Service and Social Time

We are in the thick of what is called "Yield Season" in the world of college admission, which means we are welcoming throngs of admitted seniors to campus for our Destination Tulane program. We're glad to welcome all you Midwesterners and Northeasterners  as it's been in the 70s here in NOLA and looks to be beautiful for the coming weeks of the program. Our admission team is also travelling a lot to greet our admitted students on the road in your hometowns, and also starting the process all over again by attending college fairs nationwide for juniors and sophomores who are just starting the process. We're also chatting with our students who are currently on our waitlist. See my last blog for more info on that.

With all this action going on, I think the outside world forgets that admission staff members are... real people. With real lives. Admission counselors... they're just like you! We do stuff outside of the office and are, frankly, pretty good at fun. My staff here at Tulane loves to be active outside of work, both with our social lives and our community engagement. We also are a great team- we spend a lot of work time together, but also spend time together socially as well. Thought I'd fill you readers in on a few of the events that our team here in the Admission Office has been participating in over the last few days...

Service-wise, we spend a lot of time talking to prospective students all about the public service experiences they will have here at Tulane. As the only major research university in the country to have a public service component of graduation, it is a huge part of our way of life. We as an admission team and as a university like to practice what we preach. This Monday was the Tulane Wave of Green Day of Service. Over 450 members of the faculty and staff of Tulane took to the streets of New Orleans to perform service projects to give back to our community. Rachel and Antoinette and I were assigned to a group called United Saints Recovery Project, an organization that works in areas like Central City to help citizens and communities recover from natural disasters. Our project was pretty awesome- there are a number of blighted homes in Central City that were moved there from the footprint of our new VA Hospital. These homes have not been touched since they were moved, and many are decaying- something that leads to undesired residents, blight and unsafe neighborhoods. United Saints partnered with local charter schools to have elementary school art students paint murals to be affixed to these house to improve their appearance. My team was in charge of installing these boards up on the properties. The installation worked positively in two ways: one, the students got a really cool art project out of it and helped their neighborhood, and two, the neighborhood showed a visual improvement, as well as an increase in safety. I think the photos below show it well- while it would be best to refurbish these homes altogether  this project offered an attractive and viable short term solution  We were so honed to be a part of this civic engagement project. The Advocate even ran a great story about the event, quoting yours truly. 

Before 

During

After 

Second service that I participated in this weekend was back to one of my all time favorite organizations, Youth Run New Orleans. You may recall I have blogged about YRNOLA before, but in short, Youth Run NOLA is an incredible after school activity that provides students from underserved populations an opportunity to participate in something awesome- running. We run with these students year round and train with them for their big race- the Crescent City Classic 10K. The CCC was this weekend, and the smiles on these kids faces as they crossed the finish line could not have been bigger. Some of these young kids don't have much in their lives, so accomplishing something as big as a 10K was huge for them. Check out my buddy Tyrone and me- this was one great kid who made his goal of running his very first 10K a reality. If you want to learn more about YRNOLA, have a look at this great clip about what we are all about. 

Tyrone and I at the finish line!

How awesome is this- Tyrone wore his medals to school the next day. All the races he has run with YRNOLA, including his CCC 10K medal! So proud of this little tyke. 

 So while we love to give back, we also love to have fun as a team. My office sometimes mocks me, but I love to plan a good "team building activity." We've done a lot the last few weeks, and it has reminded me how lucky  I am to work with such a great staff of counselors. This past week, the whole gang headed down to the Theaters at Canal Place (a.k.a. the best movie theater in town, if you ask me. No kids! Full menu of delicious food! Reserve your own seat! Booze! Uh, I mean, soda) to see Tina Fey and Paul Rudd in Admission. We all got a kick out of the movie. They did some nice homages to our line of work, all of us had a good laugh when Tina is on her 30th high school visit and lost again thanks to her GPS. I mean, who hasn't been there? The staff also checked out a Green Wave baseball game last night. Our season isn't shaping up to be as strong as we are used to, but it was still great to get out as a group and cheer on the Wave.

Movie time! 

The team showing their reviews of the film. Even Earl Retif was there. Yes, even the man that signs your letters is a real person, too! 

So there you have it- it may seem to the typical college applicant that these mysterious "admission counselors" aren't real people, but we are! We have passions and interests and extracurricular activities just like you high school seniors do. And we are as fun as a high school senior too. Umm... well maybe not quite. 

Here is the pre-race pasta dinner for our YRNOLA kids. The Hyatt donated the space for us to fuel up with carbs, read some encouraging signs and hear so great pep talks! 

Race Day YRNOLA shoe laces 

Holla at ya Team Purple! 

Ready to Run!

Another house spruced up thanks to Tulane and United Saints

James MacLaren, Dean of Newcomb-Tulane College, and Mike Hogg, Dean of Students, were out putting in some sweat equity on our Day of Service. I caught up with them on our lunch break. 

Rachel and Antoinette getting a board ready to be installed

Up it goes! I am a pretty solid driller, if you were wondering. 

Final product, and our Tulane team out front. 

A group of Tulane volunteers in the Central City neighborhood. In addition to the blighted home project, volunteers removed hundreds of bags of trash, cut overgrown lawns and spent a full day beautifying the neighborhood.  

Play Ball! Beautiful night for a game.  

Some of the lovely ladies of the admission office and I.