McB’s Career Closet offers all AU students professional business attire
ASHLAND, Ohio – Ashland University students have the opportunity to dress confidently and professionally while wearing fashionable business attire to interviews, internships, career fairs and other networking events, thanks to a new resource—McB’s Career Closet—which was officially dedicated earlier this month.
Named in honor of longtime AU educator and mentor Margery McBurney, or Mrs. McB as she signed thousands of hand-written letters to her students, McB’s Career Closet is located in the Dauch College of Business and Economics, but is available to all students on campus.
The “closet,” a former double office space in a high-traffic area of COBE, offers a variety of gently-used or brand new business suits for both men and women, jackets and blazers, blouses and dress shirts, belts, ties, shoes, jewelry and other accessories for AU students to borrow or even keep.
“At Ashland and the College of Business and Economics, we are in the business of preparing our students to be the very best versions of themselves. That includes providing support in every aspect of a student’s experience … being able to instill confidence and preparation in our students so that they can find opportunities to move beyond Ashland’s campus,” remarked Carrie Hartsel, internship and experiential learning coordinator at COBE.
Hartsel has led the development of McB’s Career Closet, a space intentionally designed to be both functional and boutique-like. It features a changing area and mirrors, as well as floor-to-ceiling windows, a hardwood floor with accent rugs and a dazzling chandelier.
AU students who are in need and looking to make a strong first impression, whether they’re attending COBE Career Day or Meet the Accountant Night, interviewing for an internship or making a professional presentation at the Undergraduate Research and Creative Arts Symposium, can stop by McB’s Career Closet and find an item or two or full outfit appropriate for the occasion.
“Most of the items they get to keep … and that helps with the stigma that comes with free or borrowed clothing,” explained Hartsel. “It’s theirs to keep, so they won’t necessarily see the same person wearing what they wore a week ago. There (are) a few brand new items that we ask that are on loan.”
Ella Schneider, a senior majoring in marketing with a minor in sport management, is one student who has utilized McB’s Career Closet. She needed business attire for the Beta Gamma Sigma international business honor society induction and didn’t like the options in her own closet.
“I knew that McB’s Closet was newly open, and … I might as well try it. So, I went there, got a blazer and it was a great process,” said Schneider. “They helped me out immediately. They found the perfect size. I returned it a couple days later. If something else comes up and I need something, (I’ll) totally go in there.”
Overseeing the day-to-day operations are student interns. Hannah Good and Zelle Guzman helped bring McB’s Career Closet to life and now manage clothing donations, organize and track inventory, promote and market the resource and offer styling advice for students in need.
Entirely donor funded, McB’s Career Closet also reflects the values of the educator and mentor it honors. Karen Hagans ’81 asked former classmates to describe Margery McBurney to today’s students, and their responses included encouraging, generous, dedicated, caring, charismatic and intelligent just to name a few.
Those qualities were reflected in McBurney’s approach to teaching and mentoring, Hagans said. One former student recalled that McBurney “made me put my best foot forward,” while another remembered that she “was a stickler for professional dress and behavior, and she challenged and supported her students."
“The (first) meeting I had with my dad and with Margery McBurney truly changed my life,” Hagans said. “Happily, I believe Mrs. McB’s … approach lives on in many of her former students. It also lives on at Ashland University, and I believe it will certainly live on through the new student resource we are celebrating.”
McBurney joined Ashland College in 1964 as an instructor in the home economics department, later known as the Family and Consumer Sciences department. She served as department chair from 1977 to 1988 and retired in 1993 after nearly three decades at the institution. During her career, she helped charter Kappa Omicron Nu, supported the establishment of endowed scholarships and earned numerous honors, including the Academic Mentor Award and Honorary Alumna Award in 2003.
McB’s Career Closet honors McBurney’s legacy of leadership, dedication and kindness, and at the same time, serves as a testament to her belief in promoting professional dress through knowledge and opportunity.