Ambassador Program Strengthens Leadership and Interprofessional Skills

Salus University's Ambassador Program is comprised of a select group of students across all programs who represent the University. In this podcast, we talk with Emaree Stone ‘25OD and Madison Gates ‘23SLP, who tell us about their rewarding experience of being Salus Ambassadors.

Q: What is the Ambassador Program?

Gates: The Salus Ambassador Program is a group of students from different programs at the University who help support events, both on- and off-campus, such as graduations, orientations, and student tours.

Q: Why did you want to become an ambassador?

Stone: Mainly to show my support for the school. I knew very quickly from being at Salus that I really liked it here. When I saw that there was a chance to become an ambassador, I thought that would just add to everything, add to the whole experience, I would say.

Gates: I chose to become an ambassador because I wanted the opportunity to meet individuals outside the SLP program with different interprofessional backgrounds. I wanted to share my appreciation and excitement toward being a part of the Salus community with other prospective students as well.

Q: What was the process to becoming an ambassador? 

Stone: I'm trying to remember everything about it, so I could be missing a few things, but I do remember that it was an online application that you filled out. From there, if they liked you, you had a one-on-one meeting. I had mine with Monae [Kelsey], who's kind of like the head of the ambassadors. Then, from there, you could be chosen for a group interview. I was chosen. I can't quite remember how many people it was, but they split us into groups of three. Then there were different people from Admissions, Monae was there, and they all kind of interviewed us, but as a whole group, not as individuals. They wanted to see how you worked with others and know about your other life experiences.

Q: Can you talk a little bit more about the responsibilities of an ambassador?

Gates: Some of our responsibilities are attending our ambassador group meetings that we have, volunteering for school-based and program-specific webinars, just to talk to prospective students or accepted students. We also volunteer for off-campus events and we provide tours to accepted and prospective students.

Stone: We have a big responsibility of making sure that we can give a positive image of Salus to others and be able to answer any questions other students might have about coming here for grad school.

Q: What do you personally, or professionally, get out of being an ambassador? 

Stone: For me, it's kind of a sense of satisfaction, knowing I'm helping other students. I remember when I was applying to optometry school, I kind of felt like a lot of other schools didn't have something like the Ambassadors Program at Salus, where they really reached out and tried to help you in any way you could, answer any questions you had about their program. It's very nice knowing I'm a part of something like that, where I can help relieve stress off of some of the incoming students and help them be better prepared for what they're walking into.

Gates: From the Ambassador Program, I am able to meet people in different programs at Salus, which is really what drew me to joining the program. It gives me the opportunity to meet these people that I might not have met before, especially with being virtual. I've also gotten the opportunity to share with the prospective and accepted students just my appreciation and excitement that I have with Salus, and what specifically the SLP program has to offer.

Q: Why do you think others should join the Ambassador Program?

Gates: It's a great opportunity to get out and meet new people, especially coming to graduate school from an undergraduate program, or even taking some time off. It gets you out of your program-specific bubble, so to speak, just to meet new people. Throughout our future careers, we will all be working with people of different backgrounds, with different disciplines. It's a great way to get that process going, of interacting with people of these different disciplinary backgrounds.

Stone: I think it gives them a chance to be, one, a part of this school, in more than just a sense of being a student. There's tons of students at school, but by being an ambassador, you're being something more closely related to the school.

I also feel like with being an ambassador, it kind of helps you see how far you've come along the journey. I look at some of the people that I talked to, maybe they're applying or they're deciding if they want to apply. I remember being right there. It's really nice seeing how far I've come. I always tell people when you join the ambassadors, you really see how you've made it through every step of the way. It's like a really nice journey.

To learn more about student life at Salus, you can visit salus.edu/life.