by: Lindsay Cox
A career closet is in the making here at Parkland College. This will be a space where students, faculty, and staff can bring gently used business attire for students to use for last minute interviews. The career closet will be a place for students to find clothes to help them look and feel good.
“We want to keep students on track and help them to finish. We want to do whatever we can to help them with the life stuff, because it’s the life stuff is what keeps students out of school,” said Dean Marietta Turner, one of the members on the committee in charge of starting the career closet.
Right now, the committee is working on setting up partitions for dressing rooms. A staff member, who is dissolving her own clothing business, has donated clothing racks, sizing rings, and over 100 hangers. Dean Turner is also donating coat racks and mirrors.
The career closet committee wants to collaborate with other programs at Parkland, such as the SWFT program, the construction program, marketing, and the food pantry. “As much cross promotion of the different programs that we are doing as we can on campus is huge. That way, if the only place that they are going is the career closet, then they may not know about the food pantry, but there will be a flyer that they can pick up and now we are letting them know about a lot more that is going on,” said Lori Garrett, a career closet committee member and biology professor at Parkland.
The goal is to make sure that the career closet is a non-judgmental space where students can help themselves and cultivate a polished professional demeanor. “We have that holistic, community-based feel and when people come here, we got you. We got you,” Garrett said.
“We want to help people with their student and professional development. We want to coach you to help you enhance your professional appearance,” Dean Turner said. There may even be dress for success workshops in the future, if the closet proves successful.
The committee is still working on the best times to drop off donations so that there won’t be volunteers sorting while students are trying to shop. As of right now, it is believed that the closet will be open on Tuesdays to help advertise for the food pantry with snack packs, but that is still subject to change.
The committee is recommending that clothes be dry cleaned and brought in dry cleaner bags, but that is not required to donate. The clothes are for immediate and long-term needs, so there can’t be any holes, tears, or stains on the items. If a student just needs an outfit for a one-time use, such as a last-minute interview, the clothes can be brought back to the closet. The committee is also looking for volunteers to go through clothing to spot check the items. Clothes that are needed are ties, shoes, belts, suits, dresses, and any other professional wear.
“We want to help people with their student and professional development. We want to coach you to help you enhance your professional appearance”
There will also be racks for winter and spring gear placed around Parkland; these racks will operate on like a take one leave one system. “We strive to be a warm campus and to give students a warm welcome and a supportive environment,” Dean Turner said. On these racks, there will be gloves, scarves, hats, coats, etc.
Dean Turner also mentioned that Parkland values and champions student voices and that the college would like to have a contest so students can decide on the name for this new endeavor. The 1st place winner will receive a $50 bookstore gift card, the 2nd place winner will receive a $25 bookstore gift card, and the runner ups will each receive a $10 gift card to Betsey’s Bistro.
Please submit all ideas to the Prospectus at prospectus@parkland.edu by, Monday March 23. There will be a poll sent out the first week of April for students to vote; the winners will be announced the following week on Thursday, April 16.
