In addition to being a student blogger for Manchester, I also get the pleasure of working in Admissions as a Student Ambassador. It’s a job that I love doing. I love being able to meet future students at Manchester, showing them around campus, and taking them to lunch. I still remember when I first visited campus, and decided that this was going to be my home for the next four years. Now I’m a junior, and I can’t imagine choosing another school.

This past weekend, there were many visitors on campus. Friday alone, I gave two tours, two panels, and took two large groups of students to lunch. It was a stressful day, but I loved every minute of it. Friday afternoon, about 20 high school seniors came to campus to visit and stay the night with a current student. They wanted to see what the life of a Manchester University student was like, what they’re desired major would be like, and if Manchester would be the place for them. I had two girls stay with me: one interested in Criminal Justice, and the other interested in Peace Studies, my major.

Admissions had lots of activities for us to do, they gave us cards for all the prospective students to get dinner in Haist Commons in the Jo Young Switzer Center, and had planned for all of us to go to the MAC events on campus that night—an escape room and roller skating. Several other ambassadors were hosting students so we planned to do all the activities together.

We all went to dinner and got to know our students. We talked, told jokes, and asked each other questions about school. The prospective students were all very interested in our experiences at Manchester and what we like about it. From dinner, we went to the PERC for the escape room. While the prospective students did the escape room, we all sat and talked about the rest of the night.

After the escape room, we headed over to the Upper JYSC for roller-skating. MAC had brought in a giant roller-skating floor, and had skates for anyone who came to the event. They played music, and we skated around and just hung out. We also made our own Mannequin Challenge that you can check out on Instagram @OurViewOfMU.  

After skating, we decided we weren’t done hanging out. A few of the ambassadors decided to go to the Academic Center with our prospective students. We took over a classroom, moved the tables and chairs out of the way, all sat on the ground, and played Cards Against Humanity. We also spent a lot of time talking and still getting to know each other. At around 2 in the morning, we all headed back to our residence halls and went to bed. We were all pretty tired at that point.

All the prospective students left after lunch on Saturday. I got really close to one of my students, and am excited for her to visit again, and then become a first-year next fall!

Working in Admissions is really fun—I feel like I’m making a difference and helping students make the hard decisions about coming to college. I remember that time being really stressful and difficult, so it’s nice to feel like I may be easing the anxiety in some high school seniors.

Admission hires new ambassadors in the fall and spring. It’s a great job with flexible hours, great bosses, and amazing fellow ambassadors. You can find the listing on Spartan Jobs.