THUNDER BAY — Confederation College saw a lot of activity on campus this week as business students participated in the college’s Marketing Days event.
Erin Oner, the coordinator of the business marketing programs at Confederation College, said that students were tasked with creating a sustainable product using the concept of up-cycling.
“So, they take used products and make something viable that they can sell back to our college community and all the proceeds from what they're doing goes to the emergency Student Food Bank,” she said.
“It's a really big deliverable, we've taught them about the sustainability and importance of that in business and just giving back to local community here at the college.”
The event, which Oner said has run for many years, is back in-person for the first time since the start of the pandemic.
“It's wonderful, we really try and sort of foster that sense of entrepreneurship in some of our programs and just the excitement that they have when they're here selling,” she said.
“And they're interacting with their fellow teachers and their fellow staff and it's kind of got a Christmas vibe going on here.”
The event encourages students to use old items in new creative ways.
Oner says that the students have produced a nice variety of items this year.
“I have one group that has taken t-shirts and they have modified them into book bags, just re-purposing old T-shirts that would normally end up in a landfill or you know, just be sort of laying around at home,” she said.
“One group has taken power cords that [one of their] grandmas had, a bin of old power cords, and they've made bowls with them and actually really nice designer bowls, so we've seen a few things.”
Oner says that the most important lesson she hopes her students focus on is the importance of giving back to their communities and proceeds from the event all go to the student emergency food bank.
“This project really teaches our students the importance of, you know, giving back to our local college community and that emergency student fund is important to many students at the same time,” she said.
“The importance of, you know, looking at sustainability and, you know, re-purposing and reusing and trying to sort of minimize our footprint, so those are some of the things that we talk about in first year market.”
The event will last until Friday with different groups selling their creations at different times around campus until 3:30 p.m. each day.
