UNI to Be Featured in “The College Tour”
By Caroline Christensen, The Northern Iowan I February 2, 2023
The Panthers are once again on the prowl – for Amazon Prime Video.
“The College Tour,” an Amazon series which highlights different colleges and universities in the United States, came to UNI fall 2022 to showcase all UNI has to offer. Ten UNI students are featured in different segments exhibiting everything from academics, UNI faculty, how to find a major, activities to do in the Cedar Valley and much more.
The full episode will be released on Amazon Prime Video June 29, but the UNI community can get an exclusive premiere of the episode Wednesday, Feb. 8 in the Gallagher Bluedorn Performing Arts Center. A pre-show event complete with free food and drinks will be held in the lobby at 6:30 p.m., and the premiere is set to take place at 7:30 p.m. in Davis Hall. The event will also be live streamed on YouTube for those who cannot attend in person. People who can attend the event in person are encouraged to showcase their Panther pride by wearing UNI gear.
UNI’s Director of University Relations, Pete Moris, commends the ten students who participated in the filming of the tour, and encourages people to attend the premiere February 8.
“We have ten students who just nailed it,” Moris said. “They did an amazing job. Really what we were trying to do was get a cross section of not only different backgrounds, majors, and hometowns. Our goal was to find some folks who were passionate about UNI and to share their experiences.”
Moris continued, “(The College Tour) is something unique. I’m not aware of any other colleges in Iowa that are being featured so I think any way we can differentiate UNI from all these other institutions is a good thing.”
To learn more about The College Tour, visit thecollegetour.com.
“The College Tour” Films on Campus
By Kate Murphy, The Northern Iowan I October 16, 2022
UNI students to be featured in 30-minute episode to be released in 2023
The series “The College Tour” began filming on UNI’s campus this past Monday and will be released in 2023.
The episode will follow 10 different UNI students and their personal experiences at the University of Northern Iowa. “The College Tour” streams on Roku and Amazon and will feature a 30-mintue episode about UNI’s campus.
Pete Moris, director of university relations, said a lot of preparation and planning on the part of the University Relations staff went into filming on campus.
“Jess Betts and Sean O’Neal were the two individuals who primarily worked hands-on with the producers and the crew, and they did a great job.” Moris said.
The series was created by many award-winning producers including Alex Boylan and Lisa Hennessy. The first episode aired in Sept. 2020. One of the reasons for creating this series was due to the pandemic occurring in 2020. College tours were shut down during the pandemic, but this series made it possible to tour campuses virtually.
Moris said they got so many students submitting their stories on campus. The toughest part was narrowing down the list of students participating to only 10.
“We had so many great submissions from our students,” Moris said, “It was really a good problem to have with so many UNI students wanting to tell their compelling story about their UNI experience.”
The series plans to showcase what each student enjoys most about UNI and the Cedar Valley. Each student’s story is going to be a unique experience they’ve had as a UNI Panther.
“There’s really a diverse cross-section of our campus represented. One of our objectives was to highlight the best that UNI has to offer and it was tough to really narrow things down to 10 students and their stories.” Moris said.
Moris thinks one of the best things about this series is that it showcases real students that are not acting. The series is a reality TV show that features different college campuses every episode. According to Moris, each student submitted a video sharing their stories and why they wanted to be involved in the production.
“For one student, they wanted to talk about how their financial aid package made a four-year degree accessible,” Moris said, “We’ve got other students talking about how much they love the arts and theater scene on campus. For another student, the sense of community and the relationships they’ve developed was an area they wanted to accentuate.”
According to Moris, the objective of having the University of Northern Iowa featured in this series is to show people what a wonderful place UNI really is.
“We’re excited about the vast audience that will get to see UNI featured on a variety of platforms,” Moris said, “We’re really looking forward to seeing all the planning and hard work showcase the many positive things UNI has to offer.”
Moris believes that it’s always better for students and parents to come see campus in person, however, “The College Tour” is a great way to introduce folks to UNI and hopefully spark their interest in becoming Panthers.
The full episode with host Alex Boylan is set for release sometime in early 2023. Moris said behind-the-scenes and teasers will be released leading up to the official launch of the episode.
“If you’re a high school student, take a look at our campus and all we have to offer from students who are here right now.” Moris said.