Student Ambassador Program Gets a Reboot

Carroll’s student ambassadors give prospective students an insider’s look at what’s happening at the College. Coordinator of Enrollment Development Lara Truitt currently coordinates the Student Ambassador Program. Though hired during COVID, she hit the ground running when she took over the program three years ago.

Carroll has run its Student Ambassador Program for the past fifteen years. While initially not a formal program, the College has developed it to become a robust training and scholarship program where students can learn valuable skills like how to create a presentation and how to communicate effectively. These are top-ranked skills desired by today’s employers.

“Student ambassadors are a face for the College,” Truitt said. “They will lead tours, sometimes one-on-one and sometimes in large groups.” These can include scheduled tours for high school groups or for an Open House event.

Revamping the Program

As a recent change, participants in the Student Ambassador Program may also help by sitting on a panel at on-site high school visits to talk about their “honest student insights.” Truitt believes this creates greater authenticity when talking with prospective students, rather than having only faculty speak for the school.

She has also encouraged those in the program to participate in such instructional opportunities as DEIB training, which is now a required component of their initial training. “These are types of skills and areas of knowledge that I believe any person should be experiencing,” Truitt said. “Prospective students come from so many different backgrounds. For ambassadors to meet prospective students where they are and best represent the College, they must understand these topics.”

The student ambassadors benefit Carroll not only through their authentic representation, but also by lending ideas to the College from the perspective of someone who was recently a high school student. “These are ideas we likely wouldn’t have thought of,” Truitt said. “Our prospective student population is always changing. We’ve had to revamp and reconfigure our recruitment strategies based on what works and what doesn’t.

Revisiting Student Recruitment

While launching her Student Ambassador Program revamp during the pandemic was not easy, Truitt said that it fostered a few positive effects, such as compelling the College to look more closely at diversifying its recruiting efforts, such as creating live social media content, and inviting student ambassadors to visit students at their high schools. Since dual enrollment now constitutes more than a third of the College’s student population, Carroll’s student ambassadors are going where the students are.

“They’re really good opportunities that have given us a new way to reach people and get informative topics out there,” Truitt said.

The student ambassadors have inspired modification of the types of recruitment events Carroll offers based on what students and their families are looking for. They’ve begun offering opportunities for completely customized tours of Carroll’s campus, including an option to observe a class and learn more specifically about their major of interest.

Truitt enjoys the challenge of finding new ways to both effectively recruit more ambassadors and keep participants currently in the program actively engaged in promoting the school and developing their personal skills.

“I don’t know what we’d do without them,” Truitt said. “They make everything we do possible and make it more fun. It’s such a joy to have them as part of our team.”

If you’re a Carroll student who is interested in becoming a student ambassador, contact Lara Truitt at ltruitt@carrollcc.edu or (410) 386-8409.