News > September 21, 2006

By Jenn Kimbal

Contributing writer

Members of the Harbinger Corps voluntarily give up their time each week to show prospective students and their parents the university.

The Harbinger Corps is a student run organization that works in conjunction with the Admissions Office to provide information about the university to interested students.  A harbinger, according to the Harbinger Corps’ Web site, is a “forerunner, a herald; one that presages or foreshadows what is to come; one that precedes and indicates the approach of another.”

Jonathon Barry, the president of Harbinger Corps, spoke with the Old Gold & Black about the many aspects of this organization.  “Our members are giving back to the university that has so richly given to us,” he said.

“Of course, we provide our members with many university facts and figures to offer our touring guests, but we more strongly encourage our guides to offer personal anecdotes about their particular interests, commitments, stories, etc. to reveal that our campus climate is a very ‘face to face’ community, one in which prospective students can fully engage themselves,” Barry said.

This spirit has driven 120 members to fulfill the mission of the Harbinger Corps.  The organization continues to grow as it has received 95 applications for the fall semester, a record number. 

The application process is quite rigorous and selective.  Although students apply in the fall, they can only become active members of Harbinger Corps in the beginning of the spring semester.  Applicants must go through a three-step process: submitting an actual application, participating in an interview, and training to become a Harbinger. 

“We are pleased to note that we have a good diversity of freshmen, sophomore and even junior applicants, which is particularly useful in getting multiple perspectives about our university out there to prospective students and parents,” Barry said. “The Harbinger Corps and the WFU Office of Admissions want our members to personally reflect themselves without such a universal and commercialized image”. 

This organization prides itself in its sense of individuality and its accurate portrayal of the university.  They try to show both prospective students and parents what life at Wake Forest is really like. 

“The Harbinger Corps does not try to present a ‘cookie cutter image’” for either our students or our members,” Barry said. “We do not make our campus tour guides wear a polo shirt with the WFU logo, similar to many other college practices for their tour guides.”

Members of the Harbinger Corps can participate in one of four divisions within the organization.  Campus Tour Guides, who make up about half of the entire group, give hour -long campus tours to prospective students and their parents weekly during the year.  These tours are followed by an hour-long information session hosted by an admissions counselor in Starling Hall.

ARC, the Harbinger Corps’ second division, sends students to their former high schools to talk about the university. 

Students tell their personal college experiences to old classmates and show the side of Wake Forest that can’t be seen on a web site. 

These trips are made over various breaks throughout the year. 

The third division, the Contact Team, works in the spring to get in touch with and congratulate incoming freshman students via telephone calls and letters.  This practice makes new students feel that they are already a part of the university campus.

The final group within the Harbinger Corps is the Multicultural Recruitment Team.  This panel works closely with the Office of Multicultural Affairs to maintain cultural diversity on campus and sponsor multicultural events for the whole Wake Forest community during the year.

The Harbinger Corps is an organization rooted in a sense of community and school pride.  Harbingers exemplify the generous spirit of the university. 

“A great majority of our own Harbinger Corps applicants are influenced to join our organization directly because of their wonderful past experience of receiving a great tour on our campus.”