Career Closet: Professional clothing available for all students to prepare for professional events, interviews, internships, etc. The closet is located in Sycamore Cottage. Schedule an appointment on the Handshake to get your professional outfit: Directions

Food Pantry: Food, snacks, toiletries, etc. are available to all students and staff. Located in the lower level of Commons, the food pantry is open Tuesdays (3-6pm), Wednesdays (10am-2pm), and Thursdays (3-6 pm). Contact tchinogwenya@drew.edu with any questions or concerns.

Lending Library: Donated textbooks are available to students to borrow rather than having to buy own books. Located in the library, consider using or donating to the textbook lending library. Fill out this form to request textbooks: LINK

Counseling Center: Free counseling services that can either lead to a couple sessions at Drew or recommendations to off campus help. Drew is partnered with Uwill and students will have a direct crisis hotline connection in the event they are dealing with a mental health crisis and need immediate support. Hours of operation Monday-Friday (9am- 5pm); contact counseling@drew.edu with questions or concerns. Link to Drew’s counseling resources: Counseling Center

Drew Food Pantry

Interviewed Takundanashe Chinogwenya (Food pantry coordinator and Drew University Student)

The Drew Food Pantry was founded in the fall time in 2020. The current overseer of the pantry, Taku, was appointed in the fall of 2023. She continued the mission statement of raising awareness of the food justice movement. She started when she joined the Center for Civic Engagement. She joined with no prior experience with running a pantry, however she volunteered at a church and had good background knowledge. Her personal goals are to continue volunteering, and to raise advocacy and awareness for the food justice movement while maintaining the anonymousness and respect of peers. She receives many donations from other organizations, such as Table of Hope for most of our toiletries. Affinity Federal Credit Union is another one of the bigger donors. The pantry supplies more than 250 people per semester, and 60 regular visitors.

This was the second interview we did. This one opened a clearer path once we found out that there was a time when all these economic insecurity resources were advertised at the same time. There was a time when all of them were relatively new and connected early on. This discovery led us to a few interviews down the road leading us to Sean and the CCE. We are currently working on reinstating these resources via the Drew Good bulletin. Further, we are working on taking extra non-professional clothes donations from the Career Closet and handing them to the food pantry. This soon to be Life pantry is a work in progress. 

Taku is our path to action. She runs one of the main resources we are focusing on, and so far, the discovery from this second interview early on has led to much more. We have made more connections deeper in this project and are making a big impact with the relatively little time we've spent so far. The pantry is only 5 years old, so reconnecting it to other similar resources not only via information but combining resources and adding a clothing option along with food is rewarding. Working alongside Taku has led us to be in communication with the CCE. Taku is very important in networking, being that she even works out of Davies House. We will continue to educate ourselves and make a plan to name this new resource hub and bring the Life pantry idea to action!
 

Career Closet

Interviewed Kim Giorgio (Director of the Career Center and the Career Closet)

We selected the interviewer with Kim Giorgio because it would allow us to learn as much as we can about the career closet itself and provide us with a direct contact to the career closet if we need more information in the future. As the person in charge of the career closet Giorgio would know about how the career closet functions, in regards to who gets to use it, when they get to use it and who donates. As the person in charge of the career closet she would know who are the stakeholders involved with it, like the demographics that utilize the resources vs one who does not and who donates to it. Our interview with Giorgio is part of our plan because we are looking for a way to make resources such as the career closet more know to the Drew community so knowing and asking the person in charge of one of the resource is a good way to get background knowledge about the resources and to get input on how to proceed going forward in regards to the displaying of the resource since she has more experience with it. 

During our interview, we learned that the career closet was founded by Chris Carbone in 2020 with the purpose of giving students access to professional attire for interviews so that students would not have to struggle with that aspect of job searching. The closest sees and aids about 25 students per semester, and typically sees the most use during the bear den event and during the wall street semester. The closet consists of donations from staff and alumni, and is partnered with a local dry cleaner to make sure that the donations are always in good condition to be borrowed. We learned that despite promoting it on instagram, career days, blitz days, and partnering with “She leads” for a fashion show, The closet still struggles to get students to visit the closet for help. Additionally to the closest, the career center also has internship awards and scholarships to support students doing unpaid internships, also money donated by alumni. 

Textbook Lending Library

Interviewed Gabriella Ramirez (Founder of the Textbook Lending Library and Drew student from 2019-2022)
 

The Textbook Lending Library (TLL), housed in the Drew University Library, holds more than 150 textbooks. Founded by Gabby Ramirez C’23 in Fall 2020, the TLL addresses a need for accessible textbooks and aims to alleviate constraints for students and families facing financial hardship. We chose to interview Ramirez because of her role in the TLL and profound philanthropic impact for need-based students. The TLL is supervised by the Student Government and promoted by students, professors, and faculty on campus. During our interview with Ramirez we learned the process of starting the TLL, the obstacles she faced, the people that helped her along the way, and some advice that she had for us. 
After being elected as a Senator at Large, she reached out to the Student Government President who connected her to University Life. She then held a textbook donation drive, creating a collection of textbooks for the TLL. Early on Ramirez struggled to advertise and get donations for the TLL during the COVID-19 pandemic, and turned to Professor Rosenbloom, one of her professors, on how to better understand how the TLL can operate and solutions to marketing during the pandemic. Additionally, she paid tribute to Lauren Levinson, head of access services, for her efforts regarding the TLL operations. Levinson works in the library, ensures the books are reserved for eligible students, and proposes specific books to be purchased with the grant funding. The Opportunity Meets Innovation Challenge (OMIC) Grant, provides additional funding, continuing to help the TLL acquire used textbooks. Currently, Ramirez is a second-year Masters of International Affairs candidate at Columbia University SIPA with a concentration in International Security Policy, and isn’t directly involved in the operations of the TLL, but advocates for the resource as a member of the Drew Alumni Association Board.
To conclude the interview, Ramirez emphasized leveraging our networks and resources as it could go a long way. Additionally, she expressed the importance of connecting with other students as it is the best way to understand and address the needs of the student body. Ramirez was our first stakeholder interview, and our conversation with her shaped the direction of our research and the impact we wanted to have on the Drew community.