It’s not a regular Tuesday on Trousdale. Students took to McCarthy Quad and the Trousdale campus entrance to showcase their entrepreneurial spirit from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Back and bigger than ever, the Trojan Marketplace arranged by Spark SC featured over 60 Trojan-owned businesses.
The market was launched last semester by Spark members including Erik Cruz, who saw that there was a need for student entrepreneurs to display their work.
“He just saw that there were so many talented student entrepreneurs at USC,” said Sarah Hakim, a Marketplace committee member, “but they didn’t really have a place to showcase their work.”
Hakim said that this time around they decided to increase the number of vendors and also created a website to showcase their work.
Last year, the event was held in the USC Village and featured 45 student vendors.
“We want to empower entrepreneurs and give them the confidence to proceed with their endeavors,” said Melis Kolat, a Trojan Marketplace committee member. “We also want to show that everyone can be an entrepreneur here at USC, you don’t have to have a lot of experience. You can just build something and bring it here.”
The Trojan Marketplace is part of Spark’s goal to foster relationships between the community of entrepreneurs.
“We want to bring the community together at this event and beyond,” said Kolat.
Paige Buckner, a masters student studying landscape architecture, owns Design With P, a sticker business during the pandemic. Buckner is a first-time seller at the marketplace.
“Over the pandemic, I decided to get a new hobby because I already had seven, but needed an eighth,” Buckner said. “I ordered a Cricut and just started to design from there.”
Karen Martinez, a senior psychology major, owns By Kamtz, an art business where she paints shoes, clothing, purses and jewelry. She started the company during the pandemic as a way to turn her love for anime into a business.
“Since I had so much free time, I realized I should probably put it to use with discovering new hobbies and I tried everything,” Martinez said. “I tried crocheting; I made rings; I made jewelry and then I realized I could paint.”
The event, also advertised on Instagram, drew a large crowd of vendors and consumers alike.
Sofia Acero, a senior sociology major, was drawn to the variety of sellers.
“I was excited to see so many Trojan-owned businesses in one place,” said Acero. “I questioned why I hadn’t heard of this before, and it made me go on their Instagram page and find out more about it.”
Students can stay up to date with the return of the Trojan Marketplace as well as apply to become vendors through their Instagram.