Business Professional

BUSINESS PROFESSIONAL

New SGA Professional Clothing Closet provides students with needed professional attire—for free

Story by Kora Burton, photos by Stephanie Schupska

At the end of a long corridor in Milledge Hall, just past several peer-mentoring rooms, Sabina Ashurova opens emails from UGA students, each requesting professional clothing.

After scanning a message from a student hoping for a black blazer, Sabina leaves her workspace in the old tutoring room—now used as the SGA Professional Clothing Closet—and searches through the rack of suit jackets.

Just over a year ago, Sabina was in a similar situation with a similar need.

“In my first semester, I was interviewing to be a first-year SGA senator and needed a black blazer,” said Sabina, who is now a sophomore pursuing a bachelor’s degree in economics and a master’s in business analytics.

She sought help first from her resident assistant in Russell Hall and then called the UGA Career Center. Both attempts at finding on-campus sources of professional clothing—even to borrow for the day—came up short.

Now, because of the work of the Student Government Association, UGA students have the option of contacting the SGA Professional Clothing Closet when they need clothes for interviews and presentation days. The bonus for students is that the clothes aren’t offered on a loan basis—they’re given to them.

Having served more than 200 UGA students since its opening in November, the SGA Professional Clothing Closet currently houses about 2,000 items of clothing, including shirts, slacks, tops, dresses, shoes, accessories, and ties.

“You think of it, we probably have it,” Sabina said.

A student walks through the door and peeks past a large whiteboard filled with headings like “Big Ideas” and “What We Need” interspersed with encouraging notes and ideas for campus partnerships. After trying on the clothing options volunteers have selected, the student holds her bag of new clothes, beaming.

“Everything fits perfectly,” she exclaims. “I actually can’t believe it!”

The clothing closet is open to any UGA student, including graduate and professional students.

“Professional clothing is expensive, regardless of how old you are,” Sabina said. The closet seeks to serve students at all stages of their professional lives.

This campus resource didn’t appear overnight. As a first-year senator, Sabina didn’t realize there was something she could do until her SGA mentor and fellow Honors student Griffin Hamstead showed her a sample legislative resolution.

The resolution was the first stage of a clothes closet. Griffin and Max Harris, an Honors student and SGA senator, had worked on the draft together in the 2017- 2018 academic year.

“Griffin pulled up the draft as an example to show me what legislation looks like,” Sabina said. “The moment I saw the call to establish a professional clothing closet on campus, I knew I wanted to work on it.”

Sabina Ashurova, co-founder of the SGA Professional Clothing Closet, folds a blazer as she finishes fulfilling a student’s request.

Stephanie Schupska

Griffin, a fourth-year Foundation Fellow, is finishing his English degree this May. He and Max laid the groundwork for the closet by conducting initial research.

“I remember being at the Jittery Joe’s in the Miller Learning Center with Max, and we came to the conclusion that this was something that was missing on campus,” Griffin said. “We put forward a resolution that essentially communicated what we thought, that there was a gap on campus, and what we thought ought to happen. We wanted to get the SGA stamp on it to give us the kind of credence to move forward and do some more investigation.”

“It’s about students working together to help students. That’s SGA at its best,” said Max, a fourth-year history major who is the Franklin College senator and chairman of the Educational Affairs Committee. “As an Honors and UGA student, service is one of our pillars, and this is just one way we decided we were going to contribute.”

“There are things we do for our resumes, and then I think there are things we should be doing because they’re right or good,” Griffin said. “That’s about leaving a legacy that isn’t just personal, but can be carried forward because it helps others.”

Along the way, students working on the project—specifically Sabina and SGA Senate President Pro Tempore Matthew McDaniel—had to overcome complex problems like finding a suitable location and adequate staffing and making the resource sustainable for the long term.

The closet’s official opening included UGA President Jere W. Morehead, Vice President for Student Affairs Victor Wilson, and executive members of the SGA.

“It’s been really awesome to have that support,” Sabina said. “Alumni, faculty, staff, everyone here on this campus has been incredibly supportive and generous.”

Realizing this dream required many partnerships from all areas of campus, including the Career Center, Alumni Association, Division of Academic Enhancement, and Terry College of Business. The project has also managed to address its issues of sustainability by securing donor partnerships and university resources, such as Office of Sustainability and Terry Diversity grants.

The clothing closet also partnered with student groups like the Fashion Design Association, which provides volunteer tailoring and styling assistance; the Student Merchandising Organization, which helps sort donations; and Terry Student Consulting, which provided the clothing closet with advice on improving daily operations.

The clothing closet accepts donations and especially needs smaller men’s clothing, men’s and women’s shoes, and ties in solid colors. Currently, students are able to borrow professional shoes and ties but must return them after use.

“To our donors, we say we take everything, and we do,” Sabina said. “We also accept monetary donations, which we hope to use toward giving students vouchers to Goodwill or another store that we are partnered with.”

For more information or to volunteer with the clothing closet, visit https://sga. uga.edu/content_page/clothing_closet or email sgaclothingcloset@uga.edu.

Sabina shows off a “conversation starter” tie, which has all of the SEC logos printed on it. Thanks to a plea for help from a student and a YouTube tutorial, Sabina now knows how to tie a tie.

Stephanie Schupska