David Jung

With many high school students exploring their hobbies, those who have found a profound love for baking, cooking, and or handcrafts in jewelry are finding opportunity to sell to an audience here on campus. This concept of selling goods is in some circumstances to fulfill a financial necessity, but in others is an opportunity to grow a passion.

Imagine this: you recently picked up the hobby of baking. Months down the road, you’ve become well-versed in the art of brownies, cookies, cupcakes, muffins, you name it. Eventually, you start giving them to your friends and they absolutely love it. Now what? You explore the idea of possibly selling these baked goods to other people, start advertising it through social media, and all of a sudden you’ve just started your own mini business!

As high school students explore their passions and hobbies, many students have found their interests to lie in hobbies with a high demand for production, leaving them to consider the idea of starting a business and being able to get money from it. For most students on campus, baking and cooking has been their passion that led to their start in selling handmade baked treats. 

Selling specialty foods ranging from spam musubi to Oreo-stuffed chocolate chip cookies, students who sell these food items use the funds to donate to a good cause or for funding the programs they are a part of on campus. 

“Why I started selling [cookies] is to help pay off stuff for my extracurriculars, because I’m in so many that it gets really expensive really fast,” Natalie Doromal (11), a fan-favorite cookie seller, said. 

The transition to earn money through methods that don’t follow the traditional part-time job route represents a concept that more students are being open minded towards as they have found their hobbies to be worth more than they previously thought. 

“I think that personal businesses are a way for people to explore their passions and still earn some money out of it,” James Lam (11), an avid supporter of student-run small businesses, said. “But to me, it’s really an opportunity for a lot of people to just do what they love and create the things that they love.”

Especially as most people aren’t sure of what they would want to pursue in the future, the process of selling and understanding the mindset of a business owner offers experience that can’t be found elsewhere. 

“[People who sell handmade goods] might be interested in actually being entrepreneurs in the future which I think might help them,” Malaia Reger (11) said. 

The benefits in starting a business as a student, rooted in one’s own passions, is a path that is more accessible to people who are wanting to make money despite the difficulties of finding a job. 

“I would say some of the benefits [of starting a business right now] would be getting that working experience in some way because I know some people might be too young to interview for a job,” Doromal said. “It gives you that firsthand experience of interacting with people that’d be from running a business.”

Additionally, with numerous students wanting to support their friends while being able to get a gourmet treat as an added plus, many have expressed their interest in helping out and purchasing homemade goods from other students. 

“I think it’s important to support small businesses because for a lot of people who are selling, it’s a means for them to make their own money so that they can put it to good use,” Lam said. “Whether to support their family, or for a lot of people I know it’s to support different extracurricular programs out there on campus, it can build up a hefty cost.”

With the rise in popularity of students starting small businesses and selling their handmade goods, there is an added demand for these crafts that are unique and one-of-a-kind.

“I think it’s important for people to know that the things that they create have meaning to it,” Lam said. “They have talent that can go somewhere.”