Wesleyan hosted prospective families during Open House

The Wesleyan Family Open House was on Saturday, Jan. 7 from 1 to 3:30 for prospective families to explore the campus, meet teachers and coaches, and decide if Wesleyan is the right fit for their family. The Open House is the largest whole family event Wesleyan does as part of the admissions process and gives the prospective families the best example of what Wesleyan is truly like by opening the campus for the potenital families to explore.

Director of Admissions Mari Beth King said, “The main reason [we do the Open House] is it is the only event that we do on a Saturday, and it is the only event where families can talk to any administrator, teacher, director, or coach, and explore the campus with their whole family.” For these reasons, the Open House has been successful in years past, so Wesleyan continues putting it on.

In preparation for the event, ambassadors met on Thursday, Jan. 5 during lunch to learn how they would be helping with the event. They learned how the format of the Open House will work, as the ambassadors would help teachers in classrooms and give directions to possible families instead of the guided tours the ambassadors led in the past.

To start out the day, the prospective families attended an assembly where Head of School Chris Cleveland, senior Lily Nydam, and King all spoke. Nydam spoke about how Wesleyan “allows their children to bloom and flourish into an unapologetic version of themselves, rooted in self-confidence, and assured by the promises God has set out for them.” After the speakers, the potential families were sent to do their self-guided tours around campus.

Wesleyan has recently changed to a new format for the tours for the Open House. In previous years, ambassadors gave guided tours to possible families around the Wesleyan campus. During Covid, they had to switch to a new model where ambassadors were in classrooms helping teachers and were placed around campus giving directions to prospective families. This model worked well, so the Wesleyan admissions team kept it in place for this year.

All Wesleyan teachers were required to attend the Open House. The faculty were either in their classrooms welcoming prospective families, at the sports table in Yancey Gymnasium representing the sports team they coach, helping with musical rehearsal, or running sports practices.

The teachers had many activities happening in their classrooms such as art displays and students working on projects like the yearbook. There was also set construction in Powell theater, tablet demonstrations by the technology team, music teachers showcasing instruments, science experiments, and the broadcast of a WWTV episode. The parents traveled to each of the locations with directions by the ambassadors stationed around campus to experience what Wesleyan offers.

Junior Vivian Hosier represented band director Jeff Foster. Hosier was in the high school band room promoting the marching band. Hosier is co-captain of the color guard and an ambassador. She was there to repre- sent both marching band and color guard. Hosier welcomed the potential families, answered their questions, and showed the prospective families what a great place Wesleyan is. Hosier said, “I hope the community here draws prospective families to Wesleyan.”

The Open House is meant to show families what Wesleyan is truly like and to show the families who have applied why they should have Wesleyan as their top choice when the admissions results come out.

The Open House had a great turn out this year. There were over 650 people total. The Open House is the largest admissions event Wesleyan does, so it important the admissions team and ambassadors do their best to make the event a success.

The Open House was a good time for prospective families to explore how they would fit into the Wesleyan community by exploring the campus and interacting with the faculty. It’s the hope the prospective families felt welcomed as they envisioned themselves as a part of the Wesleyan community.