By Stefan Miller
Hood College’s STARs program, which provides campus tours to visitors, changed its title to Blazer Ambassadors during the 2015 fall semester to better represent itself.
The STARs program’s title was changed to Blazer Ambassadors entering the 2015 fall semester. The idea to change the STARs’ title came up during a discussion about changing the STARs workers’ uniforms.
The supervisor of the Blazer Ambassadors, Elizabeth Gomer said, “While talking about the possibility of changing our uniforms, we realized that the uniforms said STARs on the front, but a lot of people didn’t actually know what the STARs program was or what we do.”
Gomer said that she believes the new title of Blazer Ambassadors is more self-explanatory and represents what the program does.
She also said that she thought the new title was more formal and simply sounded better. “It just makes a lot more sense than STARs,” Gomer said, “It’s a much more fitting title.”
An ambassador is a person who represents or promotes something. The students that are a part of the Blazer Ambassadors do just that.
STARs stands for Student Team of Admission Representatives. It is a program that employs students to give campus tours to visitors.
The newly named Blazer Ambassadors program currently employs 50 student workers. The program for campus tours was originally known as Blazer Ambassadors, but this title changed to STARs in the late 1990s.
Hood College has always given campus tours, but in 2006, STARs began employing students to give the tours. It was also in 2006 that Senior Associate Director of Transfer Admission, Elizabeth Gomer, became the supervisor of the tour program that was then known as STARs. As supervisor, Gomer oversees and manages the program along with organizing tour dates.
Travis Schweizer, a sophomore and member of the Blazer Ambassadors, offered his opinion on the new title. Schweizer said the new title is more formal and said: “I like it because it sounds more professional and is self-explanatory. Nobody knew what I was talking about before when I told them I was a STAR.”
Schweizer said that he joined the program during the first semester of his freshman year, because he thought he could create a positive first impression on potential future students. “I enjoy it because I’m very outgoing and I have always loved meeting new people,” Schweizer said.
The sophomore blazer ambassador enjoys the new title and thinks it will give the program more of an identity on campus and that it may even cause more students to join.
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