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Her apartment looks like an elementary school teacher's craft room because Yi-No "Liz" Luan '28AUD has dozens of different hobbies. One of those is baking, and like a lot of people during the pandemic who were cooped up indoors for long periods of time, Luan's output of baked goods increased exponentially.
And, that led to another hobby: participating in pop-up shops.
What’s a pop-up shop? Well, in New York City, where Luan lived while completing her undergraduate education in Communication Sciences and Disorders from New York University (NYU), a pop-up shop is like a street festival where merchants get rent a table and a tent and can ply their wares on the sidewalk.
That’s how ReSweets by Liz, which includes homemade items such as banana pudding, tiramisu, key lime bars and banana bread — products that also highlight her Chinese cultural tastes — was born. And, Luan’s success was such that it became a viable side hustle for a college student with little money.
“I’ve always sold small goods out of my apartment, but I never really had a big opportunity,” said Luan. “Honestly, my first pop-up shop was a mess. But I actually sold out of everything. That was a huge boost of confidence for me.”
Sustainability is also important to Luan, and she believes in creating the smallest ecological footprint possible. Thus, incorporating that aspect into her side gig was a critical ingredient.
“But creating things in mass production makes it more difficult because some parts of sustainability are very time-consuming,” she said. “The products were already a huge investment for me. All the containers I was buying were biodegradable, so they tended to be a little more expensive.”
Originally from Los Angeles, Luan decided to stay on the East Coast for graduate school and ended up at Salus at Drexel University to pursue a Doctor of Audiology degree.
Diagnosed with a hearing impairment while in kindergarten, she’s had a long journey with hearing aids.
“I always say I didn’t choose audiology but that audiology chose me,” she said. She’s since had reconstructive surgery and that improved her hearing loss from severe to moderate and currently doesn’t wear her hearing aids.
Luan discovered the Osborne Audiology, Salus at Drexel Doctor of Audiology program during an internship at New York City Hearing Associates in Manhattan while at NYU. There she met Monica Skarzynski, AuD ‘19, and extern Ivelca Rodriguez, AuD ‘24, and was introduced to the Salus/Drexel program.
“They were very proud of being Salus alumni, which was awesome,” said Luan. “Also, the founders of the practice explained to me that they thought the students who came from Salus were very prepared and were the students that they wanted to hire.”
She hopes to continue ReSweets by Liz now that she’s in Pennsylvania and maybe sell items out of her apartment. She has secured a food handler’s certificate, which is required by the state, but realizes the challenges of graduate school will complicate her non-academic time.
“I do want to participate in more pop-up shops, but it’s a little more difficult with winter coming up,” said Luan. “I have a car now, so I might drive back to NYC to for more pop-up shops. But school has my main attention right now.”
Prior to coming to the East Coast, Luan had never seen fall foliage before, which she called “glorious.” And, although she loves NYC and is getting used to Pennsylvania, she does plan to return to the West Coast after securing her Doctor of Audiology (AuD) degree.
