The Student Ambassadors, an RSO on cam­pus ded­i­cated to intro­duc­ing Ferris to high school stu­dents, will have a new name next year along with a few changes.

The pro­gram will no longer be named “Student Ambassadors;” it will be renamed “Student Recruiting Associates”.

“The heart and soul of the pro­gram will stay the same,” Nick Campau, coor­di­na­tor of stu­dent life, said. “There are a hand­ful of notice­able changes com­ing up. The first has been to elim­i­nate the overnight visit pro­gram. This pro­gram, when com­pared to other admis­sion events, was extremely small and con­sumed a large por­tion of our resources.”

Campau said that by elim­i­nat­ing the overnight visit pro­gram, they were also able to elim­i­nate the res­i­dency require­ment of the Student Recruiting Associates (SRAs), allow­ing them to recruit a more diverse pool of stu­dents to rep­re­sent the university.

“As we moved for­ward, we dis­cov­ered that our stu­dents were work­ing less in an ambas­sador role and more in recruiter role, and we have named the pro­gram Student Recruiting Associate to reflect our changes,” Campau said.

Aminna McGee, pres­i­dent of Student Ambassadors, said the orga­ni­za­tion cur­rently has 22 mem­bers and is split into full and part-time mem­bers. The full-time mem­bers par­tic­i­pated in the overnight vis­its, which will no longer exist in the 2012–13 aca­d­e­mic year.

“We are entirely respon­si­ble for the tours on cam­pus,” McGee said. She also said they do tours for all ages, includ­ing fourth grade stu­dents, mid­dle school stu­dents and high school juniors and seniors.

“We also do travel trips to places like Detroit and Grand Rapids to inform prospec­tive stu­dents and their fam­ily mem­bers in those areas about Ferris and what we have to offer,” McGee said.

Student Recruiting Associates will work directly with prospec­tive stu­dents and their fam­ily while lead­ing and sup­port­ing dif­fer­ent admis­sion pro­grams through­out the aca­d­e­mic year. Many of the pro­grams include lead­ing the walk­ing tour for vis­i­tors, work­ing Dawg Day events and other enroll­ment services.

“The Student Recruiting Associate program’s ulti­mate goal is to increase the enroll­ment at Ferris State University by pro­vid­ing prospec­tive stu­dents with a pos­i­tive expe­ri­ence through des­ig­nated pro­grams,” Campau said.

Earlier in the year, the mem­bers of the cur­rent Student Ambassadors group put together a dunk tank fundraiser for the Big Rapids Red Cross Chapter.

“We raised over $200 that after­noon,” McGee said. “The cur­rent Student Ambassador mem­bers thought it would be fan­tas­tic to donate $200 to the Big Rapids Red Cross chap­ter to kick off the transition.

McGee said the appli­ca­tion process for the 2012–13 process has ended, but inter­ested indi­vid­u­als should keep their eyes open for the 2013–14 appli­ca­tions next spring.

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