Anna Melby and Kim Stack promote CCEE’s partnership with JCPenney, which helps students afford business attire. Photo by Ian Weiner.
On Sunday night, the Center for Career and Experiential Education (CCEE) partnered with JCPenney in Warwick for its University of Rhode Island-exclusive Suit Up event, offering students up to 60 percent off professional clothing.
This is the third year that the CCEE has held the event. Each year it falls on the weekend of Columbus Day. The event offers students an extra 30 percent off of all professional, job and internship-appropriate clothing, on top of the sales already being held for the holiday weekend.
According to Kelly Harris, event coordinator of the CCEE, they first got the idea for the event when JCPenney reached out to URI. The Suit Up event is held nationally at different colleges throughout the year.
“This is a national program, and we are really happy that it came to Rhode Island,” Harris said. “Career clothing can be expensive and we want to make sure that access to professional-wear isn’t a barrier to people being able to find internships, or go on job interviews or succeed in their career.”
The event also offered students the opportunity to seek advice from the CCEE career educational specialists and have professional headshots taken for $29.99. Sephora, located inside JCPenney, offered free makeup trials and makeovers for students seeking assistance, as well.
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Career Education Specialist Brandon Sousa said he was happy to be able to have the event because it is important for students to have a clear idea of what professional attire is, and how they should dress when going to interviews, jobs and internships.
“This is important because, transitioning from the undergraduate experience to the professional world, there is a lot of what is called the hidden curriculum,” Sousa said. “That is professional attire. People may have perceptions of what professional attire is, but that’s why we’re here, we want to help clarify that line so that students are making informed purchases and also being able to receive those discounts.”
Numerous students attended the event and were excited to save money on items they felt were necessary to their professional wardrobe. Junior Jake St. Germain saved $297.03 and was especially excited to have purchased items he felt he had needed for a while.
“[It is important] for interviews,” St. Germain said. “I believe that it will help me get a step ahead of other people interviewing if I interview in a nice outfit.”
Third-year pharmacy student Gillian Unger said that the discount was something she couldn’t pass up because she has to dress business casual in her classes.
“I came shopping here today because I like discounts and I need more business clothes because I wear business clothes in my labs,” Unger said. “Once we’re in the workplace, working as pharmacists, we need to dress business casual all the time.”