Hayley Anderson (BA ’12) was just included in the Forbes “30 Under 30” class of 2020. Hayley is the chief creative officer and cofounder of soona, a fast-casual photo & video service that empowers customers to get professional quality content for less than the price of stock. Brands use soona in two ways: in their studio stores and through soona Anytime, an experience that enables customers to ship their product from anywhere in the U.S. and attend their live photo or video shoot online, allowing them to give instant feedback to the crew. Hayley and her soona cofounder Liz Giorgi opened their Denver location in April 2019 and Minneapolis location in May 2019. They plan to open more locations next year.

Graduate Computer Science student James Valles is the founder and president of Developer Student Club at DePaul University, a club powered by Google Developers that helps students bridge the gap between theory and practice and builds software solutions to solve local problems in a peer-to-peer learning environment. Google selected James to lead the club, which is one of 4 in the Chicagoland area. James also serves as LinkedIn’s Learning Champion, a CDM graduate ambassador, and a graduate assistant for DePaul’s Center for Educational Technology (CET), where he has hosted several tech panel discussions. He is the Communications Chair and Webmaster for the IEEE Region 4 student activities committee and organizes the IEEE Summer Mixer, a networking event that attracts industry professionals and engineering students from universities spanning 7 states.

Maddie Shiparski is a student in our combined degree program. She received her bachelor’s in User Experience Design this spring and is now working toward her MA in Experience Design. Currently, Maddie is working to gain insight into hospitality experiences and guest interactions from companies like Cedar Point and Walt Disney World that pride themselves on "guestology" and innovation. “As an Experience Designer, I want to design for people - what they need, want, & expect out of situations. My goal is to create products and systems that make our communities (including amusement parks!) more sustainable, equitable, and accessible.”