Most of us remember our first visit to campus as high schoolers. Now college students, we also remember the first time we witnessed prospective students invading our classes, dining hall, and campus for their own first visits.
They stand huddled in large groups in the front of Mossey Library, listening with their parents as a student ambassador regales them with Hillsdale history. They sit next to us in class and loiter in the hallways between class periods. And, horror of horrors, they take selfies in front of Central Hall.
But we were no different. They are visiting campus because they are interested in pursuing the very things we currently do. They’re not part of campus — not yet — but some will become our classmates and, perhaps, good friends.
Kirstin English, the mother of a prospective student, wrote the Collegian after her family recently visited campus.
“While my daughter was sitting in on her class, the rest of the family went to the student union to wait,” English said. “Three students there struck up conversation with us and very graciously talked with us about their experiences at Hillsdale.”
She concluded the letter by thanking “everyone that was part of our day,” including their student ambassadors, admissions staff, and students they met in the union.
Hillsdale College is, by choice or by chance, a highly visible campus. We are conspicuous in today’s educational climate: a small, counter-cultural community of inquiry in a sea of large, liberal institutions. Sometimes students lose sight of the fact that Hillsdale’s public image and its real community are closely entwined and that we are a vital part of constituting both.
We students are more than mere beneficiaries of an anomalous institution: We are the institution. We shape it even as it shapes us, and we represent it while we are here.
We are all ambassadors for Hillsdale. The student body is a key part of why many of us chose to come here. Now that we count ourselves part of that body, it behooves us to reach out on its behalf to prospective students, visiting donors, and other members (potential or actual) of our college community.
