Busy Ambassador Life; Open House October 16, 2013

On October 16, 2013, the ambassador team kicked off its first opportunity to support the school with one of Southwest Tech’s open houses. Open houses are opportunities for prospective students and parent can come and see all that SWTC has to offer. In addition, every program sets up stations to help show prospective students what each program does. The newcomers explore the layout of the school, the programs offered, and if they’re ready, to apply for the next semester’s classes. The ambassador’s role was to give campus tours, direct guests, answer questions about multiple programs, and all together provide guest services to all who arrived. These open houses are a huge opportunity for student ambassadors to let their lights shine as leaders; this year the ambassadors were certainly up for the challenge.

The open house was scheduled for the 16^th of October, a Wednesday. In the days prior, the Southwest Tech staff, and the ambassadors were already hard at work. On Monday and Tuesday, ambassadors were helping set up signs, tables, and each program’s stations. Also, one of the most time consuming tasks was to stuff the folders that each guest would receive. Unsure of exactly how many would show up, the ambassadors spent hours stuffing hundreds of folders for the open house. A very time consuming and repetitive job, but a necessary evil to make the open house run smoothly for each guest. In addition to all of this, the ambassadors were preparing for their most important job; giving campus tours. Most of the team this year are new to giving tours and had to mentally prepare themselves for this task. The ambassadors memorized where everything was in the school and small tidbits of information about each program offered. However, when a tour was to be given, an instructor would often be in their rooms to talk more in depth to the guests about their programs; this took some needed pressure off of the ambassadors giving the tours for the first time.

The time came, and the doors opened. The open house began running and it didn’t take long for the guests to start pouring in. This year’s open house was a busy one too. Almost immediately the ambassadors were giving tours left and right all over the school. Some of which lasted anywhere from fifteen minutes to forty five minutes. The ambassador team was stationed in the main hallway so that every guest would get a chance to see them and possibly get a tour. Plus, each ambassador was required to where bright green Southwest Tech Charger shirts so they could be easily spotted for questions. As the open house ran, and the ambassadors worked, many staff members and ambassadors were called off to be a part of some local radio shows. There were two of these radio booths conducting interviews about the school at the open house. The ambassadors were handpicked to talk about their program and how Southwest Tech has influenced them. Overall, despite some nervousness, every interview went very well, giving the ambassadors a new outlet to broadcast the school and some personal publicity.

Then, after all the craziness started to die down, and the ambassadors could take a breather, the news came in of what a huge success this open house had been. In the end, over two hundred new students applied; a new school record for a single open house. With the help of the ambassadors and staff Southwest Tech will have many brand new students ready to continue their education next year.

A special thanks goes out to Jessica Helms, and Allison Carroll for all their help setting up and running this special open house with the ambassadors! Both of whom could be seen sprinting around the open house making sure everything was going to plan. Overall they, and many other staff members were great leaders in making this open house possible. Many thanks to all of you!

That is all for this update on the Student Ambassador team of Southwest Tech. Stay tuned for more day to day updates of these young leaders and how each and every one of them contributes to this great school. Thanks for reading! 

Jumping out of trees for the sake of teamwork!

