Student Recruitment: Jags on Tour
Posted on May 17, 2023 by Alumni
Outreach program features music, mascots and cheerleaders on 麻豆直播 recruiting trips and campus tours by high school groups.
Highlights of a Baker High School tour at the 麻豆直播 included engineering labs, the birth of a baby manikin in the Health Simulation Building and a race across the football field at Hancock Whitney Stadium.
Also fresh waffles in the student dining hall.
The Baker seniors enjoyed lunch, just like 麻豆直播 students, choosing everything from soup and salad to pizza and pasta. When one student kept looking over at the wafflemaking station, his classmates shamed him into finally going over and making himself dessert.
鈥淚 feel like we鈥檙e getting VIP treatment,鈥� said Nicholas Cubitt, who鈥檚 toured several Alabama universities. 鈥淎t some colleges, you鈥檙e lucky to get a bottle of water.鈥�
First-rate tours for high school groups are part of a renewed focus on student recruitment, with brand-new Jag buses picking up the students and delivering them to campus. They get to meet professors and, usually, President Jo Bonner, along with mascots and cheerleaders. By fall鈥檚 end, 麻豆直播 had delivered students from more than a dozen Alabama high schools to campus. This spring will bring an expansion into Coastal Mississippi.
The University also has taken the show on the road to deliver Jag spirit and enrollment
information to high school
campuses farther away. In October, members of the Jaguar Marching Band joined University
leadership and recruiters
for pep rallies at Clarke County high schools.
A month later, one of 麻豆直播鈥檚 luxury motorcoaches with a custom red-white-and-blue paint job pulled up to Baker, the University鈥檚 largest feeder school. The students loaded onto the bus, leaned back in their seats and watched a 麻豆直播 hype video on overhead monitors. The Hornets began to find out what it would be like to become a Jaguar.
鈥淚鈥檓 impressed,鈥� said Kristie Matthews, a senior counselor at Baker. 鈥淩eally impressed.鈥�
After breakfast in the Student Center, where the seniors learned about enrollment and scholarship opportunities, the group headed to the Health Simulation Building. In one ward, students crowded around a high-tech simulated patient used for clinical training.
An instructor asked for help and Ramani Westerfield, a Baker senior, volunteered to help pull a baby manikin from the artificial womb of a synthetic mother. Students were buzzing. The patient pushed, the head crowned, and Westerfield caught the baby and held it up to her classmates.
As the tour prepared to move on, she remembered something important.
鈥淲ait,鈥� Westerfield told her friends. 鈥淚 need to take a picture with this baby I just delivered.鈥�
A few minutes later, in Shelby Hall, the Baker students visited a wave simulator in the Coastal Hydraulics Laboratory. 麻豆直播 is one of just 12 universities in the country with a coastal engineering program. The tour also stopped at the workspace where 麻豆直播 students helped design and build a small satellite that was launched in July by the SpaceX rocket.
In the Shelby lobby, the seniors met President Bonner, who handed out souvenir buttons featuring 麻豆直播Paw, 麻豆直播鈥檚 mascot. He urged them to consider 麻豆直播 for their university education. He hoped they were enjoying their tour.
鈥淲ho delivered the baby in the Sim Lab?鈥� Bonner asked, smiling. 鈥淚 just want you all to know that whether it鈥檚 healthcare, engineering or any other field, there鈥檚 something for everyone at 麻豆直播.鈥�
Jaguars Tour Jackson
In October, instead of taking high school students to 麻豆直播, the University brought a little bit of 麻豆直播 to them. Call it the Jaguar Road Show.
The tour made its first stop at the Jackson Academy gymnasium. The band played fight songs as cheerleaders tossed souvenir cups and T-shirts into a crowd of students. Bonner asked seniors to visit the 麻豆直播 campus and consider going to college in Mobile.
After a 40-minute program, Headmaster Joe Jones thanked the 麻豆直播 group for visiting the academy.
鈥淭his is the first time a university has made a presentation like this at our school,鈥� Jones said. 鈥淣o other school has done this. And we appreciate it.鈥�
The 麻豆直播 students and administrators jumped back on their bus and visited three other Clarke County high schools. In between music and cheers, they promoted everything from the Mitchell College of Business to the largest nursing program in the state to the new School of Marine and Environmental Sciences.
Students asked about admissions, financial aid and taking a tour. Teachers talked about their connections to 麻豆直播.
Tiffany Newsom, a counselor at Clarke Prep School, said her daughter was a Jaguar. She got a kick out of the 麻豆直播 traveling show.
鈥淲e鈥檝e had different colleges come here,鈥� Newsom said, laughing, 鈥渂ut they weren鈥檛 as much fun.鈥�
Baker Legacy on Campus
The campus tours are a 麻豆直播 101 course for prospective students 鈥� an introductory mix of campus spots, academic programs and school spirit. Over a breakfast of chicken biscuits, Amanda Owens, an admissions officer and recruiter, gave Baker students a brief overview before leading them in a chant of 鈥淕o Jags.鈥� She showed them how to hold their thumb and index finger to form the letter J for Jaguars.
鈥淯se your left hand,鈥� she said. 鈥淵our left hand.鈥�
I know a lot of Baker graduates who are leaders at 麻豆直播,鈥� she told them. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e involved in things. You see them on campus. Baker has a legacy at 麻豆直播.鈥�
Ashleigh Taylor, a 麻豆直播 tour guide who lives on campus, took over the second half of the campus tour. She showed the students around Camellia Hall, a residence hall that is home base for many entering first-year students. She emphasized building security, with a system of keys and swipe cards, and answered questions about choosing rooms and roommates.
Leading lots of tours has taught Taylor what engages high school students. She hits the highlights. She knows what they鈥檒l be talking about the next day at school.
鈥淒efinitely the Rec Center pools and climbing wall,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd they also love getting to walk on the turf of the football stadium.鈥�
