NSU prepares for Shark Preview

With Shark Preview season approaching, the NSU community is preparing for the floodgates of prospective students to open. Shark Preview leaders, however, started their preparations as early as August.

“We get hired around September or the end of August and we start training,” said Hannah Flood, senior Shark Preview leader in the office of orientation.

Shark Preview Weekend is a program for NSU’s prospective students to learn more about the university and what life in college is like. Students arrive on Thursday and engage through Saturday in activities that include socials, information sessions and interviews for the Premier Programs they applied to.

Kiara Coleman, junior political science major, leads a campus tour. PHOTO BY INDAYA BYER.

To attend Shark Preview, prospective students had to have applied for at least one of the university’s premier programs (Razor’s Edge, Dual Admissions, the Fischler Academy of Education or the Huizenga Business Innovation Academy) or have been invited to interview for the Presidential Scholar’s Program.

Shark Preview Weekend always takes place in the winter semester and starts as early as the second week of classes. This year, the fi rst Shark Preview starts Jan. 12, and the last on Feb. 2.

There are virtual sessions as well, usually reserved for international students. One way Shark Preview leaders have been preparing is putting up signs all around campus.

“We set up signs all over campus for parking, residence halls, and important buildings, like DeSantis or Parker, because that is where a lot of interviews happen,” she said.

One of the many other duties of Shark Preview leaders is to shuttle prospective students around campus in golf carts. There are two extra shuttles circulating on campus from Thursday to Saturday to transport students to their different activities and interviews.

Students who do not live within commuting distance of NSU are accommodated in hotels near the university.

“The latest the Shark Shuttle can get to the hotels or drop people off or pick them up is around 11 p.m., so the times are extended,” said Sherween Camy, Shark Preview leader for the office of orientation.

Flood said that because Shark Preview brings more people to campus, common areas become busier, and lines become longer.

“For the freshmen, it is definitely going to throw them off their normal routine during the lunch hour. On Friday, it is way busier here,” Flood said. “For classes, too, it is something that can throw you off because we rent out classrooms for interviews.”

Camy agrees. “As someone who was not a Shark Preview leader beforehand and experienced events going on while I was going to classes, I honestly felt a bit aggravated,” Camy said. “There are so many people you have never met before and you have never seen before. It feels harder to get to classes, or it is going to take a lot longer to get there.”

Flood believes that this accurately simulates what prospective students can expect from NSU.

“It shows incoming students what real life looks like at college. This is how crazy the lunch hour can get, how crazy the cafeteria can be, how much foot traffic there is on campus.”