Open House: The Student Volunteer Experience

by Aditi Deokar

News

November 13, 2019

On Sunday, November 3, I, along with many other BUA students, chose to spend about four hours helping our wonderful admissions team speak to prospective applicants about our school. To be fair, most of us were probably there for the community service hours. That didn’t mean we weren’t doing the work, though. Students are essential to making the open house happen and we do the majority of talking to families.

First, from 11:30 to 12:45, we walked with families over to the Law School Auditorium, where a panel of other BUA students was holding a Q&A session. Since the walks over were the families’ first introduction to BUA, it was important to keep them engaged. As a tour guide, much of the information about BUA flowed naturally, so I focused on making a conversation and getting the students engaged. Most students are a bit shy since they are in a new environment, so I often did not receive many specific questions. In those cases, I asked the student what their favorite subject was and talked about how that subject is taught at BUA. The parts of BUA life that I highlighted most often were the ability-based math placement test, the inverted science progression (physics-chemistry-biology), the BUA-only BI 107 class that prepares students for BU classes, and the discussion-based English and history classes. These are some of the most distinctive facets of BUA classes, and student volunteers who have attended classes in all the subjects are better equipped to talk about them and share personal experiences than a teacher or an admissions officer. 

The next portion of the open house, from 1:00 to 3:15, involved volunteers being assigned to specific rooms, one per subject, where they told students about that particular subject. This open house, I was assigned to history — in the past, I have spoken about classics, math, and science. We noticed that, compared to the last open house, there were many more seventh graders who were looking to apply in another year.

All in all, I had a very fun experience at this open house, and I enjoyed telling prospective applicants about the great community we have at BUA.