Students work as ambassadors to other schools
Not only do they wear blue vests and walk around campus backward, PLCers are winners of one of the university’s most prestigious four-year scholarships.
The Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) is a group of students who assist with enrollment and help counselors recruit high school and transfer college students to come to Utah State University.
Scott Teichert, admissions councilor for Recruitment Enrollment Services and the PLC adviser, said the program started as a volunteer group in 1982 when some students volunteered to do spaghetti dinners for perspective students.
“It has evolved to the point where they [student recruiters] help in every way with prospective students,” Teichert said. “They continue to be a prospective student’s first contact with the
university.”
He said the main thing freshmen student recruiters do is return to their high schools to recruit students. Freshmen are the best recruiters because they still have a relationship with the administration of the schools and the students.
“The recruitment scholars are in the frontline of our efforts,” Teichert said. “The leadership [part of the name] is sometimes a misnomer. They are definitely leaders but, the reality is they are USU’s recruiting arm.”
Sophomore PLCers give campus tours. They do two each day during fall and spring semesters and one each day during summer semester. They’ve also given more than 200 special tours for special groups — from math and engineering groups to high school basketball teams. Teichert said they give a lot of tours in different languages because the student ambassadors have the ability.
Juniors and seniors work in connection with different colleges to coordinate between the college and the Recruitment Office. A select number of seniors work directly with President Kermit L. Hall as president’s ambassadors.
“They attend events to give a face to the university,” Teichert said.
The student recruiters are required to know a lot about the university because they recruit people for every college. They have to know about everything from the science and engineering departments to the education department.
“A lot of PLC students could have received other academic scholarships, which says something about their quality,” Teichert said. “By taking the PLC scholarship they do academics on top of leadership. It says something about their commitment to USU.”
To apply for the PLC scholarship, seniors in high school submit a portfolio outlining the leadership programs they’ve been involved in. They also have to put together a presentation of how they could effectively recruit for USU.
The Recruitment Office receives about 200 to 300 portfolios a year. Out of those, they only pick 40 people to interview. They give the PLC scholarship to 15 of the finalists.
“We give extra consideration based on grades and intended major. We want as diverse a group as possible to represent USU,” Teichert said.
Kelsey Petersen, a senior majoring in public relations and this year’s director of the President’s Ambassadors, said one of her duties as a student recruiter is to return to her home state of Montana every year and spend a week attending college fairs and talking about USU.
“I love [PLC]. You’re definitely busy,” she said. “It has given me experiences I’d never have been able to experience otherwise in college.”
Cory Carr, a freshman majoring in English, said it has been a wonderful opportunity for her to get to know some quality people.
“I had a solid group of friends right off the bat,” she said. “It makes it easier to be involved in college and it makes it a practically perfect experience.”
She said it has also helped her have some zany experiences. One of which took place at a leadership conference where they dressed in green and wore capes and fishnet tights and ran around the Taggart Student Center with the “A” on their back.
The PLC won the Robins Award last year for Service Organization of the Year. The PLCers are not required to do any service projects outside of their PLC duties. Members have volunteered at the American West Heritage Center and helped coordinate with the Red Cross the Sept. 11 ceremony that was held on campus.
“A lot of them [student recruiters] choose to serve in other capacities on campus,” Teichert said. “We encourage them to get involved when they’re here at school, too.”
For more information on the PLC call 797-1129.
–erina@cc.usu.edu
Matt Hawks, a President’s Leadership Council and a senior studying public relations, points out the Fine Arts building to a group taking a tour of the campus. The tour group was composed of people from Colorado Springs, Salt Lake City, and Logan. (Photos by Scott Davis)