Jillian Casale

Name: Siobhán O’Dwyer (“It’s pronounced ‘Shuh-vahn,’ like in Petey Pablo’s Freek-a-Leek… or you can just call me Shiv”)
Major: Pharmacy
Hometown: Reppin’ the NY capital city--Albany, New York.
Most likely found: Out on the roof top terrace of Curry (“The closer to the sun, the better!”)

Claim to fame: Representing Her Campus Northeastern as the newest face of Ann Taylor. Well not exactly, but soon you can see her on AnnTaylor.com! Siobhán was recently picked as one of five NU girls to be featured in Ann Taylor’s online look book. The site features student models from campuses all over the country, offering fashion inspiration and career advice for collegiettes entering the job market.

Favorite thing about the photo shoot: The rain literally put a damper on the day, but we used umbrellas to take fun pictures outside. It made the pictures seem more realistic for a college student in Boston. We all know it can be a struggle to stay stylish in rain boots!

Previous modeling experience: I used to work for Abercrombie & Fitch, and I was featured in the store’s look book. But every single model had to wear jeans and a tank top, so it wasn’t exactly about standing out and taking fashion risks. The photo shoot with Ann Taylor was great because I got to pick my own clothes and take photos all around campus.

Biggest fashion mistake: Wearing Uggs with a denim miniskirt, crimping my hair, or when I wore my white pharmacy lab coat and heels for Halloween last year… I swear I’m learning from my mistakes!

Northeastern prides itself on the ingenuity of its students, many of whom go on to create huge names for themselves with their inventive business ventures. Ever hear of Twitter? Napster? Both co-founders of these famous enterprises are Northeastern alumni (the latter didn’t actually graduate, and his company got shut down for piracy issues, but still, Napster was huge!) Huskies get the opportunity to co-op all over the world, learning from the greatest entrepreneurs of today. In 2011, the Princeton Review named NU one of the top 12 entrepreneurial colleges in the country, so it comes as no surprise that our school has its very own start-up challenge, aptly named the “Husky Start-up Challenge” (HCS).

Northeastern’s Entrepreneurs’ Club hosts the challenge every semester, which began in 2010. The competition gives students the chance to turn their business ideas into reality. Students submit their ideas, create business plans over a series of boot camp workshops, and finalists are selected to present on Demo Day. Remember science fairs in middle school, where geeky kids with braces showed off their homemade baking soda volcanoes and theorized the effect of classical music on plant growth? Demo Day is like that, only so much better. On Thursday, April 12th from 7 to 9 pm in the Curry Student Center West Addition, 18 groups will show off their business ideas in hopes of winning $5,500 in cash prizes to make their entrepreneurial dreams come true.