Claire Monro and Claire Fisher never expected to be graduating online. Then again, neither of them thought of making thousands of dollars on making T-shirts, either.
Instead, they just wanted to spread Trojan spirit online while everyone is physically separated.
So the two Claires had an idea: USC-themed T-shirts with the perfect logo emblazoned on the front: “Fight On…line.”
Monro and Fisher, both of whom are seniors at the Marshall School of Business, were devastated when their last semester at USC ended so suddenly. Many of their friends left home already with an unprepared farewell.
“Once the news broke that school would be online for the rest of the semester, a lot of our friends in our house are from the east coast, so they just moved back home,” Monro said. “We (didn’t) know if or when they were ever going to come back.”
But Monro and Fisher wanted to revive the Trojan spirit for those who still remained on campus. Painting signs is what they usually do on game day, so this time they decided to paint one and hang it from their house.
“We really just [wanted] to make sure that anyone who’s still on campus still feels the Trojan spirit,” Monro said. “We wanted something emotional this time but also maybe something fun and uplifting.”
What began as a kind gesture grew into something more applicable: take the logo from the poster and put it on a T-shirt to sell it online. True to form as business majors, they decided to allocate the profits to the local businesses around USC.
“We can still do good from this and we can still show our Trojan spirit and still be so proud to be Trojan,” said Fisher, who came up with the idea.
The duo spent the next few days designing the T-shirt and starting a campaign on Mar. 24 to begin the online sale on Bonfire - an online fundraising tool that encourages non-profit organizations to raise money by selling custom T-shirts.
“We just got the word out there on our social media and different Facebook pages,” Monro said. “We started getting a lot of people interested in the shirt and saying, ’oh my god, it’s such a great idea and such a cool design.’”
The sale on Bonfire ended on April 5 with 260 T-shirts sold and $2000 earned, according to Monro.
Except for the profits that go to the Bonfire website, the team decided to donate all the profits they earned to the USC Emergency Fund that will donate the money to businesses on Figueroa street around USC, such as Caveman Kitchen, El Huero and so on.
Monro said that these are businesses that have been beloved by the USC community for years.
“We really hope that we can just help them survive this time when they’re really not getting any business at all,” Monro said. “All those businesses on Figueroa we’ve definitely frequented throughout our time at USC and we would hate for incoming USC Trojans or current USC Trojans to not be able to experience that throughout their years.”
The support that the team needed went all the way up to the top at USC . After cold-emailing the President’s office, they got connected with USC President Carol Folt who linked them with her team members so they could sell the T-shirts at the USC Bookstore online.
“[Folt] responded within an hour and was just so supportive and so helpful and got us set up with her direct team, who then thought [the T-shirt] was so awesome and great that they wanted to use the design in the bookstore,” Monro said.
Monro and Fisher’s were even profiled in a university-wide message sent by Foly last Wednesday that recounted USC’s stories amid the pandemic.
Other members of the USC staff have been impressed by the team’s philanthropic work, as well.
“Claire [Monro] was one of those students who realized that creating a career focus required her to get outside of herself and explore the pains and unmet needs around her. The entrepreneur motto - ‘see pain take action now to address,’” said Patrick Henry, assistant professor of clinical entrepreneurship, via an email sent by USC Media Relations to Annenberg Media.
Since the sale of T-shirt on the bookstore’s website began on April 5, it has been popular. 126 T-shirts were sold in one week alone.
“USC posted an article about our shirts on their LinkedIn page,” Monro said. “Many of the alumni were commenting ’oh my gosh Chano’s. I remember going to Leavey Library studying all night and then going to Chano’s for a burrito. It really resonates with alumni too, which is cool.”
The Claires believe the Trojan network is the reason the sale has gone so well.
“We’re all still Trojans here together, even if we’re not physically together, we still are,” Monro said.