Over the past two weeks, DCGE has been collecting donations from students, faculty and staff to outfit international students with winter gear heading into the colder months. The Winter Closet initiative was thought of and brought to life by Sarah Driscoll, the director of international student services.

After a recent poll conducted by International Student Services (ISS) on Instagram, Driscoll noted that 25% of international student respondents had voted that they had never experienced snow before. With this in mind, Driscoll and ISS saw this initiative as an opportunity to support the international student community at Quinnipiac while encouraging local faculty, staff and students to donate their lightly used winter items.

The overall goal of the Winter Closet is to not only provide international students with winter clothing but also general support for the colder Connecticut temperatures.

"It is not necessarily addressing a problem, but more so a kind and generous offering for our international students to start building their cold-weather wardrobe,” said Driscoll.

Driscoll added that she hopes students will be excited and appreciative of the initiative and embrace it as a new Bobcat tradition. 

International students will have the opportunity to pick up their winter clothing items throughout November after the grand opening of the Winter Closet on November 1 from 2-4 p.m. in the DCGE Conference Room 185. After the grand opening, students will continue to have the opportunity to pick up clothes Monday through Thursday from 2-4 p.m. in the Center for Communications, Computing and Engineering Room 190. The program is also set to run in Spring 2024 for new students as well. If anyone has questions, they can email international.student@qu.edu for more information.