On Sunday, November 5th, St. Joe welcomed many prospective students to campus for their annual open house. Students in fifth through eighth grade were invited to take a tour of St. Joe’s campus and learn about everything the school has to offer.
As Open House is St. Joe’s largest admissions event of the year, a lot of volunteers were needed to help the day run smoothly. Led by Mrs. Clare MacConnell, hundreds of Angel Ambassadors volunteered to welcome families at the gates of the school, lead tours, and share information about St. Joe’s many clubs and extracurricular activities. Junior Megan Schoemehl enjoyed leading tours as an Angel Ambassador and sharing information about Joebotics in Mr. Gundy’s room as a member of the robotics team.
“I had a great time at Open House talking about robotics and giving tours. I really enjoyed meeting potential students,” Megan said.
Upon entering the school, each prospective student and her family were assigned a current St. Joe student to lead them on a tour. Since the tour guides are students themselves, they are the very best people to answer questions about student life at St. Joe. Junior Jacqueline Jun enjoyed answering questions about the science department as a member of Beta Chi Pi, the science honor society at St. Joe.
“Most of the members of Beta Chi Pi helped out in Mrs. Kupper’s room during Open House. We answered questions about the science courses that St. Joe offers and what year they become available to students. We also had chemistry and anatomy labs set up to show the work that current students are doing in the classroom,” Jacqueline said.
If prospective students or their parents had more specific questions about academics, faculty members from each department were available throughout the school.
Each tour guide followed a predetermined path to ensure that she did not miss any academic departments or significant features of the school. In an effort to keep prospective students engaged throughout their extensive tour, each girl was given a St. Joe notebook and sent on somewhat of a scavenger hunt. At each stop on the tour, which was usually a table set up by an academic department, students collected a sticker that represented the area of the school they were learning about.
For eighth-grade students, Open House was one of their last opportunities to learn about St. Joe before applications for the 2024-2025 school year close on December 1st. St. Joe students and faculty enjoyed welcoming families at Open House 2023 and look forward to hosting prospective families once again next year.
