International Cooperation at the Heart of Alternative Gift Market

Shopping for gifts doesn't need to be done only downtown, at the mall or online. Naperville residents have another option that offers one-of-a-kind, alternative, handcrafted goods.

Every weekend at North Central College, an Alternative Gift Marketplace is open to shoppers. The store can be found in Heininger Auditorium at the Larrance Academic Center, 309 E. School St. Students In Free Enterprise (SIFE) manages the marketplace with the assistance of faculty sponsors.

Students work with artisans in countries such as Guatemala and Costa Rica to improve their business practices. The students learn about business and working with people from other cultures; the artisans learn about business and marketing.

"We are also a diverse group, trying to make this as interdisciplinary and as holistic as possible," said Jerry Thalmann, SIFE faculty advisor and department chair in accounting. "We are promoting social justice through our business."

The marketplace is in its sixth year, he said. During the first year, items were sold through churches, friends and family. The last five years, a store was set up in a building on campus.

Most of the products are sourced through direct trade, Thalmann said. The organization has a direct connection with the producer or artisan and the majority of items come from Guatemala. Every year, faculty and students visit with the artisans and provide product design and marketing guidance. Going to the artisans' homelands every year also builds relationships and trust.

The SIFE team works as consultants for the artisans, while also building a working relationship, and buying and selling the artisans' products. The group is transparent with the artisans about how much it will pay for the goods and how much it plans to charge for them.

"The students learn to run a business and also, while they are doing that, they are taking into the consideration the cultural heritage of the people they are working with," Thalmann said.

The students learn about ethical standards and what are and are not good business practices.

The students are able to provide a cost analysis for the artisans and provide marketing of the products while learning all the different aspects of running a business and being ethical, Thalmann said. The goal is that the students learn to understand the other cultures, get to meet the producer and get the satisfaction of treating their employees properly.

Items for sale include Guatemalan textiles, table runners, tablecloths, scarves and "spirit wear" that has North Central College's name on it. From Costa Rica there are wood products, placemats and trivets. There are note cards from Kenya, as well as jewelry from Kenya and Uganda.

The marketplace originally started selling coffee and continues to offer coffee beans that are purchased in Guatemala and roasted locally. Another interesting product for sale is Ele Poo Paper — paper made from elephant dung.

The marketplace opened on Nov. 6 and will be open every weekend through Dec. 19. A documentary — Coffee, Culture & Conscious, by former North Central College student Scott Loberger — was shown on the market's opening day.

Matthew Krystal, another SIFE faculty advisor and a professor of Anthropology, introducted Loberger and explained to the crowd that the trip to Guatemala allowed students to gain a greater understanding of cultural diversity.

In the film, students from the college reflected on the poverty they encountered as they made their way to the small town of San Lucas in Guatemala. Despite the community's material disadvantages, the people were friendly and giving, the students noted.

A student from South Korea was upset that some students seemed to want to change how the people lived. She said, "It's not our job to change them; our job is to help them see the opportunities they could have."