About once a month, a student or a group sets up a table on the Quad and fills it with jewelry, crafts, candy or another handmade item with the hope of selling that handiwork to others.
The makeshift, or pop-up, shops give aspiring entrepreneurs a chance to show off and sell the products they have made as they study to become small business owners.
“[It’s] very innovative on the students’ part,” Steve Berry, an instructional specialist in business, said. “I’d like to see more students doing stuff like that, taking initiative.”
Cameron Hanley, a second-year entrepreneurial studies student, set up the first pop-up shop last semester to sell jewelry after taking part in HawkTrade, a trade show that the campus Entrepreneurial Studies Institute hosts once every semester. Since then, 12 students have sold jewelry, plushies and stickers on the Quad.
“It’s great to connect with other students,” Hanley said.
Hanley said student business owners “have a great time” working with other aspiring entrepreneurs.
Third-year sociology student Nikita Plaisance, who ran a pop-up shop on Feb. 12 selling jewelry, agreed.
“I try not to think about it as like, you know, competition,” Plaisance said. “Even if we’re all selling similar things … we offer to help each other out.”