How an Ambassador Recruits

As a College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Ambassador, our job is to share our love of Mississippi State and our college with prospective students. We want to inform students of the many majors, programs and clubs the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences has to offer. Ambassadors reach out to prospective students in a variety of ways.

Postcards:

As CALS Ambassadors, we write postcards to potential students who have shown an interest in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.  These postcard recipients are both community college transfer students and high school students.  The postcards are sent to the prospective student in order to contact them in a more personal manner.  It gives the prospective students the opportunity to contact us as student ambassadors with any questions that they might have, that they might not feel comfortable asking a professor or other school official.  Writing these postcards also allows us to invite the prospective students to visit our campus, by scheduling an on-campus tour through the office of admissions.  Writing postcards is an effective recruiting tool when recruiting students for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

Postcard sent out to prospective students

On-Campus Events:

One way we interact with prospective students is at on-campus events. CALS Ambassadors have an organization table at Preview Days and Orientation. This gives us an opportunity to meet students and show them what CALS has to offer. This is one of our greatest tools because we get to talk to students one-on-one. This way we can find exactly what they are interested in and find the best major or program for them. Also, we get to share our personal experiences with the students to help give them a better idea of what life is like at Mississippi State. In addition to working with prospective students, we have an excellent relationship with our alumni. Twice a year we host a Brunch for alumni. We have breakfast catered and have many prestigious guest speakers. This is a way for us to interact with alumni and show them how our college has changed over the years. Nothing wins students over better than having them come to our beautiful campus.

High School Visits:

The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) Ambassadors have many responsibilities to take on and accomplish each semester. One of our main responsibilities is to recruit new students to the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, such as sophomores through seniors in high school as well as community college transfer students. We accomplish this through recruiting events at local high schools, also through transfer student visitation days. Sally Beth McCullough, Admissions Coordinator and Recruiter, frequently checks The Project Access Calendar every semester to find possible recruiting events we can participate in. We try to go state-wide for recruitment opportunities, but since we are all college students our schedule sometimes does not allow it. In situations like that, we focus on local schools around Starkville, such as Starkville High School, Starkville Academy, East Oktibbeha High School, and Mississippi School of Math and Science. We set up a booth with the College of Ag and Life Sciences table cloth and provide goodies such as, cups, t-shirts, etc. We also pass out a College of Agriculture and Life Sciences paper that allows the student to get on our mailing list to receive any news, and also tell us a little about them, such as: their name, e-mail, phone number, where they are from, ACT score, and which career path interests them. If any future or possible student has a question, they can approach us and we help them to the best of our ability. We try to explain the different departments within the College of Ag and Life Sciences and the different concentrations a student could study, as well as scholarship opportunities. When recruiting new students we especially harp on scholarship opportunities because it looks excellent on a resume as well as helps the student out financially.

Form for prospective students to fill out

Tours:

As a CALS ambassador it would be a crime to let our beautiful campus go unnoticed. Lush greenery and gorgeous architecture are a few our best selling points here at Mississippi State, and (in true agriculturist fashion) we are quick to point that out. The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences encompasses several buildings here on campus and we make it a priority to show prospective students where they may be spending their days as a Bulldog, based on their specific academic goals. On any given day you can find Apparel, Textiles and Merchandising majors working hard on a group project in Moore Hall or Horticulture majors checking soil samples in the greenhouses at Dorman Hall. Spanning a wide variety of interests, majors in our college are headquartered in various locations across campus. The Lloyd-Ricks, Agricultural and Biological Engineering, Landscape Architecture, Hill Poultry Science and Herzer buildings all house department heads. The Wise Center is home to the Animal and Dairy Sciences department and houses the College of Veterinary Medicine, which is a common pre-professional interest for students of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Most importantly, our tours are geared to the individual student’s needs. We strive to keep them interested, informed, and in maroon and white!

Hail State!

Contributing Ambassadors: Alanna Blaine, Rachael Frost, Courtney Griffin, Chelsea Meyer