Roughly 200 prospective students and their families visited Augustana on Saturday, Feb. 14, with the opportunity to compete for scholarships in their chosen academic fields. This was the goal for students. For staff and faculty, it was the hope that prospects would have the “perfect day.” But much goes on behind the scenes of creating such a large event. 

Lauren Clarke, admissions counselor and fine arts recruitment coordinator, worked to coordinate the ability for students to compete for a multitude of scholarships. 

“Hypothetically … if it’s [the student’s] first time visiting, they get the visit grant, and then they can also get an academic scholarship too. But if they do the fine art stuff as well, they could earn five scholarships,” Clarke said.

After the opening address in Carver Center, guests were able to explore the Opportunities Fair, which operated similarly to the Curiosity Fair in the fall for current students. Visiting families were able to walk around and talk to faculty and representatives of different majors and academic departments, as well as offices on campus like CORE (Careers, Research, Opportunities, Exploration), EDGE (Entrepreneurial Center) and public safety. 

Another large part of the day for admissions is taking students and their families for an optional tour of the campus. For some admitted students, this may be their first impression of the campus, and for others, it may be their first time back since admission. 

As part of organizing the tour groups, admissions staff schedule the day according to the students’ field of interest. Tour guides are sent to each session based on their knowledge of the department or how well they can represent the school. 

Visit Day chair, senior Adi Walker, was in charge of organizing all the student workers for the day, including who was greeting, giving tours or answering questions during different parts of the day, as well as problem-solving on the day of the event. 

“It’s a lot of trial and error … communication and sometimes it can be hard when people don’t respond right away, or they respond at the most inconvenient time, but it always works itself out in the end,” Walker said. 

But planning a campus-wide visit day requires planning outside of admissions as well. 

For Fred Kurt, director of Auxiliary Services, a campus-wide event means making sure other important stops are ready to impress prospective students, which includes lunch in the Gerber Center Dining Hall. 

Part of the preparation is making sure there is additional staff ready for the rush to help lines move faster, tables get cleaned quicker and to make sure dish staff have help at the end of the event. 

The dining hall also makes sure there is food available for everyone by ordering more items and providing a larger quantity of food than what is available on a normal weekend.

“I know in the past, students [have commented] that we have all this great stuff on the visit days and so forth. That’s not really the case, [but] we do have additional stations opened,” Kurt said.

Kurt also helped the bookstore prepare for an influx of visitors by making sure their school-branded merchandise was fully stocked.

He said that Augustana students are proud of their school and can always be found representing it and that future students should be able to as well.

Through many emails, hours of organizing and helping hands, the faculty and staff were able to complete one of their biggest days of the year.