As I said before, the student ambassadors are pretty much the best of the best when it comes to the Core Values of Southwest Tech. But what does it take to become an ambassador besides those key personality traits? Well it takes some paperwork, meetings, and oh yes...possibly jumping out of a tree or two.
 The first step to becoming a student ambassador is to actually hear about the Ambassador team at SWTC. There are several ways that students, including myself, heard about this opportunity here in the 2013-2014 school year. Some ambassadors were recruited through teacher's recommendation, other ambassadors saw one of the five million flyers about the ambassador program floating around the school, and more even came back from the previous year's team. After hearing about the team, the second step is a jumble of meetings and paper work. Once a student has applied to the Ambassador team, he/she is emailed if they are accepted for an interview. This interview consists of reason's why that student wanted to be an ambassador, who they are, and etc. Then, after the interview, the student will receive an email of congratulations from Allison Carroll, the Career Coach and head of the Student Ambassadors at SWTC. Their only responsibility after that is to complete a series of safety and legal documents before they are technically employed as Student Ambassadors.
After all the crossing the T's and dotting the I's, the new ambassador team meet for a small one hour training, and then, shortly after that, they all meet for a full day training session. This training session entails something a little bit more interesting. This year the ambassador team went to Bethel Horizons in Dodgeville WI. Bethel Horizons is a team building organization that boasts it's own ropes courses and zip line. Every year the student ambassadors of Southwest Tech travel to Bethel Horizons to transform from strangers, into a functioning unit; a team.
On October 11, 2013 the new Student Ambassador team gathered and traveled over to Bethel Horizons. Their day of team building began with a series of fun high five exercises. The ambassadors had to learn the names of their partners then run find a new partner for each new type of high five. Each time there was a new type of high five, the partners had to say their partners names and yell what they were doing. There was the typical high five, then low five, fist bump, hand shake, sawing wood (clasping the hands together and yelling TIMBER!), and many more. Needless to say, by the time the exercises were over, the team was falling over each other to get to their partners. Overall the ambassadors had a great time with it. Everyone was laughing and getting to know each other fairly quickly. After that, the ambassadors began a new series of balance exercises. They had to balance each other's weight completely is a plethora of different positions. Positions like head to head, back to back, side to side with feet touching, side to side with feet in the air, and etc. This exercise had the same effect with the whole assembly of ambassadors laughing, getting to know each other, falling all over the place, and just having a great time. It was all going great, but still the highlight of the day was yet to come; the zip line.
The ambassadors trecked through the woods to get to Bethel Horizon's high ropes course. The team was split and each group was headed in different directions. The first group would begin zip lining first, while the second would stay and work on the ground. The emphasis on the entire day was to build trust and work together as a team with the other ambassadors. Every exercise that the ambassadors did this October day required team work. On the low ropes course, the groups had to use two 2x10's to get from platform to platform without anyone touching the ground. This entailed total group cooperation. Two people had to stand on one edge of the "bridge" to support the weight of anyone crossing. The ambassadors used prior knowledge and teamwork to accomplish this task; every ambassador made it to the final platform without touching the ground. In addition, the zip line process required group process and team work. The zip line was a forty to fifty foot pole with a small platform on top of it where the zip line attached. Each ambassador got a chance to climb the pole and jump. As each ambassador ascended they had to rely on their fellow ambassadors to support their weight on the harness ropes and to catch them on the other end of the zip line. For some this task was a lot to ask. Mindy, Zack, and Ben (Myself) are all ambassadors scared of heights. But putting trust in their teammates, and in themselves, they all ended up zip lining. The day was even capped off by Zack, the one most terrified of heights, taking the last leap off the zip line tower.
All together, the team had a lot of fun at Bethel Horizons. From the high fives, falling all over each other, to finally taking the leap of faith off of the zip line the day proved to be a total success. Moreover, the newly formed ambassador team learned about teamwork and how they all relate to each other in working situations. This year, like in years past the ambassadors had a great time, but more importantly, they learned that teamwork is how to accomplish goals. It can certainly be said that this 2013-2014 ambassador team started out as strangers that October day, but left Bethel Horizons as a functioning team.

Who are the Student Ambassadors?

Hello and welcome to the official page of Southwest Wisconsin Technical College's Student Ambassadors! My name is Ben Groonwald and I will be the first to start writing on this page. For more info on me click my link on the page. This page will be dedicated to the professional growth, fun times, and everyday activities of the student ambassadors at SWTC.
The Student Ambassador Program is the frontline, so to speak, of Southwest Tech. Each ambassador applies and goes through several interviews to be hand picked by the school. After being accepted it is the ambassador's job is to reach out to returning adults, high school students, and really anyone who is interested in Southwest Tech. In addition to that; the ambassador's job is to represent SWTC. It is their responsibility to be role models for their peers, show those interested in the school what student activities are, what fun things happen at campus, and overall what SWTC is all about.
One thing that Southwest Tech stresses among all who are affiliated with the school, and especially the ambassador team, is the Core Values. The core values are a list of personal skills and traits that everyone can learn to help them to be successful. These would include: leadership, professionalism, communication, and etc. The Core Values set Southwest Tech apart from the college world by providing students with top notch education, and also the personality values that employers look for. If anyone would represent those Core Values; it would have to be the Student Ambassador team.
All in all Southwest Wisconsin Technical College and it's ambassadors do an amazing job reaching out across the Midwest. They represent the Core Values, and provide excellent educational experiences to all who attend. Please stick around and enjoy learning more about Southwest Tech, and it's Student Ambassador team. Thanks for reading!