Tours Give High School Students Closer Look At Lemke
By Zane Myers
Lemke Ledger Staff
Jennifer Prince, a junior at Arkadelphia High School, and her mother toured the journalism department during the spring semester to get the experience of what being a journalism student could be like.
“In eighth grade we did a career orientation class. Ever since then I knew I wanted to do something in journalism,” Prince said. “I heard the University of Arkansas has a good journalism program and that’s what I want to do.”
Arkadelphia High School student Jennifer Prince recently toured the
Lemke Journalism Department. Prince said she has wanted to attend
the UA since eighth grade.
Prince not only got to see the campus, but she also attended classes. Prince and her mother were given a tour of the first floor of Kimpel Hall, where they set in on classes, met UA faculty members, saw the UATV studio and visited the Traveler.
Similar tours are routine in the journalism department. Every semester prospective students call the department expressing interest in learning more about it. As the number of high school students signing up for tours increased, it became apparent that the scheduling system needed to be revised.
Carol Rachal, a department administrator and adjunct faculty, was the main figure in setting up a scheduling system for visitors. When a student wants to take a tour, the first contact is the admissions office. Rachal set up a system so all the admissions office has to do is plug the visitors into a pre-made schedule.
“We try to pair a student with a professor in their sequence of interest,” Rachal said. “We like to have a student sit in on class as much as possible.”
Broadcast and print are the two areas of journalism Prince is most interested in. She already has a start in the journalism field; she works for her school newspaper. Having been on campus multiple times for athletic events, Prince said she was looking forward to finding out more about the campus and the surrounding area.
Along with a tour, other information is included in a visit to the department. Students taking a tour also receive information on all three sequences in the department (News/Editorial, Ad/PR and Broadcast), financial aid, the honors program and scholarships. Applications for The Traveler, KXUA and UATV also are made available.
Each week about two to three students request tours. The busiest time is the spring semester. About 100 students have scheduled tours since April 2008.