CSS students showcase new innovations in trade show

The Stender School’s Management and Business Studies Department at The College of St. Scholastica hosted its 2025 Trade Show on Monday, April 14, in the Student Center Flex Space on the Duluth main campus.

Twenty-seven students from Professor Kathy Modin’s new product development class collaborated with twenty-nine students from Dr. Melissa Goodson’s integrated marketing communications class for the event. Dr. Goodson, associate professor of marketing and management, shared with Northern News Now: “I think it fuels that fire for that support of becoming an entrepreneur and what that looks like, and we hope to focus a little more on that kind of curriculum in the future here within our business management degree. So, I’m excited about that.”

Together, students developed a plan to present their ideas at a trade show and to potential buyers through marketing, promoting and showcasing products. New product ideas span a range of interests, from custom couches to tiny home-style fish houses.

“I wanted to do a product that was something that involved around my life,” student inventor Tyler Olson said to Fox 21 Online. “So I’m a big outdoorsman. I did a lot of fishing this past winter, and it kind of just correlated with that. And then, my two professors, Kathy and Melissa, they they said that we could bring physical products to demonstrate. So I was like, I have all my ice fishing gear and everything up here, so why not bring some ice fishing and try to create a new product and new name and everything for that.”

“Participating in the St. Scholastica trade show has pushed me to create new insightful ideas and grow together with my trade show team,” Kate Anderson, a marketing student at the College, explained. “I could design and brand my product and then receive positive feedback and helpful critiques from my classmates. Seeing my classmates progress, develop and grow was very rewarding.”