$3 Cookies and $15 Spanish Lessons: Freshmen Run Real Businesses

A $3 cookie delivered by hand and a $15 Spanish lesson booked by email. Those are the price points of two operating businesses launched by freshmen at Catholic University of America's Busch School of Business this semester.

The businesses grew out of ENT 118: Vocation of Business, a course taught by professors Rebecca Teti and Andreas Widmer that requires first-year students to start and run their own companies, according to campus newspaper The Tower, which reported the story by Sam Bergstrom.

Who is selling what?

Saraí Bautista, a freshman sports management major, runs "Sweetly Saraí," a cookie operation. She bakes the cookies herself, takes orders online, and delivers them in person to Catholic University students. Pricing is simple: $3 per cookie, or a 2-for-$5 deal. The menu lists five flavors — brownie, s'mores, cookie monster, red velvet, and cookies & cream.

Maria Cruz-Reyes, a freshman accounting major, runs Speak2Serve, a Spanish-tutoring business. She charges $15 for a 30-minute lesson and $20 for a full hour. Her target customers include students preparing for spring break mission trips to El Salvador, Guatemala, and Peru. The curriculum she teaches covers Spanish introductions, grammar, vocabulary, and prayers, so travelers can speak with local residents in what she considers an authentic way.

Where did the businesses come from?

Bautista started baking during the COVID-19 lockdown, making cupcakes for her household. She then baked custom treats for events hosted by family and friends. ENT 118 marks her first time producing desserts at scale, and she told The Tower the volume is challenging — baking large batches and tracking orders is new territory. Customer feedback arrives through her Instagram account, where buyers post about how the cookies turned out.

"It's just nice to know that my business is making other people happy," Bautista said.

Cruz-Reyes's teaching roots run deeper. Raised by parents from Mexico and Bolivia, she taught her mother and father English phrases daily as a child. She also helps her family manage their finances — a major reason she plans to become an accountant. In high school, she gave English lessons to Hispanic residents of southern Maryland, and that word-of-mouth operation inspired her to scale up her teaching at Catholic University.

"I always have liked the idea of doing things and giving them to people. My mom is huge on making businesses, too. She does so many things. She does so many services," Cruz-Reyes explained. "I guess that's what always inspires me to think in an entrepreneur type of way."

What happens after the semester?

Both founders say the coursework stopped being just coursework. Bautista didn't expect to run a small business in her first year of college.

"I would have never thought that I would be in college having my own small business, especially as a first-year student," Bautista said. "I feel like this could be something I don't just do for class, but also continue in my college years."

Orders for Sweetly Saraí go through an online form. Cruz-Reyes books lessons — mission-trip preparation or not — through her university email, [email protected].

For a freshman course, the stakes are modest: cookies priced at $3, lessons at $15. But both students are already thinking in terms of continuation rather than a final grade, which is exactly the vocation the course's title promises.