Students are preparing for Career Day next week at Northwest Missouri State University and along with updating their resume and knowing what to say and do, they will need something professional to wear.

“It’s one of those things I think sometimes we take for granted, especially if you’ve never had to wear professional attire… you get to college and you’re worried about passing biology and then suddenly you need a suit for Career Day or an interview,” said Northwest Director of Partnerships and Placement Jill Brown. “We know students tend to always borrow from one another so we thought, ‘What does this look like if we can actually just create a space?’ Because we also know that we have business professionals in this area of Missouri that have things they’re probably not wearing anymore that they would love to give to a cause like this, so it’s kind of filling two needs.”

Brown said multiple departments on campus got together to start the “Career Closet.” Brown said the idea started with faculty members at Northwest who were running a program called Teacher Threads.

“They were helping students dress professionally to go out and do student teaching. As you might imagine, that takes a lot of clothes to be a student teacher, so they’ve done that for a number of years and when I came on board to Career Services, I was getting those same kinds of requests from other disciplines of students,” Brown said. “A bunch of us got together… to brainstorm, ‘How do we help students feel confident on Career Day?’ Obviously, school is expensive and so finding the right attire to wear cannot be top priority, top priority needs to be going to class and getting good grades. So… just trying to help students check one more thing off their to-do list and make life a little easier.”

The University is inviting community members to donate gently worn professional attire for the Career Closet. They will accept suit jackets, pants, shirts and dresses as well as accessories such as professional shoes, scarves, jewelry and neck ties. Donations also may include clothing that is specific to a professional field, such as scrubs for a student entering the medical field.

All donations can be dropped off at Career Services between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. on weekdays. Career Services is located in Room 130 of the Administration Building on the Northwest campus. Clothing should be on a hanger and ready to wear.

In preparation for Northwest’s Career Day next week, the Career Closet will be open to Northwest students from 2-5 p.m. Friday, Sept. 28, by appointment.

For more information, contact Career Services at Northwest at (660) 562-1250.