Diamondback Online - The University of Maryland's Independent Daily Student Newspaper

Media Credit: Jackie Borowski

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More than a dozen university entrepreneurs gathered yesterday to sell their products in a student marketplace as part of the university's first Global Entrepreneurship Week, a worldwide event celebrating entrepreneurship among young people.

Students and alumni sat at a dozen tables in the first-floor atrium of Van Munching Hall, selling items ranging from purses and accessories to T-shirts and food. Though the marketplace was held as its own event last year, it joined the newly formed Global Entrepreneurship Week as a way to encourage students to test the market for their products and get a start in the world of small business, said Alla Corey, program manager of the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship. This is the first year the university has taken part in the event as part of the week.

And some students were very successful, attracting customers by being outgoing and showcasing brightly colored products.

"I think it is a good opportunity," said Juliet Serem, an architecture graduate student who sold Kenyan-inspired aprons. "I have a product that I have designed and made, and I am trying to figure out a way to market it."

In addition to students, some alumni came to sell their products at the marketplace. Micha Weinblatt, who graduated in 2007, came to the marketplace to sell T-shirts from his company, Crooked Monkey.

"We are close to the Dingman Center; we do a lot of work with them on entrepreneurship, so whenever they have events, we always like to show up and show support," Weinblatt said. Since Weinblatt launched Crooked Monkey in his senior year, the business has expanded and is sold at 550 retailers around the world, including Nordstrom and Urban Outfitters, he said.

To participate in the marketplace event, interested applicants simply had to sign up and give a brief description of their product to the Dingman Center. Some applicants signed up to participate in the marketplace as little as a week ago.

Global Entrepreneurship Week, sponsored by the Kauffman Foundation in the United States, lasts from Nov. 17 to Nov. 23 and will consist of several events aside from the student marketplace, such as speakers, a patent writing workshop, presentations and a business plan competition.

"We are trying to promote this event and make sure that people come and look at what our students produce, and spend their dollars here than rather at some big department store," Corey said.

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