven role, Sousa reports that “I ended up loving it and seeing a completely different side to social and creative spaces…[this] is also why I am enjoying the Page Program as much as I am because it is such an unexpected environment that you need to be able to adjust to new things.”   

Looking back at those two experiences, she adds that it “gave me the confidence I needed” and provided “clarity in terms of what I wanted out of a work environment.” Although her second internship is where her initial interest in the entertainment business began, she prefers the hands-on role she experienced during her creative production and video marketing co-op at Wayfair.  

“Media is a really exciting medium to be in,” reflects Sousa. As much as she is interested in continuing her career in television, she adds that she is open to other sectors. “It’s more so about the work that you do and the impact you are leaving as opposed to the industry that you are in,” she says.

When she’s not staffing live-studio audiences and giving public tours of NBC studios, Sousa is focused on growing her professional network and applying her journalistic skills from Northeastern at “The Today Show.” Looking ahead, Sousa can join the Page Program’s graduate period, an optional term where the program supports participants’ journey to securing an internal or external full-time role. Whether she chooses to take advantage of that option, there is no doubt that Sousa’s expertise will shine bright in any future role she takes on. 

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Double Husky Ifteda Ahmed-Syed’s Northeastern journey helped her find her dream job as a software engineer at The Walt Disney Company. 

By Brianna Mitchell

“I like to joke that I was raised by films…so it was a childhood dream to at least be adjacent to storytelling and entertainment,” says Ifteda Ahmed-Syed, Khoury’20, MS’23. The Double Husky is currently in her third year working as a software engineer for The Walt Disney Company, a reality that was once a dream. 

It makes sense that Ahmed-Syed’s favorite Disney movie is “Tangled,” a story that centers around an optimistic and empathetic heroine pursuing her dreams—as is reflected in this alumna. However, achieving her coveted professional career at Disney was never linear and, at times, challenged by self-doubt. 

“I have always, unapologetically, carried my identity with me wherever I go,” shares Ahmed-Syed. Being the eldest daughter of an immigrant household, she was influenced to double major in computer science and business, believing that this would best position her to get a practical career. In her second year at Northeastern, the Khoury College of Computer Sciences selected her to attend the Grace Hopper Conference, the world’s largest annual technology event designed for women and non-binary individuals to career-build by meeting with sponsors from leading companies, where she networked with Disney representatives for the first time. “It was my first real exposure to the function of technology within the company. But even then, I underestimated myself to an extent. [However], I think things worked out in a magical way,” recalls Ahmed-Syed. 

In the meantime, Ahmed-Syed took full advantage of the opportunities and resources provided by Northeastern. She completed two formative software developer co-ops at Voya Financial. Being drawn to the company to explore “the confluence of tech and finance,” she notes that, “learning how to navigate uncharted territory, communicate effectively, and also absorb knowledge outside of a classroom setting” are among the most significant takeaways she had from her experiential learning experience and still try to apply to her career today. 

Conversely, while she was on campus, the connections she formed with her peers were equally valuable. Specifically, a teaching assistant in a computer science fundamentals course introduced her to HackBeanpot, a nonprofit hackathon designed for young computer programmers in the Boston area. In her three-year involvement with the organization, Ahmed-Syed’s last year was the most impactful. In 2020, while most of the world was shutting down to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, Ahmed-Syed was determined to find ways to serve her community. Instead of accepting the pretense that HackBeanpot may be any less well-attended than in previous years due to the pandemic, Ahmed-Syed and the outreach team worked tirelessly to successfully translate the event online and drew interest from participants outside of Massachusetts. 

In a true full-circle moment, before her last fall semester in 2020, Ahmed-Syed was contacted by Disney recruiters, who had her information from the Grace Hopper Conference’s database, urging her to apply to The Walt Disney Company. That fall, soon after she submitted her application, she got the offer to move down to Orlando in June of 2021.   

Ifteda gave a temporary goodbye to her close-knit family and left her New England roots for sunny Florida to start her first role with Disney Experiences as an associate software engineer. Some of her main responsibilities in her first role with the company included working with analysts to determine “what features would benefit schedulers and cast members in Walt Disney World and Disneyland Resort. Then our analysts turn those into user acceptance criteria and my job [was] to design and implement systems or features that satisfy those criteria.”   

