One Fine Day

As the Director of Admissions, Friday, July 15th was a very big day for myself -- it was the very first Admissions Open House my team and I coordinated since my hire date back in November. The Open House was a HUGE success!

We had a total of 40+ attendees (not including all of the help)! We were pleasantly surprised to have students who traveled from Texas, Arkansas, Ohio, and elsewhere. Each student/prospect was given a token of our appreciation for attending the Open House -- a stainleless steel mug with the Forest Logo on it and inside the mug we placed a packet of Churchill's coffee that was custom printed to say Forest Blend. The gifts were a hit! We also had 5 door prize drawings throughout the evening for all attendees. The enormous amount of support and assistance that we received from faculty, staff and students was overwhelming and words cannot express express my appreciation and gratitutde. Hats off to Kim (Assistant Director of Admissions) and Ronda (Admissions Administrative Assistant) because they have their hands full with me -- my perfectionism and anal tendencies often create additional work and frustrations. I believe that presentaion is extremely important, so everything had to be 'just right.'

So, let's talk about the cake. We had quite a fiasco with the cake and I almost had an anxiety attack in Sams Club. I'm still not sure what those idiots were thinking when they decorated a sheet cake with a 5x3 decoration/screen. Imagine the sight of that! Could it get any worse? Of course.... all of the cake decorators had gone home for the day. What a mess! The solution? Well, they tried to make it look better with some additional text and balloons. However, in all reality, the cake now looked worse. Our only option was to get back to the school and pre-cut the cake, serving only slices. I was so very disappointed. Even some of the students at Forest know how particular I am. The Student Council President laughed at me when I said the cake was bad -- he said, "Kelly, is it bad or is it Kelly bad?" LOL. Well, he did agree with me -- it was officially bad. I had to move beyond that frustration because the Open House was to begin in less than an hour and a half.

Other than the cake dilemma, everything else seemed to go perfectly. There was an enthusiasm amongst everyone that just created a warm, inviting and pleasant environment. My boss was pleased and when he's smiling, I'm smiling! I am honored to be serving in this capacity. I feel as though this is an opportunity of a lifetime. I am truly blessed!

In closing, I thought I would share an e-mail I received from one of the attendees...

Dear Ms. Kuert-

Hello, my name is Mike L. and I attended Forest Institute's open house last Friday evening with my mother Barb. I just wanted to thank you again for the opportunity to speak with us. For me, the open house was a great success and Forest Institute was everything I had hoped it would be. You were all very warm, informative, and unitimidating and I certainly appreciate that. Moreover, if you see Adam around please extend my thanks to him as he gave us a great tour.

If/when you come to the St. Louis area to recruit please let me know, it would be great to touch base again. Hope you have a great week and I hope to keep in touch.

Sincerely,
Mike L.

P.S. Thank you for the great coffee mug, etc. and for the Barnes and Noble gift card that my mother won, they will both certainly come in use for us both.