OLEAN, N.Y. — The J. Hawk Career Closet opened to students this week at the SUNY Jamestown Community College Cattaraugus County Campus in Olean, with several students already taking advantage of the free career apparel that the closet offers.
Students can take up to six items from the closet per semester to help build their professional wardrobes. It is also open to online students, who can make a virtual appointment with JCC’s Career Services team to receive workwear.
Career Services coordinator; Julie Page, Career Services director; Eli Orcutt,
student worker; Melissa Long, student worker; Kaele Saal, Career Services
specialist; Ginna Hensel; Cattaraugus County Campus Alumni Association
member; and Nichole Decker, student worker.
"Appropriate, professional clothing is necessary for job interviews, internships, field placements, on campus jobs, part-time jobs, and full-time jobs, yet it can be expensive to build up a professional wardrobe," said Julie Page, JCC's Career Services director. "The closet aims to educate students on professional workplace attire for various industries, while providing them access to professional clothing to help ease the financial burden and help foster their career readiness for the workplace during and after JCC."
Funding from the Cattaraugus County Campus Alumni Association and additional grant support helped create the closet. Page also praised faculty, staff, alumni, and community members for donating clothing, as well as JCC’s buildings and grounds staff for setting up the closet.
Located on the first floor of College Center, the closet is overseen by JCC Career Services, with day-to-day operations managed primarily by students Nichole Decker, Melissa Long, and Eli Orcutt. The students are supervised by Kaele Saal, a Career Services specialist and workforce development recruiter.
The closet is similar to the one established on the Jamestown Campus in fall 2023. Page said the Jamestown location has provided 1,329 free items through more than 460 transactions.
"By the time a student graduates," Page said, "those who utilize the career closet may have up to 24 items if they visit every semester and take the max amount allocated."
Visit sunyjcc.edu/support/career-services/closet/drop-off to make a clothing donation to the closet.