By Satyne Doner, Arts and Culture Editor
Something big has been developing on the top floor of the Student Activities Building; gently used professional clothing is being donated by the dozens, and it is being gathered in Career Serivces’ new Career Closet.
The idea of a closet where students can ‘rent’ professional clothing has been kicked around for quite some time, according to Dr. Michael Bailey, the director of career services and accessibility at Saint Leo University.
“[Dr. Jen Shaw] and I were having a conversation about our campuses’ needs in general, like where our students are going when they graduate, how they’re getting there, and how we can support that journey along the way,” Bailey says. “We didn’t want [lack of clothes]to be the barrier to getting a job.”
The Career Closet has been a labor of love for the entire Career Services department. This was an all-hands-on-deck situation, and Bailey wanted to make sure that he took his time with the project for the betterment of students.
“When we started talking to people about it [Career Closet], we started getting donations before we were even asking for them, which was really cool,” Bailey continues. “But we were also like, ‘what do we do?’ There were clothes showing up and we did not have the infrastructure to do anything with it.”
An app was developed based on an open-source e-commerce platform, which took several months to come to fruition. Furthermore, the Career Closet website was rolled out onto Saint Leo’s Okta when students returned from spring break. Bailey hopes to start officially advertising the Career Closet to students starting April 5 by having fellow students ‘model’ outfits on campus.
Students can check out up to five items at a time for up to four weeks. If they are browsing the closet online through their Okta account, they can browse through several categories of clothing such as women’s shirts, ties, or men’s suit jackets. Then, they can add it to their shopping cart, select the dates they need to reserve the items, and then they can check them out.
Students who would like to peruse the racks of clothing in person are welcome to do so. Currently, Bailey recommends reaching out to Career Services and setting up an appointment so that assistance and guidance can be ensured.
Anyone is welcome to donate to the Career Closet- faculty, staff, community partners, and students. All they must do is contact Bailey or Career Services to arrange a time to either drop off or ship. If possible, Bailey stresses that having the clothing dry-cleaned prior to donation would be a huge help.
“It will save us hundreds or thousands of dollars in expenses if donors get the items dry-cleaned before they donate,” Bailey says. “Of course, if somebody cannot, we are not going to turn them away. But it really does help us continue maintaining the closet and making sure it is hygienic and safe.”
By the Fall 2023 semester, Bailey hopes to expand the Career Closet to Saint Leo Worldwide students. A partnership has been made with Barnes and Noble to ship clothing items to students at no cost, meaning that students will only be financially responsible for return shipping- the team working on this project wanted to minimize student costs as much as possible.
Within a week of its opening, the Career Closet is already used by the Saint Leo community. Students are browsing the racks, picking out their next winning outfit that will dazzle their next interview or professional event. This is an exciting new addition to Career Services, and they are happy to expand their level of support for students.
“The Career Closet was really an organic conversation,” Bailey says. “This is something that can benefit everybody, regardless of where they are in their career development journey.”
