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Marquette University Career Closet

Presented by Sarah Knott, Sustainability Specialist

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Marquette University Career Closet

  • Career Closet Origins
  • Shift to Permanence
  • Impact Over Time
  • Engagement Efforts
  • Successes & Recommendations

MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY | CAMPUS SUSTAINABILITY

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Career Closet Origins

MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY | CAMPUS SUSTAINABILITY

Wear Your Success - 2022

  • Graduate student Mayra Alaniz received seed funding through Brewed Ideas Challenge
  • Making professional wardrobe reality for first generation and low-income students

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Career Closet Initial Goals

Wear Your Success 2022 Goals

  1. Provide professional clothing to graduate and undergraduate Marquette University students to support them in their career endeavors
  2. Increase the lifecycle of clothes and responsibly decrease waste in landfills through distribution of clothing donations
  3. Engage campus community, employers, and external partners in the mission

These goals are still applied and achieved today

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Career Closet Development

  • 2022 – 2023: Initially set as pop-up series on campus each semester through innovation hub (Wear Your Success)
  • 2023 – 2024: Oversight adapted by Career Center (Career Closet)
  • January 2025 now in Iggy’s Market

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Marquette University Career Closet

Student Affairs office: Community Service & Social Responsibility, Iggy’s Market

  • Basic needs resource center on campus
    • Backpack program – free food pantry
    • Career Closet
  • Provides gently used professional and business clothing to students at NO COST

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How the Career Closet works

  • Book by appointment only, 30 mins - MS Booking
  • Two rooms of clothing
  • Separated by size and style
  • Pick 1-2 outfits, any combination of:
    • 1 bottom, 1 shirt, 1 jacket
    • 1 dress
    • 1 suit
  • Keep the clothes!

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MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY | CAMPUS SUSTAINABILITY

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Career Closet Donation Partners

MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY | CAMPUS SUSTAINABILITY

Donation collection partners

Northwestern Mutual

Milwaukee Brewers

Brady Corporation

Taubro & Larsen

Johnson Financial Group

Mueller Communications

Marquette Community members

  • Marquette community members frequently collect and donate professional wear
  • Clothing drives are often hosted by these organizations and delivered to us
  • Semester collections conducted by Iggy’s Market in community spaces on campus

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Career Closet Pop-Up Impact

2022-2023 Pilot year results of pop-ups

    • 225 Marquette undergraduate & graduate students served through 3 pop-up events
    • 6 employer clothing drives
    • 2500+ clothing items kept out of landfill
    • 60 Marquette staff/faculty/students engaged in 5 events totaling 110 volunteer hours

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Career Closet Permanent Impact

  • Importance of location = more storage and space for trying items on
  • Consistent donations = increased quantity
  • Increased visits each year, visibility driven by accessibility through Iggy’s Market
    • 7% of Iggy’s market visits are for the Career Closet
    • +300 items were accepted by students for professional wear
  • Widespread support through university and greater community at large

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Triple Bottom Line - Society

MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY | CAMPUS SUSTAINABILITY

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Environment & Society overlap: engages students in sustainable behaviors = instilling socially responsible actions

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Access & Equity

    • Supports students who may lack access to professional attire
    • Reduction in financial barriers to new clothing
    • Promotion of inclusion by offering diverse clothing styles and sizes

Confidence & Career Readiness

    • Prepared and confident in professional settings
    • Suited to feel a sense of belonging in the workplace

Community Building

    • Encouragement of donations from MU community
    • Reinforces campus values of mutual support

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Triple Bottom Line - Environment

MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY | CAMPUS SUSTAINABILITY

Circular Economy

    • Reuse and redistribution rather than consumption

Carbon Footprint Reduction

    • Fewer new clothing purchases
    • Less production, transportation, packaging emissions

Textile Waste Reduction

    • Life cycle extension of garments
    • Goods that are damaged will go to Milwaukee Textile Recycling

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Triple Bottom Line - Economy

MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY | CAMPUS SUSTAINABILITY

Direct Student Savings

    • Students saving $$$ over time
    • Reduces financial stress

Institutional ROI

    • Better prepared students may secure stronger roles
    • Improves post graduation employment outcomes

Long Term Economic Mobility

    • Early access to professional networks can increase lifetime earning potential

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Career Closet Engagement

Who do we prioritize

    • Open to all undergraduate & graduate students

Inspiration to other Marquette organizations

    • RewearitMU
    • LGBTQ+ Resource Center Queer Closet
    • Career Center
    • Internship courses
    • Campus Sustainability

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Career Closet Engagement

  • Marquette University Advancement compliment cards
  • Dressing for success, instilling confidence

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Marquette University Career Closet

What works for us

    • Permanent location tying to food pantry and expanding into basic needs = Increase visibility & shift narrative to waste reduction
    • Institutional support is strong
    • Sustainability is interdisciplinary – apply wherever possible

Recommendations

    • Buy in from somewhere on campus
    • Knowing your capacity in time and space
    • Stating what items, you can vs. cannot accept

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