Roberto Larios (MFA Screenwriting ‘17) began his career as an intern at Verve Talent and Literary Agency, where he became interested in becoming an agent. Roberto worked his way up to TV Lit Coordinator, a position he held for about a year before another recent promotion to his current role of TV agent. Roberto is especially focused on lifting up new and diverse voices. On his time at DePaul, Roberto reflects, “I wouldn’t be where I am without the education and the resources, and more so the skillset, that I learned in my time at DePaul—but also the people that I met there.”

Alicia Boyd is a Computer Science Doctoral Candidate, set to defend in May 2021. She has been selected as a 2021 NCWIT Collegiate Award finalist for her work on Intersectional Quantitative Analysis of the #MeToo Movement. Alicia considers herself an Intersectional Quantitative Data Scientist who locates data from people marginalized in society and brings it into central focus using machine learning techniques. She uses the Intersectional framework to critique the data science process and machine learning quantitatively. Alicia is passionate about mentoring women and girls navigating academia, encouraging health and wellness, and promoting confidence in their voices.

After making their first game (A Game about Literally Doing Your Taxes) together in 2019, CDM alumni Josh Eckhart and DeMarco Scarnegie, CDM student Brandon Hesslau, and UIC student Vince Weiss formed Not a Sailor Studios. On the heels of Taxes’ success (it has been downloaded over 40,000 times), the team is releasing their second game, Buddy Simulator 1984, on February 18. Buddy is based on an original idea Brandon came up with during his first year at DePaul. “We couldn't do all of this without DePaul's amazing professors, opportunities, and courses that they provided. It helped to further engage our love of game design, start a legitimate company, and follow our passion for creating video games,” said Josh.