The Maverick Marketplace allowed student entrepreneurs to set up booths and show off their work to a wide audience.
The Vice President of Associated Student Government (ASG) Salina Edwards had the idea for the event and made it happen through the Senate and the help of other campus programs. Edwards is passionate about helping students with financial stability and is planning on running financial literacy panels as well as other events.
The Maverick Marketplace venue in the University Center Ballroom allowed for students to express their unique creativity all while being able to put their name out there. In some of the sellers’ cases, it gives them a chance to gain some experience within their major. For others, the event was their first time setting up any sort of vending booth.
Junior Business major William Vigil took the opportunity to sell some of his art at the marketplace.
“It would have been really hard to just sell one, make one, sell one, so I wanted to have a bunch of different options to choose from,” Vigil said.
The Marketplace expressed a sense of community within the business realm at Colorado Mesa University (CMU). Connections through teachers, Resident Assistants, clubs and ASG made this happen for the participants. Sophomore pastry maker Amar Garcia described her experience about the event and what she gained from it.
“I want to do this full time in the future, so it’s a good start. [My] people skills are getting better,” Garcia said.
Senior graphic designer Yaye Waner was selling her printed t-shirts and expressed a lot of enthusiasm to be able to get the brand out there.
“This is my brand that a partner, Alyssa, and I have started. It’s called Perspectives and we started about two weeks ago. Everything is hand done. We do screen printing and letterpress. They’re all unique in terms of the designs and the placement of the designs,” Yaye said. “As soon as we heard about this opportunity, we jumped on it because we felt that this would be the first place we’d expose our brands even though we don’t have all of our materials. We are developing them and I think just getting our name out there.”
The Maverick Marketplace was a success in allowing the hopes of future careers in these students to get that experience among a familiar cohort. CMU alumni walked around to different booths and awarded the top three entrepreneurs with prizes to help them in their endeavors.
ASG is hoping to run another event in the Spring 2022 semester.
