Students find their look with Career Closet

Tony White
Wed, 16 May 2018 02:05:17 +0000
Campus, News, Web, career closet, featured, ohio state career closet, ohio state university, osu, osu career closet, professional clothing, Social Work, Stillman Hall

Since the Career Closet opened in August 2017 in Stillman Hall Room 009A, it has helped students across campus who may not have the budget to purchase the outfits find professional clothing for interviews and internships without the students having to reveal their identity.

“It’s a place for students to go to obtain clothing for job interviews, for field placements and internship interviews without being monitored as they visit,” Katie Justice, director of career services in social work, said. “There’s never a staff member in there.”

A student looks through clothes at the Career Closet. Credit: Courtesy of Katie Justice

The Career Closet is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday and the only thing students are asked to do is take a survey and use a sticker to track their success and the impact of being provided professional clothes.

“It’s a small number, but it’s a big impact on our student’s professional life so far, and I am happy for the success so far,” Justice said.

While the closet is geared toward social work students, it is open to anyone in need of professional clothing.

“It’s open to any student,” Justice said. “We do most of our promotion through the college of social work students, but like I said we don’t track.”

Halie Brillhart, a graduate student in social work, said the career closet has any type of professional wear someone would need from large pieces of clothing to small accessories.

A student completes an anonymous survey at Career Closet. Credit: Courtesy of Katie Justice

“There’s pants, there’s skirts, there’s dresses, there’s jackets, there was a really nice blazer in there. It wasn’t my size, so I was kind of bummed,” Brillhart said. “There’s even a men’s section.”

Brillhart said the Career Closet has been a great resource for her throughout her field placement, and she wants more students and alumni to take advantage of the closet.

“The college is here to help you dress the part and this resource is available for you and it’s free,” Brillhart said.

Justice said she is the only full-time staff member involved with the closet, but she receives help from field education students.

“This past year to get it up and running we had three field education students in career services and they are the ones who collected all the donations, set up the space and began the marketing of the closet as well,” Justice said.

All of the items in the Career Closet come from year-round donations from faculty, staff, students and alumni, Brillhart said.

“Anybody can donate clothes to the closet,” Brillhart said. “I know some faculty members’ family members even have, and some students have too.”

Career Closet always looking for donations and people can do so by either calling career services at 614-292-8780 or emailing cswcareers@osu.edu and they will arrange a time and a place to come pick up donations.