After three years and a promotion to software engineer II, she transferred to Disney Entertainment and ESPN Technology. This transition resulted in a move home to Connecticut, where her family and ESPN headquarters are located. Now, she works primarily on Hulu, and one of her team’s main projects is to improve systems that help consumers of the streaming platform use the search function and receive suggestions for media. Ifteda credits her decision to enroll in Northeastern’s online master’s of computer science program with giving her more confidence to navigate challenging assignments and the dreaded first step in the project as an engineer. “I was really looking to expand my repertoire but do it in a way that ensures that my understanding was concrete…so that when I reach for that tool in the future, I’m reaching for something solid that can get me through that first step.”   

Today, one of the most meaningful parts of her job is how, despite the company’s size, there are opportunities to connect with others while celebrating collective interests and affiliations. Radiating joy, she explains, “It’s heartwarming to have a space where I can celebrate certain aspects of my identity.” This includes celebrating Ramadan with co-workers at Walt Disney World and meeting the writing partners behind Christina Lauren as part of the women’s book club within the company. Additionally, she gets to share the magic that she helps create with the people she loves the most by taking her family to Walt Disney World. 

Learn more about Ifteda and her work below: 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ifteda/ 

Build For Black Lives Website: buildforblacklives.com 

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“I still value everything that I learned at Northeastern,” says Nick Casbarro, BHS’14, while reminiscing about his time on the university’s Boston campus. “What I definitely pulled from Northeastern was a love for the sciences, and a professional network that I’ve used more than anything else in my entire life.”

Casbarro, a resident of South Florida by way of Rhode Island, is no stranger to balance. While at Northeastern, he exceled in his classes in Bouvé’s prestigious physical therapy program. To build on his academics, he found time to excel in his co-op positions at New England Baptist Hospital and Harvard Health services, all while as an accomplished pole vaulter on the track and field team.

“I learned a lot of [balancing] skills at Northeastern, and it’s probably the biggest thing I learned during my time there,” he says with a proud, yet modest inflection.

After graduation, Casbarro pursued his love of the sciences and helping others by entering the medical sales field. Today, he travels around the country selling medical-grade fish skin to hospitals to help burn victims regenerate their own skin. However, to complement his left-brained passions in the medical field, Casbarro tunes into his right brain to satisfy his creative passion: writing. After “thousands of hours” of preparation and execution, Casbarro is set to release his debut science fiction novel, “Vitalerium: Descent into the Void,” this October.

“I’ve been interested in science fiction ever since I was a kid,” Casbarro shares. “Just going back to some of the greats of the genre like Huxley, Orwell, and Asimov, there’s a lot of value to dystopian science fiction. It’s almost like it’s foreseeing humanity’s potential missteps or pitfalls as we’re approaching uncharted waters.”

Casbarro’s book rings true to his inspirations. Set in the year 2701, this 600-page sci-fi epic explores a society centered around the discovery of vitalerium, a gravity-bending blue crystal.

Casbarro recalls the process of developing the story, sharing tales of writing chapters on seemingly perpetual flights and jumping out of the shower to give life to a new character. However, one of the most important aspects that helped him cross the publishing finish line was his Northeastern network. Whether it be the professional connections he developed during his co-ops or his first-year roommate, he would “chat [with them] on the phone for hours to go back and forth on ideas.”

Casbarro’s self-guided equilibrium between his career in medical sales and moonlighting as an author perfectly encompasses what it means to be a Northeastern Husky. This is just the beginning for Casbarro, too. “Descent into the Void” is the first book of seven in the “Vitalerium” series. Already garnering critical acclaim from the science fiction community, Casbarro is on track to solidify his name among his contemporaries and create a legacy in the genre.

Order “Vitalerium: Descent into the Void” on Amazon

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What I definitely pulled from Northeastern was a love for the sciences, and a professional network that I’ve used more than anything else in my entire life.”

Nick Casbarro, BHS’14,

By Brianna Mitchell

Ali Singer, a 2012 graduate of the College of Arts, Media and Design, was a second-year student at Northeastern when her friend took her to a yoga class. Throughout that class, she felt the benefits of the practice—beyond just the physical ones. Specifically, Singer notes the positive impact it had on her mental state, citing a “greater sense of concentration.” It was that lingering effect that inspired her to continue the practice intermittently while at Northeastern. Little did she know then that she would later be founding YogaHub, a company aimed at making the sport more accessible and inclusive for interested initiates. 

