Future students filled the halls of Loyalist
by Kirsten Geisler
Despite a massive snowstorm, approximately 500 students and parents attended the annual Loyalist Days presentations and tours last week.
This year, media studies and police foundations were two areas that had healthy numbers of eager students ready to learn about their interested fields.
"Overall, everyone got a few students in their sections," says Chantal Dilts, recruitment officer at Loyalist who co-ordinated the event.
"The majority of people that come are not local. It's on their March Break, so it's their first chance to get away from their hometown and come and check us out," Dilts says.
Although Dilts isn't sure how much an impact the weather might have had on the turn out for Loyalist days she feels that there is a possibility it had some affect.
"Especially on the Monday because they were still removing snow, so I heard that a lot of people were having difficulties getting down their roads."
Students from across Ontario come for Loyalist Days. The student who traveled the farthest, Dilts said, came from Marathon, Ont., 305 kilometers from Thunder Bay.
There were approximately 92 volunteers for loyalist Days. The Majority of Volunteers are students at Loyalist who are from the public relations program. The volunteers dedicated their time to take the guests on campus tours that featured both the college and residence.
"We have lots of Loyalist volunteers, especially the PR class and we borrowed them for three days during the week to do tours," says Dilts.
Kerry Ramsay, professor and co-ordinator postgraduate public relations program says all the students participate. "They act as tour guides throughout the week on one day or another."
"During Loyalist Days we have community workshops that are also running and the opportunity presents itself for our students to also participate as guides in Loyalist Days," says Ramsay.
"Our students participate because it helps with their event management class they understand how an event works from behind the scenes and being a tour guide is an important part of a huge event like Loyalist Days."
Loyalist achieved its goals for Loyalist Days, Dilts said.
"Our goals were to provide more information for students to make a more informed decision," says Dilts "It's just about students finding out if we are the right fit for them or not."
By meeting the goals Loyalist hopes to improve enrolment, says Dilts "Hopefully they fall in love with Loyalist and it would be the right fit for them." |
