Holiday Market showcases student creativity and community connections

The Holiday Market returned to the Student Commons in the E-building on Nov. 29 for its third year, with many students like Miguel Fausto honing their business skills at the event.

After the Students’ Association released the dates for the event, a number of vendors began signing up, including some of Algonquin College’s students. For many students, the market was a stepping stone into the world of entrepreneurship.

Fausto is a Level 3 engineering automation and robotics student. When he heard about the event, he immediately applied for a booth, trying to use the 3D printing technology he had learned in class to generate revenue.

“I decided to sell these Christmas ornament products to make some profits from something I love such as 3D printing,” Fausto said. “I design it myself and send it to the printer, which I call profiting from it.”

Many graduates joined the holiday market, including Amanda Rogocki, who graduated from the animation program at Algonquin College, and her sister, Erin Wiles, who brought their own printed and hand-knitted items to sell.

“I found out about this market when I was a student here, and it’s like a nice local market,” Rogocki said.

Wiles came to the event for the first time with her sister and her booth setup was not an easy task.

“It could be very intimidating during the first set up,” Wiles said. “There’s a lot of things to consider such as how to make the product and also how to do the payment.”

Rogocki has been doing this kind of activity for a long time and she’s hoping her business will expand outside of Ontario.

“I may attend more events outside of Ontario. Right now I go to Toronto and also Montreal. But I’m also hoping to do some shows in Calgary and Vancouver,” Rogocki said.

Dory Tran and Annie Le, Level 3 supply chain students at Algonquin College, love the market.

“In the mall, people there are crazy,” Tran said. “But here you have the time to walk around and ask how they made it and I think it’s more fun.”

Le said such events could be publicized more in the future.

“I didn’t know the event was happening today, I wish there could have been some notice and more advertisement,” Le said.