By J1 Reporter Lucia Ambrose 
with a special video report by Ellie Brabec & Margaret Hiatt

Student Ambassadors prepare to give tours to prospective Marian girls and their families at Open House Nov. 19. Photo by Ellie Brabec

Open Houses are an innovative way for incoming students to see what high school is really like. Marian’s Open House took place on Nov. 19 from noon to 2:30. At this event, prospective students and their families could either pre-register to skip the line for a tour or show up as a walk-in. The tours given by Marian students were a great opportunity to see the building’s new renovations, including the new state of the art outdoor athletic complex. While touring the campus, Marian’s award-winning faculty were on hand to do introductions and to go over the curriculum, signature programs, and the schools’ many course offerings. 

Once the tour was finished, some sample snacks from Street Eats food truck, Marian’s lunch provider were offered. President Michelle Ernst said that girls should “come for the tour and stay for the food.”  The food truck served lots of different options for food like tot-chos, chicken tenders, tater tots, and much more so that girls could get a feel for what lunch is like at Marian. 

There are eleven different Class A sports that students can be involved in. The coaching staff and student athletes from each prospective activity were there to meet individuals interested.  

A club fair was also set up to feature the 50+clubs that Marian has to offer. For students in need of tuition assistance, there was opportunity to meet one-on-one with staff to discuss possible need-based scholarship opportunities.  The overall purpose of the Open House is for young women to learn about the school’s mission: providing a Catholic college preparatory education, empower students to discover and develop their diverse talents, and instill them to lead and serve as women of compassion and faith. Lots of work was put into this event. It was a huge recruiting opportunity for schools and it is important to represent well.

This year, Marian has a brand new Director of Recruitment. This was the first Open House she planned. There was lots of pressure because of the amount of preparation and work that comes along with planning this event. She said that “it was very helpful to have finished up all the grade school visits and to be able to close her door and get to work”. Marian ambassadors finished up making visits to schools talking about Marian in about the middle of September. This made it easy for the group to begin preparing for Open House. Core was very thankful to the many people that helped her pull this together. She felt she was “putting out lots of fires but was very prepared because of all of the coordination, preparation, and support”. 

A member of Core’s selected Ambassador Core team, Sadie Menicucci, expressed that “it’s  a lot of work but it’s all hands on deck.  It’s really cool to be a part of it and watch it all come together. Everyone puts their all into it to show off the school.” Like Menicucci said, Open House is really a big deal to the entire school.

Junior Lauryn Kounovsky explained how in the weeks leading up to Open House, the work study students “spent a lot of time cleaning and making sure the school looked its very best.” It sure paid off.

The event was a huge success. More than 200 current students came and led tours, advertised for their clubs and sports, took pictures, and much more. Hundreds of girls and their families walked through the hallways and learned about the realm of possibilities and opportunities that Marian has to offer. Surely, these Open House experiences will stick with these young women when they make their high school enrollment decisions.