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By: Alina Buzgar, News & Features Editor

Preview day is a great way for prospective students to get to know Thunderbird on a personal level and make invaluable contacts at the same time.

On March 28, Preview Day at Thunderbird started early for prospective students and was packed with presentations, classwork, and even a case study which gave them a chance to get a taste for the curriculum experienced at Thunderbird. Many of them chose to take part in Regional Night as well.

Preview Day

Courtesy of Katie Purcell

Prospective students all had the opportunity to get a sneak peek into Thunderbird’s coursework and teaching philosophy. They had a class with Dr. Roy Nelson and one with Dr. Michael Finney. There was a plethora of information shared during several sessions about Thunderbird’s degrees, study-abroad opportunities, admissions requirements, career management services, and scholarship opportunities. Participants also received complimentary accommodations at our on-campus Thunderbird Executive Inn and all the meals during the event were included.

Informal interactions and networking occurred during lunch. Current students, faculty, alumni and staff were on hand to welcome prospective students to Thunderbird and share their unique stories.

As with all preview days, Campus Ambassadors were involved throughout the day, from managing the registration, taking part in the student panel discussion, and giving campus tours. “The ‘Preview Day’ as the name suggests was a day-long event as opposed to Preview Weekend, which was much longer in the past. Getting a turnout of 50+ people was a challenge considering the changes we have had as a school in the last few months. In the end, we were pretty impressed with the turnout ratio,” says Himanshu Sahib (MBA ’15, India).

“I enjoy having the chance to meet potential future Thunderbirds and getting to share with them a small part of what makes Thunderbird life so amazing,” added Thaedra Brondum (MBA ’15, U.S.). “[Campus ambassadors] contributed immensely; true champions of Thunderbird in front of externals,” said Sahib.

courtesy Katie Purcell

Courtesy of Katie Purcell

Brondum has been a Campus Ambassador since her first module and she says, “To me, Campus Ambassadors are a fantastic representation of Thunderbirds. We are able to talk about what campus life is like and all of the amazing opportunities that happen because of the students, from a student’s perspective. It is one thing to hear about what campus life is from a recruiter and another to hear it from someone who lives it everyday.” Sahib remembers, “The highlight for me was shooting the video with ASU media crew. It was great to see ASU using its resources to promote Thunderbird.”

Thank you to all the Campus Ambassadors who were very active and present throughout the entire day: Neetika Varma, Gloria Liu, Jessica Knutzon, Savijeet Singh, Collin Shepherd, Pia Oestlien, Tom Yu, Laura Kroeker, Michael Robinson, Chang Zhang, Flavia Goncalves, Mervyn Saldanha, Mikiko Yamada, Thaedra Brondum, Varun Hirlekar, Alina Buzgar, Abdul Ghani Popal, Abishek Munshi, and Leah Funk.

If you would like to learn more about the Campus Ambassador program check out our article or reach out to the leadership team: collinshepherd@global.t-bird.edu, himanshuksahib@global.t-bird.edu, and varun.hirlekar@global.t-bird.edu.