The Voices And Faces Of Lynn
BY VICTORIA ALVAREZ
Copy Editor
Before a student decides to commit to a university, there is a series of steps that they must go through before completing the decision-making process.
When deciding on what university is best for them, a student must do more than just research the school and watch a few videos on campus and residence hall life. In reality, a high school senior, and even some juniors and sophomores, must talk to the university and go on various campus tours to get the right feel for the school.
At Lynn, there is a dedicated group of students that work hard to get prospective students to find their place at the school. This group, a mixture of ages, ethnicities and backgrounds, are the telecounselors and tour guides of Lynn.
Telecounselors are the voices behind Lynn. These students call and email prospective Fighting Knights to not only inform them of upcoming events and facts about the school, but also to get to know them, connect with them and develop a relationship with those students.
The Lynn telecounselors are aware that no average high school student wants to be lectured about a university over the phone. Instead, they want to talk to a real person who is interested and invested in the conversation at hand.
Knowing this, the telecounselors go out of their way to ensure that the calls that they make are personalized and sincere, because that is what the student deserves, a phone call with someone that they can connect to.
“Being a freshman at Lynn, I remember when I got a phone call from a telecounselor last year. It really made me feel like the university cared and it definitely pushed me in the direction of choosing Lynn,” said Tyler Bean, freshman. “Now that I am a telecounselor this year, I try to make sure I can do the same thing for the students that I call. From talking about the school to just college life in general, I want the conversations to be 100 percent genuine.”
Following phone calls about open houses, campus tours, Lynn experiences and college life are made, the next group of students, the tour guides, step in to help the visiting high school students make the right decision for themselves.
“When I take students and their families on a tour of the campus I like to make sure that I cater to their needs and interests while also answering all of the questions that they may have about Lynn,” said Francheska Sandoval, junior. “By the end of the tour I want the student and their family to understand what Lynn is all about and have no questions left to ask. That’s my goal, to make them feel welcome and informed.”
When a prospective student first comes on a campus tour, they expect to just walk around the school, hear a few facts and then make their decision from there. However, Lynn takes it a few steps forward.
From getting their name on a parking spot outside to getting a personal tour and a one-on-one meeting with their admission counselor, students that go on campus tours are given special treatment. However, this special treatment would not be made possible without the tour guides.
“I think the roles of both the telecounselors and tour guides are very memorable when it comes to a student making their college decision. When a student meets and interacts with these two groups, it’s great for them to feel that they can talk to them and connect with them,” said Frederico Glitman, Admission counselor. “These students and the work they do makes a huge impact. In fact, 70% of the students who enrolled last year had visited campus at either an Open House or campus tour. So that shows that both the conversations with the tele-counselors suggesting visits and interactions with the tour guides at the school make a huge difference.”
