Billiken Career Closet

The Billiken Career Closet is officially open in Demattias Hall as a subset of Billiken 2 Billiken. The group offers free, gently used business attire of all sizes for any Saint Louis University students who might need them. 

The campus project was spearheaded by recent Chaifetz School alumni Elyse Lewandowski — who majored in finance with minors in business analytics and international business — and Marissa Oxendine — who majored in international business and business technology management. Both students recently served on the dean’s Student Advisory Board, with Lewandowski as the president and Oxendine as the vice president of diversity, equity and inclusion. 

“We just wanted to make professional clothing accessible for students,” Lewandowski said. “We kind of danced around the idea of having it just be for business school students, but we realized that times are changing and everyone needs professional clothes these days. So it’s all free clothing that’s been donated.”

Oxendine said that she first personally experienced the burden of cost-prohibitive clothing when coming to SLU and rushing the business fraternities. 

“I didn’t really have a lot of professional clothing coming out of high school, so I remember having to go to H&M to get a bunch of pieces,” Oxendine said. “I felt guilty for having to drop a hundred dollars for maybe a few outfits.”

Lewandowski and Oxendine noted that Billiken Career Closet would be a great opportunity for student organizations looking to incorporate a form of service. In addition to the donation bins, they also want to utilize the Chaifetz School’s alumni network and different local estate sales.

The closet is currently self-sustained through student workers. They hope it maintains the intended goal of providing usually expensive clothing to students at no cost. 

“We’ll be accepting all kinds of professional items, any size, color or shape,” Lewandowski said.

There are currently two donation bins set up, one in the SLU Career Services office and one in the Valerie A. Davisson Career Resources Center. Donations will be accepted year-round. 

Founded in 1910, the Richard A. Chaifetz School of Business at Saint Louis University has shaped the future of industry for more than a century. As one of the oldest business schools west of the Mississippi, the Chaifetz School has built a reputation as a leader in business education committed to innovation, inclusion and impact and recognized with eight undergraduate and graduate programs nationally ranked by U.S. News & World Report.