Listen Here
By Jordyn Willis
@willisjordyn
A new addition to the University of Findlay, the Career Closet, will make professional clothes and necessities available to students in the fall of the upcoming school year.
“In general, it’s a literal closet in the basement of Shafer library that houses items that students need from a career perspective,” said Phil Gunder, director of internships and cooperative education.
The Career Closet will contain things like shirts, ties, pants, socks, blouses, and pants suits, as well as resume paper and pad folios.
Every year the Parent Project, funded by the Advancement Office, chooses a project that they would like to fund and this year they chose this one.
Parent Project is a group of students’ parents who run fundraisers through the Advancement Office.
According to the University website, the Advancement Office uses the money and gifts from donors of the University to enrich the lives of the students by funding things that will benefit UF’s students.
“The idea was bounced around for a while based off what students have had to say over the last decade or so,” said Gunder.
The Career Closet will be available to undergraduate students and graduate students at the University of Findlay by the fall semester of 2015.
The clothes will be free to students, some items will be given, and some borrowed. As for how long they will be borrowed and what the requirements for this will be, these details are still in the works.
“Professional dress is such an important aspect of the interview process, especially for first interviews right out of college,” said Amanda Pye, graduate physical therapy student.
Pye is very enthusiastic about the success of the Career Closet being offered to students.
“It’s a great idea,” said Pye. “Students have the access they need to make them as marketable as humanly possible with this opportunity.”
The clothes are being purchased from Lori Bowman, who owns the Dressing Room Boutique, a shop located in downtown Findlay.
There will be electronic information as well as flyers available by the end of the school year, and the summer will be spent working on the linguistics so that it is open and available for the first job fair in September.
Paige Kinsinger will be one of the few people who will be working on this project over the summer.
Gunder says that the hopes for the Career Closet is that it will be sustainable after the initial support from the Parent project, and for it to be a completely student-run, nonprofit business.
“Experiential learning is major to our office,” said Gunder.
Gunder also says that he wants it to be more than just a literal closet, he wants students to be able to have the experience of preparing for a professional interview or business venture as they would at a boutique or store.
The Internship office plans to set up the Career Closet as a boutique would be set up so that students can experience picking out an outfit and become excited about their professional venture.
“I want it to be more than just a literal closet, I want it to be an experience,” said Gunder.
