2023 Kessler Fellows
Kessler Fellows is an entrepreneurship program rooted in the College of Engineering. The program is open to all juniors at Cornell University that have a strong interest in entrepreneurship. Students will engage in a semester-long immersion aimed to help them cultivate their entrepreneurial readiness before their summer experience with a startup.
Meet the 2023 Kessler Fellows
Kieran Barr
Environment & Sustainability
"Through the Kessler Fellowship, I hope to expand my knowledge and my passion with a group of people that want to help reduce the impacts of any adverse environmental catalysts."
Giorgi Berndt
Arts and Sciences
"My goal is to learn how startups get from the ideation / pre-seed stage to scaling and actually becoming an established business. What are the biggest lessons that the founders learned and what were the most useful things that they learned along the way to create a viable product."
Charlie Bierden
Mechanical Engineering
"I hope to learn how to turn a good engineering or physics idea into a tangible business. We learn a lot of technical skills in school which can give people good ways to change the world and I hope to learn how to bring them into reality."
Evelyn Chiu
Mechanical Engineering
"With global warming prevalent, developing environmentally friendly and cost-effective solutions is vital. I’m determined to contribute to its development, marketing, and implementation. Working at a startup would enable me to become part of a team with a large impact, allowing me to tackle this problem with more of my voice."
Liv Cramer
International Agriculture and Rural Development
"I want to learn more about the ways we can harness business and technology to create a better world."
Shirin Dinasan
Applied Economics and Management
"The Kessler Fellows program provides undergrad students with an unparalleled risk-free way to explore entrepreneurship. I am most excited to join a community of like-minded students and alumni who share a similar entrepreneurial spirit and passion. "
Erhunmwunse Eghafona
Mechanical Engineering
"I want to summer experience that's filled with learning, both in the field that I'm interested in which is robotics, and also about the inner functions of an actual startup."
Gabriel Ewig
Mechanical Engineering
"Through Kessler, I hope to take an interdisciplinary approach to addressing environmental issues, and gain experience considering the social, political, and economic factors that are critical to the success of these solutions."
Bella Hu
Information Science
"I hope to learn more about entrepreneurship and gain hands-on experience at a place where I can grow and develop my own passions."
Zuhair Joyoa
Industrial and Labor Relations
"I hope being a Kessler Fellow allows me to get a better understanding of my career path and what kinds of jobs I enjoy doing. The potential to explore a variety of managerial as well as operational tasks is high in an entrepreneurial environment."
Phyllis Ju
Information Science
"I hope to clarify and solidify my interest in entrepreneurship, build connections with people from different industries and startups, and learn about skills and knowledge that can prepare me for innovating in the future."
Jay Jung
Information Science
"I look forward to being in a constant state of learning as I immerse myself in a community of ambitious and creative doers from diverse backgrounds with equally diverse interests."
Kate Kim
Information Science
"As a Kessler Fellow, I hope to get closer to actualizing my goal of starting my own venture and be part of a community of passionate entrepreneurial-minded students."
Katie Lee
Enviromental Engineering
""I hope to be a member of a community full of individuals with diverse skill sets and experience, where I can contribute my own and also learn from others. This experience can provide me with the skills and confidence to venture beyond this summer and into years ahead.
Esha Pisipati
Biological Sciences
"As a Kessler Fellow, I have the unique ability to not only understand how a business functions but more importantly how it developed. I hope to develop the tools to cultivate an idea and nuture it so it can create impactful change. "
Tomer Poole-Dayan
Applied Economics and Management
"I hope to better understand the skills possessed by successful entrepreneurs through direct interaction with the executive leadership of a startup. These skills will be necessary on my path to transforming my ideas and passions into a reality of creating my own entrepreneurial venture in the future. "
Emma Shen
Information Science
"I am someone who has always had an inherent itch to create within voids. Whenever I identify a problem, a missing piece in my life and community, my brain immediately begins to ideate. I am very passionate about building products and communities that inspire people."
Mark Tarazi
Mechanical Engineering
"I hope the Kessler Fellowship will teach me the entrepreneurial skills while building on my strengths as an engineer to launch my own startup that could alleviate the hardships of others."
Yiming Wang
Computer Science & Sociology
"First-hand experiences. Not something you could learn by sitting in a classroom, but the chance to speak and work with entrepreneurs who have dedicated their resources and commitment to the startup they cultivated."
David Yun
Human Ecology, Policy Analysis and Management
"I seek to be in a community of like-minded students that are passionate about entrepreneurship."