By: Caitlin Fletcher

This year the Open House’s tours were shorter than in past years, as well as focusing on things new to STA.

The Open House, Oct. 30, hosted approximately 600 people.

According to Admissions Director Roseann Hudnall and Assistant Marcia Warwick content of the tours is based on the goals the faculty sets for the Open House at the beginning of the year.

According to Hudnall the faculty wanted to showcase netbooks and online teaching tools, how STA expands knowledge through honors, college and AP courses. As well as tell about STA’s international travel opportunities and in-school communications, like Moodle and Powerschool.

These goals were set so Hudnall and Warwick could decide what would be prominently shown on tours, and what is not important to feature.

According to junior Grace Doran it was hard to make tours one long hour in past years, but this year it seemed easier.

“Most of my tours took 40 minutes,” Doran said. “We showed [the visitors] a lot, but it wasn’t hard to keep it within the time limit.”

According to Hudnall the visitors were able to see everything they wanted to in the time allotted for tours.

“We want [parents] to make an enlightened decision on choosing the right school for their daughter,” Hudnall said. “We feel they should be able to see everything they want to see in one hour.”

Doran believes the tours were one hour because the tour guides didn’t show visitors the track. Athletic Director Mark Hough escorted the visitors around the track, showcasing the work that has been done at STA over the past few months.

“They get to see a lot when they come here, it’s a chance to see what STA is like,” Doran said.

Teachers stood in the buildings at the open house giving information about their departments. They gave short presentations and had student projects from past years out on tables.

“Every year I’ve given tours this has taken longer than it did this year,” Doran said. “The presentations were a lot simpler.”

That is how the admissions department wanted it: timely enough that everyone could see what they wanted to and then have a chance to visit other schools if they wished to do so.

“If we gave tours that were two hours long not everyone would end up getting a tour of the campus,” Doran said. “Either that or we would have to take much larger groups around.”

In addition to seeing the campus and the new track, newcomers also saw the set design for Curtains, the school musical, heard the choir practice and saw the dance team perform.

“It’s a great way to really see STA for the first time,” Doran said.