By Jara Reeder, Photo Editor
Northwestern has come to the virtual side of doing things, and the university hosted its first virtual Ranger Preview on Saturday.
The event went live around 10 o’clock Saturday morning on YouTube with a chat room for people to ask questions.
“It went pretty smooth and had a decent turnout,” admissions counselor Trey Johnson said. “It was the first, but we hope it will be the last. We prefer to meet our students face-to-face and interact that way.”
The event was made possible by admission counselors Johnson, Selena Estrada, Luis Mendoza III, Collin Stork, Andrea Lauderdale and Megan Patel. Housing secretary Rachael Richardson came up with the plan for the event.
“The challenge was the timeline of getting everything together – the format that we did it in, the time it took to get everything coordinated with the different people who were on screen to shoot the campus tour and edit the videos that we used and things like that,” said Matt Adair, assistant dean of student affairs and recruitment. “So, it was just the actual labor in and putting together the event.”
The turnout on Saturday was between 500 and 600 students. The number of students who have watched the video, which was uploaded to YouTube, continues to grow, officials said.
The video features some words from President Janet Cunningham, Executive Vice President Bo Hannaford, and Dean of Student Affairs and Enrollment Management Calleb Mosburg. Performances from the university’s band, choir, and cheer team were also included.
Two recruitment office workers then gave a virtual tour of the campus.
Adair said the university plans to host more virtual events this year.