Students sell their own goods at Berry
Entrepreneurs take over Krannert Center with sale
“I’m living my family’s dream,” said Berry College student Jake Steel. He was speaking from his booth stocked with bottles of Cappy J’s original sauce at an entrepreneurs sale in the Krannert Center on Tuesday.
“Boys, we’re going to make this a business,” he recalled his father telling him and his brothers. Steel, a creative technologies major, is now carrying that out through his student-run business, which was inspired through his entrepreneurial class.
Steel and business partner Eric Remoroza, who is also a creative technologies major, manned the booth with a takeout box of french fries and a dollop of the sauce, a secret recipe of Steel’s family. The class has motivated Steel to move forward with his father’s business idea and has provided the guidance on how to grow it from its inception, he said.
“I’m going to try and put all my cards in it,” he said. “I’m going to be putting my heart and soul into it.”
At the end of the semester, Steel hopes to have a business plan in place to be able to go to a loan officer to kick off his venture in turning Cappy J’s into a viable business.
“I’ll definitely be an investor,” Remoroza said.
A handful of other student businesses also filled the lobby of the Krannert Center, including H2rOpes and Click Pop.
With recycled climbing rope donated from the Berry Outdoor Leadership Development program, which has an adventure challenge course on the Mountain Campus, H2rOpes creates sleeves for water bottle handles, said senior Gabrielle Marquez. She had started out making them for herself and other people. The thought came up that if there was a want for them, she should just open up sales.
Marquez and her partners will be selling the sleeves at the Chiaha Harvest Festival this weekend at Ridge Ferry Park. Her business — along with the others — sold their goods at Mountain Day earlier this month.
Seniors Adey Duncan and Nina Kowalke were selling prints they designed as part of their business, Click Pop. Both of them had experience with graphic design, including Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, and thought they could design prints as a unique item compared to what else was being offered.
“We really love what we do,” said Kowalke, adding that the business is rooted in the bigger purpose of sharing the “joy of Christ.”