By Erin Semagin Damio

It was only 5 p.m. Friday night, but there was already a line of young women out the door of Conor Larkin’s pub on Huntington Avenue.

The dressed-up line-up was full of Northeastern students waiting to audition for a spot as a model in a calendar featuring Northeastern girls, a project created by business students and aspiring entrepreneurs Bilal Sabrah and Matt Handy.

Sabrah, a senior business management and entrepreneurship major, had the idea about two months ago, and approached Handy, a senior business marketing major, who he knew from sharing several classes.

“I loved the idea from the beginning,” Handy said. “So me and him started to really just push the idea and get some documents out and start getting the right people involved that we felt would make this a success.”

The calendar will feature female Northeastern students as models in varying outfits. Handy and Sabrah said that bathing suits would probably be included, but it would certainly not be a swimsuit calendar. Keeping it classy, both agreed, would be important.

“We want to have something that is tasteful, and something kind of edgy,” Handy said. “For instance, we want to have a background with a girl in a dorm room with her hair up, and it’s all wet, and she’s in a towel, painting her toenails. We want cool stories that bring [out] the personality of the girls.”

Sabrah said he heard from one of his entrepreneurship professors that a student had attempted to do something similar in the past but it was not executed well. He and Handy have the attempted calendar, and are using it and their professor’s advice as examples of what not to do.

“We knew going into it that we had to have a set of standards that we’d want to go by,” Handy said.

These standards include a professional photographer who will be flown in and several corporate sponsorships in the works, like a salon donating hair and makeup services and several companies donating clothing. The pair has verbal agreements with BCBG and Corona to supply outfits for the photo shoots.

“We want to make sure that everyone understands our commitment to the girls and our commitment to their careers after the calendar,” Handy said.

Alessandra Carcaterra, a junior biochemistry major, was one of the 28 girls who auditioned and has been told she made the cut to appear in the calendar.

“I was like ‘Sure, why not?'” said Carcaterra, who auditioned at the encouragement of a friend. “My mom’s a professional makeup artist so I’m around that modeling, entertainment industry my whole life.”

Carcaterra has never modeled before, but said if the calendar photo shoot goes well, she might give it a try.

Kimberly Frasso, a middler pharmacy major, came to the auditions because she knows Handy.

“It would be nice to get the attention,” Frasso said. “I think that’s my main motivation.”

Frasso didn’t dress up especially for the audition.

“I just came from work,” she said. “I figure I’ll go au natural, and see how they like it.”

Handy and Sabrah plan to build their calendar around the academic year, starting it in September and marking important dates in Northeastern’s schedule. They have started to produce and create the calendars, and after it’s done, they hope to expand the idea to other colleges.

“I feel like the sky’s the limit,” said Handy, who is currently applying for post-graduation jobs. “I see no reason why, in a couple of years, this couldn’t be something that we end up spending more and more time with.”

Due to e-mails and requests from those unable to attend the audition last Friday, Sabrah and Handy will hold another casting call at Conor Larkin’s Saturday, April 21, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Interested females must be of junior standing or younger, to ensure they will still be enrolled in the fall when the calendars go on sale.