The Student Ambassador Organization (SAO) is a group of individuals that features the very best of what USI has to offer. Although each member of the SAO is unique regarding personality, interests and background, all members share one common thread - pride and enthusiasm for the University of Southern Indiana.
Student Ambassadors serve as University representatives, recruiters, hosts, tour guides, and leaders. The purpose of the organization is to provide guests with University information and a current student's view of campus life at USI. The goal of the SAO is to promote USI to prospective students, current students and alumni.
The Student Ambassador application will open August 27th and close September 17th at midnight. For those on a mobile device, scroll to the bottom of this page to access the application.
Come see us at our table at the Involvement Fair on August 27th from 2-5pm in the Quad!
Ambassadors have an opportunity to serve in the following capacities:
Student Ambassador (general member)
Commit to approximately 38 volunteer hours per semester including:
- Weekly office hours providing tours to daily visitors
- Two Open Houses or Saturdays per semester
- General meetings (an average of two per month on Mondays at 5 p.m.)
- One retreat each semester (2 hours)
Student Ambassadors (Bilingual and Transfer included) also have opportunities to earn reward points by assisting with extra tours as needed throughout the school year. Student Ambassadors' primary audience includes traditional prospective students and their families, but they may also occasionally interact with students going through the transfer process.
Bilingual Ambassador
Bi-lingual Ambassadors can speak at least one other language fluently and commit to approximately 15 volunteer hours per semester including:
- Lunes de Latinos (1-2 events per semester on Monday mornings) if fluent in Spanish
- Día de la Familia, a large scale visit experience if fluent in Spanish
- Daily visitors that request a visit experience in another language
- Groups that request tours in another language
- General meetings (an average of two per month on Mondays at 5 p.m.)
- Bi-lingual Ambassador meetings (approximately 3 per semester)
- One retreat each semester (2 hours)
Transfer Ambassador
Transfer Ambassadors assist with events designed for transfer students and commit approximately 12-15 volunteer hours per semester including:
- Transfer Visit Days (2 per semester on Fridays)
- General meetings (an average of two per month on Mondays at 5 p.m.)
- Transfer Ambassador meetings (2-3 per semester)
- One retreat each semester (2 hours)
All Ambassadors participate in a training program upon selection. Ambassadors also receive priority registration after completing training to avoid class times that conflict with Ambassador responsibilities. Ambassadors can serve in multiple capacities (ex. general and bilingual). It's actually quite common.
Application and Selection Process
- Complete and submit the Student Ambassador application.
- Applicants must have at least a 2.75 cumulative GPA.
- After applications are reviewed, select applicants will be chosen to participate in a Group Interview. After Group Interviews, select interviewees will become new Student Ambassadors in training.
New Member Training Process
- The training process helps ease new members into SAO, and provides the information and skills needed to become an excellent ambassador for USI.
- Exact training dates and times will be coming soon! Tentatively, we are looking at having one training each week starting late September/early October and ending early/middle November. These trainings will be somewhere from 1 to 1 and a half hours each and take place in the afternoon/early evening.
- During the training window, new student ambassadors will be required to shadow 3 full tours of campus.
- At the completion of training, new student ambassadors will be expected to complete a written test and practice tour given to a member of the executive board to show they have grasped the knowledge and skills needed to be a student ambassador
Want more Information?
Contact Student Ambassador Advisor:
Kyle Rivera
kwrivera@usi.edu
812-465-1219