The College Tour Premiere

Image courtesy of Alannah Murphy 

By Alannah Murphy

On November 17th at 5:30 pm, The College Tour premiered its episode featuring The Catholic University of America in Heritage Hall. Starting at 5:00, there was a red carpet with the opportunity to take a picture with CUA’s Cardinal mascot, Red, at the entrance of the building. There were also refreshments that people could grab on their way in, to enjoy during the episode. 

The College Tour is an Amazon Prime show that has episodes featuring different colleges or universities. The show is in its seventh season, and it’s hosted by Alex Boyland. Each episode’s purpose is to give viewers an overview of that particular school and what it would be like to be a student there. This way, potential students can see that school more up close without having to go to that school’s campus. Over the summer an Amazon Prime film crew came to campus to shoot footage for the episode. For more information regarding the filming process for this episode, visit this link to read The Tower’s previous article.  

The episode showcasing CUA included segments from nine current Catholic University students and one 2022 graduate.  Each student’s segment focused on a different area of academic or social life at CUA. Some of these segment topics included: The Busch School of Business, the School of Nursing, STEM departments, research opportunities, service opportunities, athletics, faith, and residence life. 

Freshman biomedical engineering major, Nathan Ford, was one of the students featured in the episode. His segment focused on athletics at CUA, and Ford talked about what it is like being on the varsity swim and dive team. According to The Catholic University of America’s website, when considering colleges, swimming was top of the list for Ford, as was a strong biomedical engineering program and a Catholic mission. Those factors led him to apply, early action, to Catholic University, sight unseen. His acceptance brought him to Cardinal Preview Day last February, which sealed the deal. According to Ford, the premiere of the episode felt surreal. 

“It felt really good to see everyone’s hard work so well supported,” Ford said. “I really liked the flyover shots of campus, those looked cool.” 

Freshman biomedical engineering major, Maysoon Obeid, was another student featured in the episode. Obeid is the honors college and according to The Catholic University of America’s website, Obeid’s goal is medical school, with an even longer-term goal of improving the healthcare system through innovation and science. A degree in biomedical engineering, Obeid believes, will set her on a path to achieving her goals. Obeid’s segment focused on CUA’s STEM Program and what it is like being a woman in STEM.  

Obeid described the premiere as “stressful” because she was “seeing the final product of something we worked hard for,” but she also described it as “a good experience.” 

“My favorite part of the episode is probably the scenery. It just shows all the beautiful places on campus and DC, it speaks a lot more than words,” Obeid said. 

At the end of the premiere, viewers had the opportunity to approach the students featured in the episode to ask them any questions they had. 

Ford and Obeid both agree that The College Tour episode will help to increase enrollment at CUA. 

“I do believe the episode will raise enrollment. CUA is a small school that many people don’t know about. This episode will show students across the country more about this small school that they might have never heard of before,” Obeid. “I also think it was a good tactic for them to include such a diverse group of students to each share their experience, it allows prospective students to learn about CUA from a relatable source.