Southern CT State University is setting students up for success through a student-run initiative, allowing students to get professional clothing for free.
Students at Southern Connecticut State University launched a new initiative to support student needs.
The initiative, Career Closet, was started by students in SCSU’s School of Business Gold Leadership Program as a way to provide free professional attire to students.
Jordan Cervantes was one of the students leading the project. He said the idea came about after he and his classmates conducted a survey that showed the demand for professional clothing.
“We identified that this is something that students are really interested in, something that they really need," Cervantes said.
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In a survey conducted with 112 students, 108 said they would be interested in an on-campus resource and 72 people said they would personally use it.
Cervantes said they used those numbers to move forward with the plan.
"Students sign up for an appointment, they're allowed to come in and take three items that they want to, they don't have to return it, that's something we originally considered when we were designing the closet,” Cervantes said.
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Cervantes said part of why he wanted to create the “closet” was because he knows how it feels to not have the proper clothing.
"Quite frankly, it made me feel insecure. I felt I wasn't presenting myself to the fullest ability and I didn't want how I present myself to people to be a deterrent to hiring me for a position," he said.
The career closet is not only saving students money, but it's also helping to promote clothing sustainability.
"I feel like we're in the era of fast fashion where clothes are made with less quality than they have been before so people donating their older clothes tend to be better quality, they last longer,” graduate student Romeo Rivera said.
Rivera said he’s picked up some pieces of clothing for himself and believes it's one of the best initiatives he’s seen at his school.
“Clothes can be very expensive. Suit jackets can go for over $100, for a lot of our students they’re balancing multiple jobs, trying to pay tuition, money for groceries and stuff like that so students being able to come here and not having to spend their own money on professional clothing is amazing,” Rivera said.
SCSU is able to start these initiatives through fundraisers on the Day of Giving and the Day of Caring.
Rachel Cunningham Xavier, assistant director of experiential learning with the Office of Career Professional Development, said they are looking forward to expanding the initiative.
“We’re going to ask our community partners and internal community to donate professional clothing and monetarily so we can continue this work and even make it greater,” Cunningham Xavier said.
