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Seniors Corey Laplante and Aaron Frank consider themselves Sherpas – Nepaleseclimbing guides who lug equipment up mountains. But instead of traversing Mount Everest, these students are scaling campus dorms.
Laplante, a philosophy major, and Frank, a physics and math double major, began a business in which they pick up boxes of students’ belongings at the end of this semester and either ship them to students’ homes or put them in storage during break. The Student Sherpas then move everything back in again for the students when the fall semester starts.
Pick-ups and deliveries will be scheduled for the five days at the start and end of the summer, and the Sherpas will throw in tape and boxes free of charge.
“There was no real service out there at this university,” Laplante said. “With 35,000 students, it just doesn’t make sense.”
Laplante said he used to have a friend drive to the university from New Jersey to help him move his belongings back home. The students said they hope to reduce the carbon footprint moving day leaves behind by allowing parents and friends to stay home while the Sherpas do all the heavy lifting.
The two expect to have around 100 clients this semester.
“We’re devoting all of our time to this,” Laplante said. “All of our friends are looking for jobs or graduate schools, but all of our time out of the classroom now goes to the business.”
The prices range from $20 to pick up, store and deliver a small box, while the “Student Sherpas Signature Box” costs $25. The more pricey options include a $75 charge for a desk or a $75 to $150 charge for a box spring or mattress.
Laplante says the Sherpas can save their clients money by purchasing bulk space in area storage facilities and filling them with the belongings of multiple students.
The Sherpas are a two-man operation as of now, but they may hire some extra help as the client list grows, Frank said.
“If the two of us can do the whole thing, more power to us,” Frank said. “[But] we still have exams; we still have finals.”
The Student Sherpas say they meet expect to meet much student interest due to the success of similar, national programs, and the two may very well have their hands full when their business gains momentum.
Officials in the Resident Life Department are well aware of the difficulties students face on moving day.
“The question we are most often asked is, ‘Is there a storage program on campus?'” said Jan Davidson, associate director for Resident Life. “The answer is ‘No.'”
Sophomore criminology major Lauren Restivo lives on the third floor of Alleghany, a dorm on South Campus with no elevator.
“For someone to come down and get my stuff for me, that would be great,” Restivo said. “I mean, I only weigh a hundred pounds.”
Spenser Peterson, a sophomore accounting and business major, said the program could be especially useful because many students bring items to dorms that they don’t need to take home at the end of the semester.
Freshman civil engineering major Alex Reibstein said he was concerned about the prices for larger items, but thought the business as a whole was “definitely a good idea” that many out-of-state students would use.
“You hear people say, ‘I wish someone did that,'” said Reibstein. “And here you have someone actually doing it.”
The Sherpas hope to keep the business going on campus “year after year,” and may even expand the program to other college campuses in the future. The Sherpas’ website, www.studentsherpas.com, went up last week, and they hope to start advertising on the campus this week.
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