The Expedition Leaders Organization has hit the ground running at ETSU.
Formerly the Admissions Ambassadors, the organization has gone through major changes.
“We’re trying to change the culture of the organization in general as well as how the organization is viewed on campus. We’ve gone through a complete and total rebranding,” said Savannah Parson, Expedition Leaders Organization President. “We are maintaining the same energy and the same outlook and the same positivity and the same knowledge base.”
Parson also attested to new structural changes that will provide an improved presentation and better information to the students.
“We are a student group that prides themselves on being subject matter experts of ETSU,” said Parson. “If you need to know something, we strive to be the people you can go to to figure it out, and through that, providing information to prospective students interested in coming to ETSU, attending ETSU as a university, information to those prospective students through campus tours, through events being held, just like recruitment events. Basically, we are like student recruiters for the university.”
Previously, the Expedition Leaders Organization served as a large volunteer group, but it is now a more intimate, paid student organization.
“We went through a pretty rigorous application and interview process and brought the numbers down to about 30 students instead of 45 to 50 and they are being paid now,” said Sharon Leone, the Expedition Leaders Organization coordinator. “Each student gets a stipend. There is a leadership team that gets a little bit more, and we went through a three-day training coming into this semester where we met with all of the different colleges, heard their stories from them and a lot of our different resources, like studying abroad, honors college, student activities, multicultural center. And they also spent a lot of time getting out on campus and getting to know the cool things that ETSU has to offer in context and learning from each other.”
Students that took part in the three-day training arrived a week before classes started to spend time on campus.
“We had every different college come and speak to us about what they offer and what their programs look like that we would be very knowledgeable about all of the things that ETSU offers,” said Olivia Campbell, the leader of admission events for the organization. “We also took extensive walking tours that week where returning expedition leaders, so people like me, could go with the new members and really explain our personal stories with campus and also apply that information that we learned in all of our information sessions to actual campus and show them what a real tour looks like. That includes walking backwards in some places where is it tricky to navigate with families, and where do you interject your personal anecdotes instead of just information.”
The Expedition Leaders have implemented their new training through tours.
“I think we’ve had really good reviews so far from other faculty and staff members from seeing us out on tours, and also the families we’ve been able to give tours to have been really responsive,” Campbell said.
The Expedition Leaders Organization continues to evolve their group by taking tours to the next level with virtual interactive touring and safe tours on campus.
“They are not just tour guides or ambassadors for the admissions office,” said Leone. “I want them to be the faces of the university and leading people, prospective students and their families on a journey through campus that they are customizing and helping students and families see the great things that ETSU has to offer.”
