Cecilie Nag
Sponsored by the Division for Student Success and the Division for Student Affairs, the first Suit Up for Success event took place on February 28th and 29th, on the Top of the Commons. Over 70 students attended to receive free clothes, shoes, and accessories for interviews and internships. LIU staff and faculty donated all the items.
“In the Career Services and Experiential Education Office, our main purpose on this campus is to assist all LIU Post students with internship, part-time and full-time job searches as well as work with study placements,” said senior Career Development Counselor Amber Lennon. “Since we work with students who are either interviewing for full-time or internship positions, I felt that it would be a good idea to help students acquire the proper interview-wear, as well as some outfits to wear on the job.” With suits and apparel made available by donations from faculty and staff members of the LIU community, Lennon said she was “truly grateful for the abundance of clothing options.” For the men, two full tables were covered with ties, along with a rack of suits and a selection of shoes. For the women, there were a variety of clothes, including blouses, suits, sweaters, pants and skirts, as well as bags and purses, jewelry, and shoes.
Along with Career Development Counselors Kimberly Brown and Roni Badrian, as well as the Assistant Director of Career Development Lisa Santoro, Lennon assisted students in finding the right clothes and sizes, as well as answered questions and welcomed everyone who decided to stop by. The four women, along with event coordinator and Associate Director of Experiential Education and Employer Relations Alice Baumer, organized the event. The event was promoted by flyers around campus and announcements over the speaker in Hillwood, prompting 71 students to show up.
Lennon was pleased to see the number of students attending. “I think that this event exceeded my expectations,” she said, explaining the great feeling of seeing how appreciative all the students were.
Junior Psychology major Danielle Patterson heard about the event through flyers she had seen around school. “I think this is great,” she said, as she looked through prospective finds. “It´s good to have the opportunity to get clothes that make you look presentable for an interview or an internship,” she added. Patterson walked away with a new suit and a pair of pants. She wasn’t the only one to leave the event with new clothes.
“A number of students have walked out of here with full suits,” said Lennon. By the conclusion of the first day of the event, almost all purses and bags disappeared, and a wealth of clothes, shoes, and accessories were scooped up, too.
Sophomore Public Relations major Helene Pedersen found a new suit and two sweaters. “I was impressed. Everyone was really nice and helpful, and even though I came there the last day, they still had a variety of clothes that I could use,” she said, explaining that she definitely would come by for a future event.
With a lot of positive feedback from grateful students, Lennon wishes to arrange the event once a semester. In the future, she would like to offer an even wider variety of sizes to give students a larger selection to choose from.
All students who attended had a chance to sign up for a raffle to win gift certificates to Lord & Taylor department stores. “If we do this event again, I definitely would like to reach out to more department stores for donations and raffle prizes,” she said, adding, “For our first time around, I would say that the event was a success.”
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