A scarlet jacket, gold nametag, black skirt, white blouse, string of pearls, and pair of black heels make up the uniform of a Judson College Student Ambassador. Her mission is to represent the school to potential students and make them want to enroll. It is Preview Day, and she has much to do. She has spent the past few days doing her homework-both literally, so she doesn’t fall behind on assignments, and in the sense of attending meetings to plan the day and learning as much as she can about the prospective students who stayed with her the night before. Yes, some of the ambassadors have cleaned their rooms and brought extra mattresses in for the potentials to stay the night and experience dorm life. But now it is Saturday morning, and the rubber is about to hit the road. It is 8:25, and even though registration doesn’t start until 9 a.m., there is already a family standing on the seal talking to Dr. Bullard and an ambassador sitting behind a registration table. Dr. Bullard finishes his conversation and quickly darts away to find coffee. As the families begin to pour into the lobby, ambassadors paired with admissions representatives check names off lists on purple paper. Ambassador Chandra Barnes, seated with admissions rep Sandee Richardson, puts wristbands on the students and gives them programs while Sandee gives them her cell number and encourages them to stay in contact. Chandra and Sandee sit at the table for the Tapestry group, shepherding students whose last names begin with the letters L-R. After the students go through registration, they cross into the parlors for refreshments served by more ambassadors, meandering across the seal as the music box softly plays. When I ask Chandra about this unknowing sully of senior tradition, she laughs, but says with a note of hidden dismay, “I keep telling myself, it’s okay, they don’t know.” She continues to interact brightly with the students, who seem slightly tired and dazed, and the eager parents, mostly mothers. One potential mentions that she is ready to submit the forms necessary to confirm her status as a Judson Girl. Chandra smiles from ear to ear as Sandee gives the student a big hug.
Registration is only the first duty of an ambassador on Preview Day. Their duties may stretch from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., or slightly later if they are helping with music auditions or equine demonstrations. During this February Preview Day, two horse shows are taking place at the barn, and students disappear at all times of day to go see them. As music starts in the chapel, the guests are dismissed to the welcome session, flooding up the jade staircase. The ambassadors begin neatening the tables before huddling outside the chapel doors. When the musical performances are complete, all thirteen ambassadors file in, and stand along the back wall like a unit of red-clad Secret Service agents. Chandra delivers the opening prayer, and then returns to the group. The baker’s dozen of Judson girls all rock on their heels as they stand through Dr. Potts’ speech, including the infamous Judson Quiz. After this, students are sent to breakout sessions around the campus. Chandra’s assignment is to lead a group to an equine session with Dr. Mitcham. She raises her hand, and some families follow her out of the chapel, all the way to Lowder 200. Her red jacket makes her easier to spot and track in the sea of people. That red jacket holds a special significance for Chandra. She recognizes the responsibility and honor that it symbolizes, but putting it on also reminds her “why I came to Judson and the newness for a moment. The excitement started for me when I talked to my ambassador on the tour when I was a perspective.” She continued, “It also reminds me that I am not only an ambassador of Judson but an ambassador of Christ.” It is clear throughout the day that Chandra keeps in mind who she represents, as she holds the door for every last person following her, cheerfully passes out leaflets, and listens to the equine presentation twice in a row, finally giving her feet a rest. She escorts the students out of the building, marching across the parking lot at a surprising pace in her ankle boots. Her jacket makes her a bright red target for people to hurl questions at. A parent from an earlier session hollers at her from a distance, “Chandra, which way is the barn?” She quickly directs them, before leading her group into the parlors, where the student activities fair has sprouted up as though by magic, before returning to Lowder without complaint for a third segment with Dr. Mitcham. In the parlors, other ambassadors are at work. Blair Carrier graciously introduces a prospective to Dr. Young to learn about the theater program before flitting away for other duties, while Lorna Wikle stands sentinel at the music department booth. When I leave the activities fair, I find Chandra again by the chapel, where she beams at parents looking for something to do while their daughter takes a scholarship test. “Financial aid?” she inquires, holding the door open wide. There is a moment of dismay as everyone seats themselves, because two of the speakers for the session, Bridget Horton and Melena Verity, are missing. Noaf Bader, another ambassador, quickly reaches one of them by phone, but they are already on their way. Noaf and Chandra pass out flyers to each parent, then linger in the back row of seats until the end of the session. While they hold the doors for a crowd dispersing for lunch, they chat with an admissions staffer about the comfort of wearing heels and hose all day. In regard to her own shoes, Chandra had just told me with animation that “These aren’t bad. I used to have a pair that were god-awful.” After finishing their conversation, the ambassadors make their way down the steps to the dining hall, but Chandra pauses to sit on the couch on the landing with a potential student. She shared with me that “an ambassador at Judson made it easy for me to make [my college] decision, and I knew I had an upperclassman as a friend when I came. I want to help guide people [as they] make the same decision and be that friend if they want me to.” At lunch, she and Meredith Lukers agree that an important thing for ambassadors to do is to go to bed early the night before Preview Day, though that isn’t always possible. The ambassadors sing the blessing, and then the last leg of the Preview Day marathon begins: the campus tour.
Sandee Richardson is the admissions rep assigned to the Tapestry group, but the tour duties fall mostly to the ambassador tour guides, Chandra, Blair, and Katie Owens. The tour starts in front of the Alumnae Auditorium, and meanders to the J, Barron and the library, before allowing parents to see Kirtley and learn about curfew and security. Then it continues past the clubhouse and the gym to explore the inside of Lowder and show off the features of the Round Room. The determined soldiers in heels make their way by W, where our group passees Miranda Brown. She has led an earlier tour group, and is wearing flats and a big grin, carrying her pumps. The tour concludes at the front steps of Jewett, where the ambassadors receive a round of applause for their devotion to their duties, which, as Sandee had told Katie earlier in the day, they executed in a manner both “polished and professional.” As long and complex as the day was, Meredith summed it all up at lunch by saying that being a Judson ambassador is “a lot of running in heels on bricks that are uneven.” “And smiling,” added Chandra.