STILLWATER OKLAHOMA MAGAZINE / 30
Students looking for professional clothing for job interviews and any number of engagements can find that and more at Claudia’ s Career Closet. The closet is 9 a. m. to 3 p. m. Monday through Thursday.
Claudia’ s Career Closet gears up for‘ recruiting season’
It started with a bag of shoes.
Claudia Humphreys had come back to Oklahoma State’ s campus wanting to donate to OSU’ s career closet. A simple errand for a woman who wanted to give back.
There was just one problem. It didn’ t exist.“ That was kind of the catalyst for Claudia’ s Career Closet starting,” said Bailey Stacey, manager of operations and strategic initiatives for OSU Career Services. But Humphreys’ visit didn’ t create the need, it just finally answered one that had been quietly building for years.
“ There have been many years where career coaches have met with students and they were like,‘ Oh, I’ d really like to go to the career fair but I don’ t have anything to wear,’ Those career coaches have literally gone home on their lunch break and went and got one of their suits and brought it back for the student to be able to wear to the career fair, so that they could attend.”
Humphreys’ donation didn’ t just supply clothes, it funded the infrastructure to make it sustainable: a full-time staff position and a student intern.
“ It’ s been really nice to have the full backing and funding that is needed to really sustain an initiative like this,” Stacey said. Claudia’ s Career Closet opened in January.“ We called it our soft launch because there were a lot of things that were still left undone,” Stacey said. Although the closet hasn’ t had its grand opening, the impact is there. Since January, the closet has served 1,907 students and has distributed 3,481 pieces of professional clothing.
The closet, located in 050 Student Union, runs like a boutique. Students swipe their ID, get shown around and are encouraged to pick around five items. Dressing rooms let them try things on, and a career coach is in the space full-time, able to double as informal career counseling for students nervous about an upcoming interview.
“ We have a career coach that is in the closet full time that can kind of step in and act as kind of a career services triage,” Stacey said. Everything is checked out through an inventory system, but no one pays for anything.“ We give them a bag and then wish them luck.”
September brings Career Fair Week, which consists of three major career fairs back-to-back, the largest of the academic year, and Stacey’ s team is already preparing for what they call“ recruiting season.”
“ I could foresee that being a very demanding time in terms of students needing access to these items,” Stacey said.“ We are preparing for that now.”
Because the closet runs entirely on donated clothing, that preparation depends on the community.
CLAUDIA HUMPHREYS
STILLWATER OKLAHOMA MAGAZINE / 30