NU’s Office of Undergraduate Admissions houses three student-led teams that help Black, Latino and international prospective students prepare for life at Northwestern.
Global Wildcats, Council of Latino Admission Volunteers for Education (CLAVE) and Ambassadors — an admissions team for Black and African American students — all connect current members of the NU community with prospective students to talk about their experiences on campus. Members provide resources to inform prospective students about student life.
Bienen junior Dami Akanni serves as a coordinator for Global Wildcats and hails from Lagos, Nigeria. Akanni said he recalls when he initially got into Northwestern, where a team of students congratulated the international students via Zoom.
“I remember how excited I was to be in that space and hear from students,” Akanni said. “I wanted to be able to replicate that same kind of cheer and spirit to incoming prospective students as well.”
As a Global Wildcats coordinator, Akanni primarily communicates with prospective international students through email conversations and Zoom calls.
SESP junior Sarah Norman, a Global Wildcats coordinator from Manila, Philippines, agreed that the organization’s chief priority is managing the Global Wildcats inbox. She has also written blog posts and produced street-style interviews as another means of communicating information about life at Northwestern for international students.
Although Norman said the process may sound “generic,” she loves helping people. She said it’s her job to do the best she can for prospective international students — whether that means giving out the most accurate information or alleviating possible anxieties about the transition to the U.S.
“Not a lot of students get in, but it’s nice to feel like you played a part in helping those that did,” Norman said.
Like Global Wildcats, CLAVE offers prospective Latino students a chance to connect with current students via email about the Latinx experience at Northwestern. According to the NU Undergraduate Admissions website, volunteer opportunities include communicating with prospective students via email, participating in student panels, hosting Wildcat Days for newly admitted students and visiting one’s hometown high school to recruit more Latino students.
Medill sophomore Margarita Williams volunteers for Ambassadors and participates in panel discussions for prospective students. She said these panels typically consist of about three to four volunteers, but larger Zooms — like one she participated in for the Mid-Atlantic region — had roughly eight or nine volunteers for the nearly 500 students on the call.
Williams said she felt “isolated” as a Black student in high school. At Northwestern, she said the diversity of majors and extracurricular opportunities afforded her experiences high school could not. Williams said she enjoys showing prospective students “a more creative side of the Black experience” that Northwestern offers.
“It’s giving students a different look to what university can mean for them,” Williams said. “It’s nice to be a safe space for younger Black students who are looking to get involved as they get on campus.”
Norman said she knows that Global Wildcats plays a different role than other student groups oriented toward the international community, as Global Wildcats serves specifically prospective students. Yet she said the program’s existence shows the university is acknowledging and prioritizing the unique experiences of international students.
Norman uses her personal experience to guide prospective students through their upcoming transition to Northwestern – and the U.S. Norman, who attended an international school in the Philippines, said she found it hard to relate to people when starting at NU, and she knows her experience is not unique.
“I feel like that shaped how I went about giving advice. I feel like I put my all into every response because I understand that, because it’s through an email, I can’t really sense the urgency or the emotion in the student’s voice,” Norman said. “Because I know that it was really hard for me to transition, I treat every international student’s concerns with the utmost priority.”
Williams said these affinity-based admissions groups are important because they give prospective students the opportunity to talk to real people.
During her time at NU, Williams said she’s had a lot of great mentors who want to set positive examples for prospective students, especially as NU’s campus is becoming more diverse.
“Our goal is really just to give you a really well-rounded experience that gives you the most realistic expectation for school,” Williams said.
Email: laurahorne2027@u.northwestern.edu
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