Fairtrade on Pitt's campus

Olivia Sobkowiak

Sep 28

Olivia Sobkowiak

Fairtrade has always held a special place in my heart. My family has run a fair trade project in Nicaragua and Costa Rica for the last 21 years. Though it started before I was born I have always been deeply involved in the project, from meeting the artisans to product design. Though all parts of the project have intrigued me, one of my favorites has been selling the products in the United States and being able to educate people about the stories behind each item. Growing up my sister and I traveled with our parents attending many fair trade shows, church bazaars, and outdoor fairs. When we were young we would hide under the tables and listen as our parents explained how the goal of our project was to create stable jobs for talented artisans who weren't able to have a market in their own country. At the age of four, I joined my parents and began telling the stories that I had experienced firsthand on my travels with them, explaining how I had watched our artisan partner Jacobo pull a beautiful vase from a lump of clay.

When I entered Pitt as a freshman I was unsure of the direction that I wanted to go with my studies but I was sure it included working internationally. During my first two years, I discovered a few things which allowed me to construct an idea for my Honors college capstone project. Firstly I noticed that there were not many stores on campus which were providing affordable gifts and decorations for incoming students and their families. Many freshmen were forced to go to target or larger chain stores to buy items for their new dorm rooms, which created excess waste as many of the items were cheaply made and broke quickly. I discussed this with my peers and broached the idea of pop-up markets on campus similar to those that my family and I had attended in my youth. There seemed to be an interest both in the convenience and the idea that the products would be helping international communities. The second thing I realized was that there was no group at Pitt that was promoting fair trade to the student body. I again spoke with my peers about the idea of forming a fair trade club, which would host talks about fair trade with artisans and events such as markets to prompt the goods from different fair trade groups.

My goal with this capstone project is to bring both of these ideas to fruition. With my connections in the fairtrade world and the enthusiasm of the Pitt student body, I feel that we could create monthly markets which would bring in fairtrade goods from around the world. My goal would be to conduct these markets either on the lawn of the cathedral during the fall or in the great hall of the cathedral during the winter. The events would invite members of the fair trade club to run tables that would sell different products from a variety of fair trade companies. This would allow students to build a wide range of skills including building personal connections, knowledge of the fair trade world, and sale techniques. I hope to begin looking at what companies Pitt could work with this coming month as well as reaching out to students to see who may be interested in this project.