Students who attend the Barney School of Business at the University of Hartford have just started a new venture called the Career Closet, which allows other students on campus to rent out outfits for interviews for free.
"If they have an interview or if they have some sort of formal event, they can just come in the closet, pick any item they want. We have close to 200 different articles of clothing," Alec Capasso, a senior and one of the students running the closets, said.
The Career Closet is open Monday to Friday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Not only is it there to provide for students in need, but it also teaches students how to run an operation.
"There’s a lot of logistics that go into this," Samuel Coates, another senior organizing the operation, said, "So when students come in they have to scan a QR code and within that QR code it brings up a list of questions that they have to fill out. We have tags on the items, you have to write the tag number on the item and we have to use that in order to mark the amount of inventory that we have in the closet and that is currently being borrowed by students."
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After the student checks out the clothes they have 14 days to return the items.
Student shoppers can buy some of the items and the money from the purchase is used to buy more clothes.
"A lot of the donations come from faculty, a lot come from students as well and we’re also reaching out to local businesses and alumni just to get donations from them," Maliqa Mosley-Williams, a junior, said.
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But in a time when prices are high the ultimate goal of the closet is to lend a helping hand
"I know being a business student I didn’t necessarily come in prepared with business professional clothing or even business casual clothing, so having this closet here ensures that students are always ready for the occasion, no matter what comes up in the meantime," Williams said.
