The television series “The College Tour” filmed an episode at Quinnipiac University on Oct 2.  The series uses students’ voices and experiences to talk about different universities across the world. 

Executive Producer of the show, Alex Boylan, mentions that he came up with the idea of this series from his niece who struggled to pick where to tour for schools.  After realizing this, he thought that other students must be having the same problem. 

“About three years ago, my niece, she was at that point, like a junior in high school at the beginning of her college search,” Boylan said. “She was like, Uncle Alex, I wanna go to Connecticut, I wanna go to Boston, Texas, Florida. Her mom was like “you only get one trip, this is all we can afford.”

There were 10 students selected from Quinnipiac to be filmed for the series to show the viewers what Quinnipiac is like through their eyes. 

Third-year student Hannah Jack was excited to share her love for Quinnipiac with viewers like parents and students that are applying to universities. 

“I love being involved.  I think I’m very involved in the Quinnipiac community,” Jack said.  “If I can showcase that and kind of show other people, why they need to come to Quinnipiac This was going to be my opportunity to do so.” 

In addition, Boylan wanted to show people from the comfort of their homes what different colleges look like if they can’t afford to tour them.  

“Imagine 99.9% of high school students out there, it’s overwhelming,” Boylan said.  “And they do not have the finances, and that’s how this thing began.” 

Second-year student, Hallye Boughner wants to be able to reassure viewers by sharing her own stories. 

“During my college decision process, I compiled a list of 50 schools and from there I narrowed it down to 18. So I knew what the college process is for other students, like myself, it’s difficult,” Boughner said. “I knew this opportunity, talking about my own personal experience, will prompt students to apply and just have a similar experience that I have at Quinnipiac.” 

Boylan mentions the importance of higher education, going hand and hand with student experiences.

“And then on a micro-level there’s nothing like stepping foot on a campus and we’re almost like that conduit,” Boylan said. “Maybe students out there only get one trip, ‘where am I going to go’, and so… really it’s just bringing higher education to life.” 

Jack hopes that she can touch the lives of people watching and make their college decision process easier by hearing what students have to say about Quinnipiac. 

“I hope that they can see hopefully what a beautiful campus that we have. That was one of my main reasons that I came here…I hope that they can gain a sense of community and belonging through the people that are speaking.” 

Boughner adds that a major reason she auditioned to be a part of the series was to show that she is a minority, and that she is evolving the best that she can while attending a predominantly white institution (PWI). 

“I decided because of the fact that I wanted to be a minority in a space compared to a majority,” Boughner said. “So from there I decided to apply to PWI which is Quinnipiac, and I wanted to take up space as a minority, and I wanted to be that representation on The College Tour.”

Boylan adds that he is happy about the progress of the series, and being able to represent how students feel about different colleges and universities around the world.

“We have thousands of institutions, incredible students,” Boylan said. “We are so blessed in this country from what we have for higher education and we’re just proud to be able to tell those stories.”

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