On Wednesday, December 9, Williston held a virtual activities fair for prospective students.

The fair opened with Christopher Dietrich, Dean of Enrollment Management, and Allison Marsland, Director of Middle School Admissions, speaking on a webinar to the perspective families.

After students and families heard from the webinar leaders, they heard from the heads of each academic department. Then, on the Williston website, there were a series of links for students to click on to talk to leader of activities of their choice. Ten minutes were designated to each topic, from clubs to non-athletic afternoon activities.

Then each season of sports — fall, winter, and spring — were given time. Perspective families got to chose based on their student’s interest what they wanted to hear more about. About 190 individuals showed up for the virtual fair, according to Dietrich.

The admissions team has had to adjust their work since the school went remote last March. Dietrich applauds the team for the work they have done, especially since they have given up so much of their personal time for the school.

“Our job here in the admissions office changed almost immediately with the shutdown that began last March” he said. “All the members of the admission team did an amazing job at that point in time, giving up all of their vacation time over spring break to begin planning what became our Virtual Admitted Student Day program.”

Some of the ways admissions has tried to bring the campus to perspective students virtually is by holding webinars, filming virtual tours, and spending time talking to families on the phone.

“Over the course of the month of March, we began to host Zoom meetings and webinars, we walked around campus and tried to film virtual tours, and we spent lots more time on the phone with prospective students and their families than we usually do at that point in time,” he said.

In a normal year, this activities fair would be held in the gym and families would be able to walk around and talk to all the groups they wanted to. However, due to Covid, the admission team had to make changes to the admission process while still trying to connect with interested students as much as possible.