Stores make students 'better retailers for tomorrow'

Brian D. Rothschild Arizona Daily Wildcat Mechanical engineering senior Jose Batista works inside the new computer lab donated by the J.C. Penny Co. The computer lab is part of the Southwest Center, which helps students prepare for a career in retail sales.

Major companies like J.C. Penny Co., Sears Roebuck and Co. and Mervyn's California have made donations to the Southwest Retail Center since its inception in 1994. The companies expect a return on their investment - graduates who are prepared for a career in retail.

"We are partnering to make better retailers for tomorrow," said Ellen Goldsberry, director of the Southwest Retail Center.

A brochure for the center explains that it is funded through donations from retail firms. According to the brochure, the firms are represented on the center's executive board and are promoted through the center's activities.

The center is approved by the Arizona Board of Regents and serves students in the retailing and consumer studies program by giving them access to internships, workshops and tours of retail facilities.

The Southwest Center, located on the bottom floor the Family and Consumer Resources building, is one of the few of its kind in the country.

Right next door to the center is a computer lab funded by J.C.Penny's and stocked with Pentium computers.

"It is limited to College of Agriculture students or students who have a class (in the lab)," said Lucas Guthrie, office specialist for retail and consumer studies.

Dean DuPei, mechanical engineering graduate student, said he has a class in the center three times a week. The class, Agriculture and Biosystems Engineering 320, introduces students to computer-aided drafting.

J.C.Penny's donated $157,000 over three years to fund the computer lab, said Melissa Burke, assistant director for the Southwest Retail Center.

One of the biggest challenges facing retailers today is finding the human resources to allow their companies to grow, Burke said. She said a lack of talent is why companies are willing to invest in programs like the center.

Doug Caviness, store manager of the J.C. Penny's at El Con Mall, said that program graduates who participate in summer internships are ahead of the game.

Caviness said his education in retail did not afford him the same opportunities available to students at the Southwest Retail Center.

"I've had a job for six months almost now," said Erin Miller, retail and consumer studies senior.

Miller said she has taken advantage of internships and that the corporate partnership with the center is beneficial to students and corporations.

"An internship is your foot through the door," she said. "I think almost everyone who graduates is walking into a good job - you won't get that a lot of places."

Since there are so few retail programs around, the University of Arizona program is a resource to Mervyn's, whose home offices are in San Francisco, said Mike Woginrich, campus relations representative for Mervyn's.

Woginrich said he recruits at 20 different schools and none yield the same amount of qualified students as the UA. He said last semester Mervyn's hired three of its 12 new employees from UA.