Seeking new student leaders and additional assistance, the Office of Special Programs and Cultural Series has recently created a new student organization called Prairie View Ambassadors.Program Coordinator II Isis McCraw said, “A PV Ambassador is an upper classman who has certain qualities and characteristics that will help enhance our program. They are students who have good attitudes, look very approachable, and dress appropriately. If someone were to peek inside of a classroom setting, they would likely be the students who sit in the front row.”
A small group consisting of only 20 students, the PV Ambassadors are a special group of students selected by McCraw, who are first educated on the history and knowledge of the university, and assist with the preparation of special events and the hospitable treatment of special guests.
Qualifications to be a PV Ambassador include a minimum of 30 credit hours and a minimum grade point average of 3.0. These students’ tasks include planning and working “behind the scenes” in special events that are held campus-wide.
According to McCraw, “I want them to know that things don’t just happen, you don’t just show up at a program and the speaker is there. There’s a planning process behind everything, and I want them to be involved with getting things together.”
Occasionally, these students also attend special sessions called retreats.
During these retreats, the students are allowed the time to be educated on new things at the university and reflect on some of the events that they’ve assisted in putting together.
During their first retreat of the school year, the students had the opportunity to have a roundtable discussion with Mayor Frank Jackson about the history of the university.
Jackson shared his infinite knowledge about the history of Prairie View with the PV Ambassadors during this session.
Jackson said, “When I first arrived at Prairie View, I wanted to be an engineer, but at the time, I was totally unaware of what an engineer was. Prairie View changed that, and ultimately changed my life. I just wanted to pass the knowledge on what I’ve gained down to this generation of students.”