It’s interview season for Mount Allison students as they line up plans for jobs and internships for the end of the school year. This year, students will have one more tool available to help make sure they make a good impression: the Dress to Impress professional closet.
While companies never ask interviewees to dress a certain way, program coordinator Brianna Green says it’s “somewhat of an unspoken rule,” that interviewees will be judged by how they look and what they wear.
Green is Mt A’s first generation post-grad intern and the driving force behind Dress to Impress. The idea came from a previous student who had seen it in action elsewhere, but it’s a first for Mount Allison. “A lot of students don’t have access to professional clothing,” says Green, “especially within Sackville,” where retail clothing options are extremely limited.
The Dress to Impress closet opened this week, and is located in the basement of the Mount Allison chapel. It works on a ‘open door’ basis, meaning from 8am to 9pm daily, students can take their time on their own to find what they need. When they do, they sign out the item. But it’s not a library, per se. “It’s just primarily for our inventory purposes. So if students want to make that outfit part of their closet, then they can keep it. They do not have to feel pressured to bring it back.” If students don’t want to keep the item, they can return it via donation bins on campus, and the items will be cleaned and cycled back into the closet.
The program will rely on donations of professional attire, and has large yellow bins placed at the Jennings meal hall and inside the student centre on York Street.
Green says the project has been funded by the provincial department of post-secondary education for at least the next four years.
