MULTIMEDIA PORJECT | Ashleygoroski

Appalachian State University student designers and the businesses they run.

STUDENT-MADE,
THEIR 5 MAIN MISSIONS
(from their website)

FILLING A NEED FOR ASPIRING STUDENT 'ART'-REPRENEURS

Creative students may be able to connect with their home town, or a handful of friends on campus - but Student-Made was started because most were struggling to reach supports on their own campus.

CONNECTING WITH A SUPPORTIVE COMMUNITY

Student-Made allows creative students to connect with each other, and to reach a major support network that exists right on campus that can help them turn their talents and passions into viable businesses.

MORE THAN A STORE: UNITING A CAMPUS

Students get to discover their creative peers through on-campus pop-ups, alumni are able to support student entrepreneurship, and our partners help us share creativity with the greater community.

GROWING OUR NETWORK OF CAMPUSES

As our network of Student-Made campuses grows, the customer base for each student artist grows far beyond his or her own campus. Each new campus helps a student's art become a viable business.

STUDENT-MADE AND STUDENT-RUN

Beyond being student-made, we are also student-run. We provide an opportunity for passionate students of all majors to help is grow on campus, and gain valuable experience on a management team.

College students do not get enough credit for what they do. Many students hold a job, or multiple whiles completing their degree. To be considered a full-time student here at Appalachian State, you must take a minimum of 12 hours. These students are taking, on average, anywhere from 12-18 hours. The students featured are designers who have created their own brands. They have built their identity outside of just a student, into a student who is also a really cool graphic designer or a small business owner. It takes a lot to run your own business in college. These students are to be admired as it is not an easy feat.

The students featured here are Patrick Dimond and Xanayra Marin-Lopez. Dimond is a junior graphic design major and Marin-Lopez is a senior journalism major. These students are both unique in their own ways and showcase their talents differently, but effectively.

Dimond took his love for studio art and turned it into a passion for graphic design. He takes things that are physical and turns them into digital creations. He has taken photos and transformed them into digital masterpieces using Adobe software. The photos look like they have been painted to perfection - but in reality, it is just Dimond and his skills that bring them to life. If you want to see more of his art, make sure to follow his art Instagram. Dimond also sells his work through Student-Made. You can find his page here.

Marin-Lopez creates their own jewelry and sells it through their clothing Instagram. What is their clothing Instagram? It is a page dedicated to their collection of upcycled pieces of clothing. She takes pieces donated to them and either will sell them as is or upcycles them in a way that they become one-of-kind pieces. They have a booth at the Appalachian Antique Mall where you can purchase items as well as hosting local pop-ups. To keep updated on events from them, make sure to follow their Instagram, @fromxanayra.

If want to learn more about these students, check out the video below. It shows a more in-depth view of what they do. Understanding what goes into this process is most important. The video below helps to go into detail explaining how these students are getting things done.

One-way students at App are gaining exposure for their businesses is through the platform Student Made. It is a website that hosts different sites for multiple schools with the goal of getting college students small business exposure. Student-Made started out at Elon University. It was founded in 2017 by two juniors at the time, Lindsay Reeth and Ryan Mcelhinney. Their goal was to create a marketplace just for students. In 2021, The Appalachian, App States student-run newspaper, did an article on Student-Made. A fun fact from this is that the founders were inspired by the creativity in Boone to take the store online. App State was the first school outside of their alma mater to be featured on their site.

Currently Student-Made has programs at Elon, App State, Clemson, University of South Carolina and UNC Chapel-Hill. They have goals to expand to more schools and if you are interested in creating a platform for your school, they have information their website on how to get everything set up. If you are a current student at App State and want to become one of their featured artist, they have an application linked here. All of the schools have their own website that host different students from the schools content. This type of brilliancy is why students should be given a chance.

Learning about hard work and dedication it takes for these students to succeed has been a privilege. The creative mindset they have to get into is impressive. Working so hard on something on top of being a full-time student takes commitment. Running a business is not easy, any business owner will tell you that. But having a platform like Student-Made is giving students a chance to successful.