The 2021 open house event at Townsend Harris High School is a virtual program available for view on the school’s official website. Due to COVID-19 concerns, THHS will not host in-person touring. Instead, eighth grade students will be exploring the school through hyperlinks that are available online.
The links fall into categories of publications, academic teams, sports, extracurriculars, meeting the THHS Faculty, and more. Prospective students are able to scope out the school environment and peak their interest in exclusive THHS events such as S!NG and FON. Features of the website provide a well-rounded experience, enabling students to virtually navigate through the building with an interactive simulated tour. Pre-recorded student explanations of the corresponding areas accompany the virtual tour.
“It was important that we captured the facets of our school that are integral to its appeal and play a big role in Harrisites’s high school experiences, such as the diverse range of our clubs,” said SU Club Liaison, Lauren Jun.
Freshman Noureen Islam, who experienced the same situation last year commented on the effectiveness of the community service handbook, extracurricular database, electives guide. She said, “It allowed me to better understand the expectations of the school.”
Freshman Daniel Chou had a similar experience. He added, “I was able to learn more about the classes that were offered [ at THHS] on the website.”
Other freshmen chose to explore THHS through The Classic TV, the Classic’s Youtube channel instead.
Freshman Goria Jaimon was one of them. She said, “I did go to the Townsend website but I wasn’t able to get a lot of information. I went to the [Classic TV] YouTube channel for the tour instead. The tour led by the upperclassman helped me visualize the school better.”
Vice President of the SU Zarif Rahman contributed to creating the virtual tour by providing descriptions of the school via audio recordings. He said, “I feel like this is just like the in-person experience, as I was a tour guide during my sophomore year when we actually did in-person tours.”
Zarif also reflected back to when quarantine first began in 2020, recalling how the SU hosted virtual Q&A sessions for accepted freshmen students. He noted, “I feel like this new virtual tour is really great in the way that it can literally help them see the things we brought up in the Q&A.”
“Our hope was that this would enable interested students to adopt a 360° view of Townsend Harris that was immersive and informative,” Lauren concluded.
Photo by Audrey Chou
