When kids in high school apply for college, they can go on websites, look at pictures, and talk to people in order to help make their decision on which school is best for them. The deciding factor is actually going to the college or university, taking a tour, and seeing what the school has to offer.
The ambassadors here at USC provide tours to prospective students and their parents. They are responsible for representing the University, its history, opportunities, attributes, benefits, and services when welcoming visitors to campus.
Founded in 1991, the ambassadors here at USC live by their motto, “we must protect this house.” Marie Morrisette, a third semester ambassador says, “Our motto means that we are the front door of the University. We are a vital part of the University’s recruitment and marketing strategy. Our tours and information serve as the first impression among parents, and most importantly the students.”
Being a tour guide may seem like a simple task, but before earning a job as one of the ambassadors, you must go through the tedious process of being selected.
Future ambassador prospects must fill out an application and score well, based off diversity, professionalism, confidence, and their resume. If they score high, they will move on to a group interview. If scored high in the group interview, where the questions progress in difficulty, you will receive a call back from the Visitor’s Center director, Denise Wells and do a one on one interview. If the interview with Wells goes satisfactory, you officially become one of the stature University Ambassadors.
After becoming an ambassador, you must complete a semester of training. In that semester, they must meet twice a week for a total of two hours and learn how to answer tough questions on tour, what they have to say at each stop on the given tour, and how to solve problems when on a tour. Once you complete the training, you can actually start giving tours to prospective students.
The campus tours run for about two hours. For the first thirty minutes, the prospects have an information session with an admissions counselor where they explain the diversity and academics of USC. The walking tour lasts about ninety minutes. During the walking tour, the ambassadors must cover: at least five academic buildings, the Russell House, libraries, residence halls (and will go inside an actual occupied room), and end back at the Visitor’s Center. During the tour they must be ready for all questions that come their way, must mingle with the people on the tour, and make a lasting impression.
Along with giving tours throughout the week, they work at least three hours per week in the Visitor’s Center, where your phone calls and emails are answered, and postcards are written. Ambassadors must also work two weekends of the semester where you give “special tours” to recruits. Ambassadors must maintain a minimum 3.0 GPA, which shows that ambassadors are not only leaders on campus, but in the classroom as well.
With all of these expectations, goals, and hard work, you would probably guess that an ambassador gets paid more than enough. But the reality is that ambassadors do not get paid at all. When asking Morrisette how she felt about the unpaid job, she replied, “As cliché as it may sound, I don’t care about the money. I care that we are the reason why students chose to attend school here or not. I feel that impact a lot of kids’ life and that is more than money could buy.“
One thing that Morrisette noted was that she admires the diversity of her staff. There are 86 ambassadors as of this Fall, and all of them are very different.
“There are people that are involved in different activities on campus, sororities, fraternities,, different ethnic and religious backgrounds, and serve big roles here at USC,” Morrissette says. The student body president, Joe Wright is one of the ambassadors here at USC. Staff diversity plays a major role because during the tours, because they want anyone of any caliber, creed, or color to be able to have their questions answered.
The ambassadors here at USC meet the high expectations of their superior, peers, and prospective students. Ashlyn Hill, a freshman biology major said, “My parents relied heavily on the Visitor’s Center and the ambassadors because we heard about them through word of mouth. We felt like they knew what they were talking about and answered all of our questions when it comes down to the history and future of the University.”
Sarah Hunter, a freshman business major said, “I didn’t like the tour here at USC. I was a little bored. But at the very end of the tour, the ambassador shared why she chose to go here, and it made me look at USC in a different light, she definitely swayed my decision to choose to go here.”
The role of an ambassador has a lot of requirements and are representatives to serve as the University’s first impression of the campus. Morrisette added, “Becoming an ambassador made me break out of my comfort zone. This will look great on my resume and helped me grow more as a person.”
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