While the likes of Louis Vuitton and Vera Bradley grace many Penn State students' shoulders around State College, a recent Penn State graduate is looking to change their choice in hand and shoulder bags.

Arica Rudnick, the former "PSU Bag Lady" who graduated with degrees in marketing and Spanish, has continued her business ventures. Her company, called Bag Factor LLC, is what she calls "an entrepreneurial fashion marketing firm that purchases bags from wholesalers, mostly in New York City, and sells them to college students."

It sounds like an ordinary entrepreneurial business. But Rudnick's has a twist. Not only does she offer sales representative positions to college students with an interest in fashion and a desire to get their foot in the door, but she also donates a portion of her profits to charities. The most locally recognized recipient of her donations is Penn State's Interfraternity Council/Panhellenic Dance Marathon (Thon).

To help benefit Thon this year, Rudnick and the Gingerbread Man, 130 Hiester St., are hosting "Fight for Fashion," a party to launch Rudnick's new line of bags.

"This is my first really big event. I'm going to try to raise $1,000 to be a corporate sponsor," she said. The event, which starts at 8 p.m. on Nov. 30, has a $1 cover charge and a raffle. All the proceeds will be donated to Thon.

"There's going to be free pizza, drink specials, a DJ, a band later on and bag giveaways," Rudnick said.

She said she does not think she will sell the bags directly at the event because of limited space, but she will take orders. Ten percent of those proceeds will also be donated.

Kevin Franklin, Gingerbread Man bar manager, said this is something unusual for the restaurant.

"If it wasn't for her trying to raise money for a good cause, we wouldn't be doing something like this. The fact that it was for Thon was the biggest thing," Franklin said.

Rudnick's business ventures began after a summer internship her junior year at a New York design company called Loop Design, whose bags can be seen in stores like American Outfitters and Nordstrom's. Locally, Metro, 324 E. College Ave., carries the company's bags. After her internship, she said she had an idea for her own business venture. "I was a Zeta Tau Alpha sister, and I thought it would be a good idea to buy the bags and sell them to my sisters and donate them to Thon," she said.

Rudnick was able donate $800. From there, she hired four representatives to help her with her business. All of them were recruited from a "Women in Business" social that hosted both Avon and Bag Factor. Each representative keeps a 10 percent commission.

"Arica came in and mentioned an experience for girls who would be interested in being a representative. What we do is just like what Avon does with makeup -- we just do it with bags," said Caitlin Komora (sophomore-business administration), a Bag Factor representative.

Theresa Rehr (sophomore-business administration), another representative, said she got involved not only because of her interest in fashion but also because she designs bags herself.

"I showed her my purses and she said she really liked them. She made it into a representative job for me," she said.

Rudnick said she eventually wants to expand to other Pa. universities.