By Tess Harper
Student Newswriter
MACON — Mercer University senior Phillip Calderon, of Miami, Fla., has developed a solution for his fellow students’ overflowing laundry baskets. The finance and management student at Mercer’s Eugene W. Stetson School of Business and Economics started a laundry cleaning and delivery service called Student Laundry 101.
For a pay-per-pound fee, Student Laundry 101 washes, folds and returns the student’s laundry within 24 hours. Calderon created the service with help from his family and his girlfriend and funding from his first successful business, an event planning company at his preceding college, Southern Methodist University.
“My goal is to provide high-quality, convenient service so that any student who doesn’t have the time — or doesn’t want to spend their spare time — doing laundry can rely on Student Laundry 101,” Calderon said. “I’m working to build a larger awareness of the service on campus and to create a culture where the students can rely on the service, as they do in so many other big schools.”
Student Laundry 101 offers students, faculty and staff drop off and pick up for their laundry at various points on campus. Currently, most of Calderon’s customers are students, but some faculty are also responding to the service and using it on a regular basis, he said.
“Our dry cleaning service is pretty popular, too, since we provide the convenience of the pick up and delivery at no extra cost,” Calderon said.
The business has its own logo, printed bags, and its own van, sporting the logo – which all tie in the company’s professionally designed Web site, www.studentlaundry101.com. Calderon, a busy senior, even employs two of his fellow students.
“My goal is to make Student Laundry 101 a name everyone on campus is familiar with,” Calderon said. “I hope to learn a lot from this first endeavor and hope I am able to realize more of my ideas as I have been able to make Student Laundry 101 come to life.”
Student Laundry 101 is offering two primary services, traditional wash-and-fold laundry and dry cleaning. The wash-and-fold service offers four different packages for customers to choose from, depending upon the weight of laundry. The average plan, which allows students to do 20 pounds of laundry per week, costs $315 per semester.
“This is definitely something I’d like to transfer to other schools as well,” said Calderon. “This venture will be an invaluable experience and learning opportunity for me for any future projects.”
Calderon is the son of Tony Calderon and Ana Guithiel of Miami and graduated from Gulliver Preparatory High School.
About the Eugene W. Stetson School of Business and Economics at Mercer:
Established in 1984, the Eugene W. Stetson School of Business and Economics has bachelor’s, MBA, Professional MBA, Executive MBA and Master of Accountancy programs. The School holds accreditation from the prestigious AACSB International — The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, considered the hallmark of excellence among the nation’s top business schools and placing it among the top 25 percent of all business schools in the world. For 2008, the Princeton Review recognized the School as No. 1 for “Greatest Opportunity for Women” and one of its “Best 290 Business Schools.”
About Mercer University:
Founded in 1833, Mercer University is a dynamic and comprehensive center of undergraduate, graduate and professional education. The University has more than 7,600 students; 11 schools and colleges – liberal arts, law, pharmacy, medicine, business, engineering, education, theology, music, nursing and continuing and professional studies; major campuses in Macon, Atlanta and Savannah; three regional academic centers across the state; a university press; two teaching hospitals — Memorial University Medical Center and the Medical Center of Central Georgia; educational partnerships with Warner Robins Air Logistics Center in Warner Robins and Piedmont Healthcare in Atlanta; an engineering research center in Warner Robins; a performing arts center in Macon; and a NCAA Division I athletic program. For more information, visit www.mercer.edu.
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