Potential Bonnies will be swarming the St. Bonaventure campus today and tomorrow. Accompanied by parents, hundreds of students will take a serious look at our campus. It’s a fine chance to make a good first impression.
Today, St. Bonaventure will be hosting roughly 175 potential students and their families for the long-awaited Spring into Bona’s admissions event. Prospective students will be touring campus all day, participating in an organizational fair, speaking with faculty and most importantly, meeting with current students.
On Saturday, St. Bonaventure’s Model United Nations will host its annual Model United Nations High School Conference in Plassmann Hall. This means a 200 students from 16 high school will wander the campus. Some of them may consider St. Bonaventure for their college careers.
Current Bonnies should display Franciscan values and be on their best behavior to greet the prospective students. Be polite, courteous and as helpful as possible to visitors and their families. As these students consider attending St. Bonaventure, the last thing parents want to see is a mass of slovenly, disrespectful college students.
We are not just representing ourselves. We are representing our school.
These events represent opportunities to leave a good impression in the minds of prospective students. If they see Bonnies as friendly, fun-loving and respectful, they might want to enroll for the fall semester.
“Current students do, in fact, make an impression on incoming students because they are the ones that create the presence for those students when it comes to how to conduct themselves both in as well as outside of the classroom,” said Leanna Chojnacki, secretary general for Model United Nations. Chojnacki is a political science and international studies major.
Chojnacki’s assessment is correct. If we act like insolent slobs, we won’t win any new recruits. However, if we take the extra steps to answer questions and showcase the very best of our school, we can impress students and their family.
Enrollment is important and benefits the entire school. If we can show the best of St. Bonaventure this weekend, we can help funnel some of these undecided students into our school next semester.
Bonaventure is a university where people hold doors for each other and say “Hello” in passing. Let’s show these nervous students they can be confident in their decision to come to such a friendly university that will soon become a place they can proudly call their own.
We should carry this respect past opening doors and offering a friendly wave. These polite manners would go far in Hickey Dining Hall. This large building can be quite intimidating for first-timers. If you do not know your way around you can feel like you are holding up the lines.
If you see someone struggling, think back to your first visit to campus and how scared you were. Think about how much more accepted you felt if you were offered some help.
With that in mind, let’s make our best efforts to offer a welcoming environment for these high school visitors. If we do our jobs and make St. Bonaventure as appealing as possible, we may see a few of these high-schoolers as full-time students next semester.
This editorial represents the opinion of The Bona Venture staff.
