The New Neighbor to NJIT's Food Pantry? A Career Closet

Responding to a student need, New Jersey Institute of Technology has opened a Career Closet that supplies free dress clothes, shoes and accessories for interviews, internships or jobs.

The closet, on the fourth floor of the Campus Center, also offers seasonal and casual clothes for campus residents and commuters. It's connected to a revamped Food Pantry that has everything from canned and boxed foods to produce and toiletries.

A growing number of students need food and clothes, with the pantry alone now serving more than 300 students a month, according to Daniel Waffenfeld, assistant director of the Office for Student Involvement and Leadership, which manages both spaces. That number has tripled in the past year.

Identifying the need

Students who encountered a small rack of T-shirts in the pantry last year asked for other types of clothing, which fueled the development of the closet, Waffenfeld said.

Student Involvement partnered with NJIT's Career Development Services on the project, with CDS identifying sources of clothing and fixtures with the support of founding corporate sponsor Bechtel. CDS will continue to engage corporate partners and collaborate on clothing drives.

The timing of the opening is ideal, as CDS is about to host its fall Career Fair at the Joel and Diane Bloom Wellness and Events Center and the Naimoli tennis center, on Sept. 25 (see details below).

To encourage students to utilize both the closet and pantry, Student Involvement staffs them with undergraduate workers and student leaders who volunteer their time. The peer-to-peer approach has advantages, though Waffenfeld also has a visible presence on campus and talks about these resources at health and wellness events.

Waffenfeld was familiar with career closets from previous roles at Seton Hall and Montclair State universities and consulted with the Newark campus of Rutgers University in developing NJIT's space.

"My whole goal is how can we welcome students? How can we make them feel comfortable with the space?" Waffenfeld said.

A range of clothes

The closet makes the most of its space, displaying two hanging racks of dress shirts, blazers and women's tops and jackets, cubbyholes of casual shirts and open shelves of dress pants, long-sleeved shirts, athletic wear, jeans, dress shoes, sneakers and boots. There's also a steamer to zap wrinkles.

In particular, the outlet needs more dress shirts, pants and tops for work and jackets, hats and gloves for winter. International students, for example, need the latter because they generally arrive with less clothing than their domestic peers. Highlanders can drop off donations at the closet, which is open on weekdays between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., or in a bin across the hall by Student Involvement.

NJIT celebrated the opening of the closet and a revamped and restocked pantry with a ribbon cutting that included music, snacks and words of thanks and encouragement from Waffenfeld, Bechtel Rail Operations Manager Stephanie Park, CDS Interim Executive Director Patrick Young and Dean of Students Marybeth Boger.

Boger thanked Waffenfeld for "creating a space that's welcoming, inclusive and making students feel comfortable asking for help without the stigma."

The closet and pantry comprise Highlander HOUSE, with house doubling as an acronym for helping others use supportive essentials.

"We're trying to see how we can make it more comforting," Waffenfeld said. "How can people feel a little more confident walking in and not as self-conscious." Ultimately, he added, "We want to show that we're all individuals who want to help."

Fall Career Fair

This fall's fair features some 240 employers offering more than 600 jobs, internships and co-operative education experiences, according to Patrick Young, interim executive director of Career Development Services.

The employers represent a broad range of industries, including finance (Barclays, Fiserv, UBS); engineering and construction (Bechtel, Burns & McDonnell, Mott MacDonald, Turner Construction Co., Whiting-Turner Contracting Co.); packaged goods (Campbell Soup Co., Mars, Colgate-Palmolive, PepsiCo); pharmaceuticals (Bristol Myers Squibb, Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Co.); the state (Economic Development Authority, Department of Transportation); and the federal government (Federal Aviation Administration, Department of State, Navy, Marine Corps).

The fair, which has seven sponsors ­- ABM Systems, Bechtel, Neglia Group, Torcon, Turner Construction, UBS and Verizon - will take place Sept. 25 at the WEC and Naimoli Tennis Center, from 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Students need to register in advance through the Handshake platform, which you can access here: https://njit.joinhandshake.com/login.

Also, for interview worthy clothes, remember to check out the new career closet in Room 478 of the Campus Center.

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