On the road again

Assistant Director of Admissions Jason Elliott (far right) displays his good-natured attitude at a parents’ information session in Saint John this past June. First-year students Allison Wickens (far left), and Melanie Dunlop and her father Allan, quizzed recruiters about the academic programmes and amenities of St. Thomas.

While most of the University is settling into the 2001-2002 academic year, the Admissions Office has already turned its attention to 2002-2003. Assistant Director Jason Elliott and Information Officers Amy Chedore, Shauna Stennick and I are now on the road again to provide information on St. Thomas to prospective students, their parents and school officials across Canada and the United States. By December 7, the four of us will have represented St. Thomas at over 230 locations in nine provinces and three states. This extensive and exhausting schedule is completed in a 12-week span which started September 17.

We recruiters almost always go our separate ways to attract top-quality students to St. Thomas. We speak to students in high school classes, assemblies, guidance offices, auditoriums, gymnasia, and at career fairs in various other venues. At Canadian fairs, there are usually 40 to 50 other universities competing for students. In the United States, it is easily 200-plus.

A typical day “on the road” sees each of us visiting three schools, often followed with a parent information session in the evening. In a spot like Cape Breton, where people travel for miles to attend, I might talk to over 200 people in one gathering. On a given day, we’ve left the hotel by 8 a.m. and don’t arrive at the next until after 9 p.m. Usually, it’s a different hotel each night; staying two nights in a row at one location is a rare treat.

Although the commutes are lengthy, it’s not entirely lonely. Recruiters from the other universities are also usually at the next stop, so there’s a sense of continuity, and even friendship.

A lot of area is covered within three months of travel; high school students are visited as far west as Vancouver, BC, and as far east as St. John’s, NF. We spend great amounts of time in airports and in rent-a-cars. (My personal best for distance driven in a week is around 3,000 kilometres.)

While we usually return to campus each Friday to compile reports, we often leave again on Saturday as it ensures a cheaper flight rate. Regardless of the location, the checklist is always the same: luggage bags, display boards, and four or five fifty-pound boxes of viewbooks and brochures.

As we travel all over the countryside to intrigue students about St. Thomas, the rest of the Admissions staff is hard at work in the new, spacious Welcome Centre, fulfilling information requests for these very students. Director of Admissions Evelyn Sweezey, along with Office Coordinator Linda Arsenault and Office Assistant Jane LeBlanc, mail out information to students, answer questions, respond to e-mails, coordinate tours, and process admissions.

Director of International Programming, Karen Taylor, and International Admissions Coordinator, Louise Laberge, are working hard to attract more international students to St. Thomas. The two continue to increase the international student population of St. Thomas, helping to make us one of the most diversified student populations in the country.

After the first round of high school visits are over in December, we will join the rest of the team back at the Welcome Centre. We will assist in servicing all the students who express interest in St. Thomas and also start planning the second round of high school visits.

In February we hit the road again for another five weeks. This second round of visits is to ensure that interested students have all the information they need to start a successful career at St. Thomas. The Information Officers will then be back in the office to assist in processing applications and scholarships. The third and final round of travel starts in May when representatives from the Admissions Office team up with others from Student Affairs to travel across Atlantic Canada to meet with all the students — and their parents — who plan on attending St. Thomas in September.

While we may forfeit our personal lives while on the road, each of us is proud to be ensuring that St. Thomas continues to attract top-quality students, and to make sure that these students have a successful transition from high school to St. Thomas.