Rosemary Chesney, Campus Carrier arts and living editor

While Berry offers extensive student work opportunities, some students choose to run their own personal businesses as well. Ranging from a custom designed wedding gown business to a personalized painting business, there are at least nine student owned businesses on campus.

Junior animal science major Hanna Seoyeon runs a business called Sticky Kids which specializes in personalized stickers for college students. Seoyeon began her business last March and sells her stickers mainly through her Instagram page, stickyk1ds. 

“I was shopping for stickers [last March] but couldn’t find anything that resonated or represented my school, so I wanted to personalize things uniquely to my standards,” Seoyeon said. 

According to Seoyeon, the biggest challenge so far has been getting the word out about Sticky Kids, especially to those who don’t frequently use Instagram. She plans on selling her stickers at Berry markets, such as the Mountain Day market and Spring market. She also hopes to expand Sticky Kids by building an online shopping platform. 

“Running this business has introduced me to a lot of groups of people on campus who I might not have otherwise gotten to know,” Seoyeon said. “It has also helped me learn more about people’s personal interests and more about Berry itself.” 

Mia Irizarry is another junior student business owner on campus. Her business MdiJewels sells handmade jewelry through her Instagram, mdi.jewels, Etsy and Berry markets. After watching people handmake jewelry on TikTok, Irizarry started her business in 2020 as a fun hobby and expanded it through the years.

“Making the jewelry is such a fun and de-stressing thing for me to do,” Irizarry said. “It is very relaxing, and also something I can put on my resume.”

Similar to Seoyeon, Irizarry mainly sells her jewelry through Instagram and Berry markets. Irizarry said that as she gets more customers from out of state, she plans to transition from primarily using Instagram to Etsy. Being a double major in studio art and creative technology, Irizarry is currently developing a business proposal for MdiJewels and plans on continuing the business after graduating college. 

“It’s been a nice steady source of income, and I can see this growing into a good steady business,” Irizarry said. “I enjoy the process of making rings and don’t think that is going to change anytime soon.”

Another student owned business on campus is Hand Painted by Hope, a business selling custom paintings. Senior elementary education major Hope Huetter began selling her paintings during quarantine in 2020. Huetter mainly specializes in custom paintings but also sells pre-made paintings at Berry markets. 

“Painting has always been a huge passion of mine, and now it has turned into something bigger,” Huetter said. “It’s usually not about the money for me but about being able to do what I love for other people. My favorite part is seeing how much people love the things I create for them.”

Running a small business does not come without challenges for Huetter. According to Huetter, one of the biggest challenges at the moment is finding time to market and run social media for her business while maintaining her other responsibilities on campus. She said that marketing to people outside of Berry through social media platforms has also proven to be a challenge. 

“I think I’ve always been very goal oriented and driven, and that transfers over into running this business,” Huetter said. “Running Hand Painted by Hope has also helped me learn how to market, interact with people and present myself as a brand. I can see this helping me a lot in different aspects of life, including job interviews.”