{"id":4324,"date":"2023-01-10T12:00:39","date_gmt":"2023-01-10T17:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/?p=4324"},"modified":"2025-01-28T09:18:15","modified_gmt":"2025-01-28T14:18:15","slug":"suitable-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/2023\/01\/suitable-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"Suitable Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"
Jason Santos and his team launch Pirates Closet, offering business clothes to students who need them.<\/div><\/div>\n

By Harris Fleming<\/p>\n

Jason Santos was in a bind. He had precious little time or money to find professional-looking clothes for a Buccino Leadership Institute event at Seton Hall. So off he raced to Burlington Coat Factory to \u201cput together everything I could\u201d with $50 and the clock ticking.<\/p>\n

He made it to the event on time, appropriately dressed, but the experience left the then-sophomore a bit downhearted \u2014 briefly.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt embarrassed I had to go through all that,\u201d he admits. \u201cBut then I came to realize this isn\u2019t something to be embarrassed about, and it\u2019s not a problem that only I face. It\u2019s a problem a lot of my peers face. And it\u2019s something there should be a solution for.\u201d<\/p>\n

The solution, it turns out, started with Santos himself. What if there were a resource on campus where students could just walk in and borrow suitable clothing for events where business attire is the appropriate choice?<\/p>\n

He pitched the idea to peers in the Buccino interdisciplinary team initiative, which puts freshmen and sophomores together in semester-long projects that are completely student-run. Students with winning ideas get to act like CEOs, hiring a team to execute their plan to turn the idea into reality.<\/p>\n

Fast forward to his junior year, and his inspiration is taking shape as the Pirates Closet, where students will be able to browse through donated articles of clothing for something that suits a business setting.<\/p>\n

While Santos first envisioned the Pirates Closet as a lending program, the response has been so positive that it\u2019s been recast as a giveaway program. \u201cWe have so many donations, we\u2019re looking to open very soon,\u201d he says. \u201cRight now, we\u2019re focusing on making sure the room [housed in the Career Center] is presentable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Initially, donations came from within the Seton Hall community. Then a story on the Pirates Closet found its way to Burlington Coat Factory management, who promptly pledged to donate 500 articles of clothing. Other companies are already following Burlington\u2019s lead, ensuring that the clothing racks Santos and his colleagues are still assembling and arranging will be full in no time.<\/p>\n

As with all interdisciplinary team groups, the Pirates Closet team reflects the breadth of students who participate in the Buccino Leadership Institute, coming to the program from schools and majors that include Business (Kyle Torre and Julia Boivin), Arts and Sciences (Graceanna\u202fGargano and Abigail Hall), Diplomacy (Shweta Parthasarathy), Communication and the Arts (Ryan Johnston), Education (Adam D\u2019Ambrosio) and Nursing (Tiffany Mendez).<\/p>\n

Now in its fifth year, the interdisciplinary team program provides a way for future business leaders to apply what they\u2019re learning in the classroom to real-world situations. Some are so successful that they evolve into full-blown initiatives that live on after their creators have graduated. One example is Pirates Play, in which Seton Hall collaborates with the East Orange Department of Recreation on a youth sports leadership camp.<\/p>\n

According to Elizabeth V. Halpin, acting Buccino director and associate dean of the School
\nof Diplomacy and International Relations, the interdisciplinary team program \u201cis a practical application of the leadership lessons the students are learning. They get to try out their capabilities and the techniques they\u2019ve learned and observe the way these things work in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Santos, who\u2019s majoring in economics and mathematical finance and is the first of his family to attend college, couldn\u2019t agree more. He especially appreciates the opportunity to apply essential management skills.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of things you learn outside the classroom that you can\u2019t learn in the classroom. One thing I really came to learn was time management, as basic as that sounds,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m not only worried about my schedule. I also have to accommodate a team of other students.\u201d<\/p>\n

Similarly, he\u2019s found that ensuring all teammates know their role is essential to both the success of the project and his teammates\u2019 engagement. \u201cIt\u2019s making sure everyone feels important. At the end of the day, I couldn\u2019t do this all by myself. They wanted to be part of this, so I don\u2019t want to do them an injustice by making them feel less valuable than I should.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s exactly that kind of \u201cservant leadership\u201d that makes the interdisciplinary team program flourish, in Halpin\u2019s eyes. \u201cJason is a visionary leader and a great example of what great minds can do at Seton Hall,\u201d she observes. \u201cHe\u2019s like a pinnacle example of who we want our students to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harris Fleming is a freelance writer based in New Jersey.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jason Santos and his team launch Pirates Closet, offering business clothes to students who need them.<\/p>\n

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