CHSS Students Take the Spotlight in The College Tour

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April 5, 2022

CHSS Students Take the Spotlight in The College Tour

"collage of participants and scenes from �鶹��ý��'s episode of The College Tour"

A crew from The College Tour visited campus last October, taping 20 different segments that cover all things �鶹��ý��, including campus life, academics, internships, research and service opportunities. “The crew let me be my complete, authentic self,” recalls Nikki-James Soto. “I like to try new things and meet new people, but I didn’t know what I was walking into.”

Soto is a senior with a double major in and Elementary Education and, as part of �鶹��ý��’s 4+1 program, will earn her Master of Arts in Teaching next year. Putting herself in front of a camera wasn’t part of her college plans.

“I want to be a teacher. I want to work with kids. I never thought that I’d get a chance to do any sort of production,” Soto says. “But I had such a fun time and was able to have friends be a part of it too. This is something we’re going to have a memory of forever.”

Produced by Emmy-nominated and award-winning TV producers, The College Tour helps prospective students around the country travel virtually across America for an inside look at colleges and universities.

How to Watch

�鶹��ý��’s episode is part of Season 4. The full episode is available on the University’s and . In late March, the University hosted a watch party and a live Q&A with the student cast members of The College Tour.

The national rollout on launched in April, with the episode streaming on a number of platforms, including Roku, Apple TV and Sony, and app.

Meet Some of the CHSS Stars of The College Tour

Nikki-James Soto, seated, left, films a segment of The College Tour with her friend Stephanie Grajales. A camera crew and equipment are seen in the foreground — Nikki-James Soto, seated, left, films a segment of The College Tour with her friend Stephanie Grajales, a senior English major in the dual certification K-6 Education and Teacher of Students with Disabilities program. “This is something we’re going to have a memory of forever,” Soto says.

Student Samantha Wilk is photographed smiling while seated in a sunny hallway — “If someone said to me a year ago I’d be promoting �鶹��ý�� on a show, I wouldn’t believe them,” says cast member Samantha Wilk, a sophomore with majors in Psychology and Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies. “Falling in love with your university in a global pandemic is as hard as it sounds.”

Gian Paul Gonzales stands on a basketball court with a basketball in one arm — Gian Paul Gonzales ’07, a former star athlete and now a high school history teacher and motivational speaker, describes the concept of being “All In”… committing to your personal dreams no matter the obstacles you face. At �鶹��ý��, Gonzales says, he “developed a love and a passion for how I could help my community, not by studying something that happened in the past, but by being inspired to want to change the present.”

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How to Watch

Meet Some of the CHSS Stars of The College Tour

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