Gradually, Singer gained more clarity about what kind of career she would enjoy. “I’ve always been a proponent of experiential learning…and when I was accepted to Northeastern, I realized this is the absolute perfect fit for me.” With that in mind, Singer took full advantage of the university’s opportunities by completing three co-ops and a study abroad experience in Perugia, Italy. These experiences provided her with two epiphanies—she wanted to work for herself, and she loved to travel.   

Those two truths informed her decisions as a post-graduate student. After juggling multiple side projects—including bartending and real estate—Singer took a chance to follow her true calling of seeking enlightenment through her yoga studies. In 2013, she completed her first yoga teacher certification course, and two years later, she became a full-time yoga teacher at various studios in the Boston area, including Coolidge Yoga and Equinox. In 2017, to deepen her understanding of the practice, Singer traveled to the birthplace of yoga, Rishikesh, India, which she credits with providing her with a global perspective that informs her delivery of an authentic yoga experience. 

As she was falling more in love with teaching and guiding her students through their individualized yoga journeys, she responded to a tweet that, in retrospect, was a watershed moment. The tweet was from then-mayor Marty Walsh, announcing a new mixed-use space that would be opening in Boston. When Singer inquired whether they would offer yoga there, the mayor gave Singer the owner’s contact information, to which Singer sent her proposal for a yoga studio that was eventually approved. Singer reflects, “That’s when I started officially operating my business under YogaHub, [but] it was a totally different model than it is now.” 

Today, Ali Singer’s YogaHub is a Boston-based platform that connects the corporate world with trained yoga teachers, streamlined by professional standards to ensure top quality. At first, Singer’s clients were hotels. “I started cold calling hotels because they had the physical space to host the classes,” she recalls. This strategy paid off, as the first hotel she connected with expressed interest in offering onsite yoga but was unsure of how to organize it, emphasizing the missing link in the yoga community that Singer was determined to build. This first business relationship organically designed the approach that now has become the cornerstone of the company’s success, enabling them to further develop partnerships with commercial properties and companies around the world. “It was a process of learning what that customer wanted and developing the service [based on] their needs,” explains Singer. 

Yet, as Singer points out, YogaHub has gone through many iterations and required certain levels of trust to witness the now-prosperous business. Outside of her familial support, including her husband and entrepreneurial father, Singer praises The McCarthy(s) Venture Mentoring Network for connecting her with established alumni who serve as trusted advisors to Singer. She emphasizes that those relationships are invaluable, especially in career-altering moments like her transition to running YogaHub full-time when the COVID-19 pandemic eliminated her in-person studio classes. Equipped with a strong network, Singer started that new chapter by tapping into the demand for physical and mental wellness while social distancing. 

Despite all the challenges thrown at the adaptive Singer, there have been incredible successes in YogaHub’s history that strongly indicate that her work is important and valued. She can recall her excitement when The Boston Globe covered YogaHub for the first time, and her delighted shock when she led a free outdoor yoga class of approximately 400 participants in Copley Square during the co-hosted International Day of Yoga with Yoga for Humanity. Touching on the latter experience, Singer remembers, “We were just hoping to just bring people together in celebration of the practice of yoga. It was nerve-wracking to lead the class, but it’s just yoga.” 

As for what’s next? First, Singer is embracing a new role—becoming a mom! Singer is passing down her love of yoga to her daughter by leading a baby and caregiver yoga program through the Medford Public Library. While that is her most important priority, Singer has a vision for the future of YogaHub. “I want to build the yoga brand [by] creating a balance between honoring the traditions of the practice and making it relatable in modern life,” she explains. To achieve this, Singer is utilizing technology to facilitate corporate bookings, and, eventually, she hopes to create a digital platform to connect yogis worldwide. In the meantime, Singer approaches every day grounded by her signature “good vibes” mantra.   

Learn more about Ali Singer and YogaHub below:

www.alisingeryoga.com  

https://www.linkedin.com/in/alisingeryoga

www.instagram.com/alisingeryoga

www.facebook.com/alisingeryoga

www.facebook.com/yogahub.life

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