Silversword Sweets is a new business on campus aiming to provide the students of Chaminade with tasty and affordable treats.

This sweets shop is one of several new businesses involved in a competition started by the School of Business. This competition requires business students to form groups with their peers to create and run a business to show students real-world applications to what they’ve learned in class. The School of Business provided each group with $250 worth of seed money to get started. The team that earns back their seed money and makes the most profit in the competition is awarded $2,500 in prize money that will be split between the members. It is the first of its kind and runs the entirety of the Fall 2021 semester.

Silversword Sweets sold a variety of items such as honey drizzled ice coffee, butter pecan cake truffles, smores brownies, fruit tarts, chocolate-dipped strawberries, and pretzels. Sales started in early November and sold out within a week. Although all items are currently sold out, there is a restock planned before the semester ends.

The staff makes most of their treats by hand, but have outsourced fruit tarts from Kotonaru, a local business that specializes in cake pops and tarts. Outsourcing the tarts allowed Silversword Sweets to support and promote another local business while running its own. To find updates, order, and see the menu, Silversword Sweets markets and sells its products on its Instagram.

Silversword Sweets’ leader, Jeno Matt Hieu Calara, is a sophomore International Business and International Studies major who transferred to Chaminade from Hawaii Tokai International College. He said if his group won, he would use his share of the $2,500 toward his tuition to gain more knowledge and experience.

“I would probably have to put it to tuition because I think Chaminade just provides these really interesting opportunities that kind of helps to grow and experience your major,” Calara said.

The members of Silversword Sweets are Claudia Chew, Jade Unabia, Tommianne Brockert, Angela Navor, and Jeno Matt Hieu Calara. The five group members of Silversword Sweets were classmates when the semester started, but with the help of their advisor Dr. Guanlin Gao they formed a team that worked closely and developed friendships, which Calara said was the best part of the competition.

Part of the experience of running a business also comes with its challenges. Communicating and organizing a time where all members were available was difficult because of the members’ different schedules. However, Veterans day gave them the opportunity to come together due to classes being canceled.

Angela Navor, a Business Administration with Marketing Concentration major, is one of the members who bakes for the group and is the inventor of the popular truffles it sells. She appreciates the opportunity to participate in the contest because it helps her gain insight into real-world applicability towards her major. If Chaminade sponsors another competition, Navor encourages students to participate.

“I definitely think that people should take the initiative to join this competition because it’s a really good opportunity,” Navor said. “It gets you, it kind of gets your mind flowing, like your ideas and it also gives you a sense of reality of what could and couldn’t happen in terms of a business. it gives you the learning experience so it could help you in the future.”

To order and receive updates on new product releases, follow Silversword Sweets on Instagram.