Target is the newest sponsor of the Professional Clothing Pop-Up Shop that the Career Development Center (CDC) holds each semester.
Target provided the CDC with $500 this month, which covered 20 professional articles of clothing. The new items, which CDC employees purchased at Target, ranged from neutral-toned staples to stand-out color pieces for both women and men. Undergraduates were able to select up to three articles of clothing to own, free of charge.
“I think it’s added to the mix of items that we can offer students, and it’s nice for them to have new options along with gently used options,” said Danielle Fichter, recruiting, events and employer engagement specialist at the CDC.
In the past, a limited range of sizes caused some students to become frustrated. The Target purchases helped fill in what was missing.
“Originally we had been receiving donations from faculty, staff and our employer partners,” Fichter said. “We saw the need to fill in the gaps of sizing so we can serve more students. We really wanted to try to get new clothes to add to the pop-up shop.”
Fichter said she can confidently confirm that the event has grown since the first pop-up shop in September 2017. Attendees this semester totaled 90 students, up from the 60 students who attended in the event in the fall of 2018.
“We had over 50 students check in, and we went through 105 items of clothes, just on Friday,” Fichter said of the event, which was held on Sept. 13 and Sept. 16. “Over the last couple years, it’s definitely caught on a lot more.”
Allison Mansfield ’20, career ambassador of the CDC, attended the pop-up shop for the first time last month. Looking through the lens of both a student and an employee, she said she was impressed by the diversity of clothing options.
“They had a bunch of different sizes, a bunch of different dresses, shirts, blazers, so anything kind of basic that you would need they had,” Mansfield said. “They restocked I know. I went to the second day and they had new stuff.”
The turnout at the recent event was so large that Fichter said she is unsure if the CDC is prepared to host another pop-up shop this academic year.
“We usually do two in the fall before the Career Fair and two in the spring before the Career Fair,” Fichter said. “But we went through so many clothes that I’m not sure right now if we are going to be able to do it in the spring. That’s TBD, but hopefully.”
Still, even with the significant spike in attendance, Fichter said she wishes attendees would have been more evenly distributed among Haub School of Business students and those in the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Health Studies and Education.
“Last year, the demographic was 65 [percent] business students and 35 [percent] CAS,” Fichter said. “It was still around 65 and 35 [this year], with the 35 being CAS and health studies added together.”
This statistic lends itself to the overarching misconception that only business students need professional clothing.
Along with their Target sponsorship and partnership with St. Joe’s chapter of the American Marketing Association (AMA), Fichter said the CDC plans to team up with other organizations, such as alumni organizations, in the future so that they can help collect donations as well. That way, they can hopefully still hold their two-day event during the spring semester.
Tessa Darno ’21, vice president of programming and fundraising of the AMA, said college students “never really know” when they’re going to need to look professional.
“There’s different organizations that require professional clothing, whether it’s inductions or interviews for different clubs or jobs or the Career Fair, which is for every major,” Darno said. “I think it’s essential for college students to have professional clothing for any of those events.”
