Emma Sharman, a 12th grade student from Millikan High School in Long Beach, California, was in the middle of an eight-hour shift at restaurant Noble Bird Rotisserie when they got the email.

A change had been made to their application status at Chapman University. 

“Is this a good update or is this a bad update?” Sharman thought. 

An hour remained until Sharman’s lunch break, leaving them trembling in anticipation until they could check the contents of the email. Customers would either hear cheers coming from the back of the restaurant or taste salty tears of rejection falling into their chicken. Luckily for them, when the clock hit 4 p.m., Sharman had received the celebratory email of university admission.  

“When I saw the confetti, it was like when you submit an assignment on Canvas but 10 times better,” Sharman said. 

Amid a tumultuous year for Chapman University — with the fog of COVID-19 and potential public relations disasters hanging over the university — a new class of students is nonetheless excited to start their journeys as Panthers. As the May 1 deadline for college commitment steadily approaches, Chapman will be welcoming an influx of committed prospective students who have chosen to call Orange their home for the next four years. 

About 1,000 miles away from Sharman in Portland, Oregon, Arden Horacek was drinking her favorite seasonal peppermint milkshake from Mike’s Drive-In when she got the acceptance email. 

“I got really excited and my mom hugged me,” said Horacek, a student at Franklin High School. “Then right after, I got a scholarship and I was over the moon. I was so happy. It was the perfect end to my day.”

While elated, Horacek is still contemplating between schools, with another acceptance to San Diego State University. Although she used to be worried about the small size of the Chapman community, Horacek has since abandoned her fears after a tour of campus and conversations with current students.

“I loved how small the campus and the community felt, which is interesting because at first, I wasn’t looking forward to that,” Horacek said. “I thought I wanted something really big, but when I toured it, it felt like the community was super supportive.” 

While Horacek is still on the fence, Sharman ended her college search April 6 by committing to Chapman as a communication studies major. From the start of the process, Sharman was allured by Chapman’s small class sizes, financial aid offerings and the surrounding community.

“I really appreciate a hands-on learning experience, and I’d say Chapman’s small classes are ideal for that,” Sharman said. “It felt like Chapman wanted me here, whereas other colleges didn’t offer me the same amount of support from the get-go.”

Patty Martinez, a senior screenwriting major, works as a tour guide and admissions assistant in the Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, aiding high school students like Sharman and Horacek in their collegiate decisions. To help prospective students feel more at home, Martinez and other Chapman student ambassadors utilize a program called Unibuddy, which connects current students to prospective ones. 

“The biggest benefit is that you’re able to have a really candid conversation,” Martinez said of Unibuddy. “The platform makes it more casual. It’s so much less pressure for a student and I think you’re able to have a lot more personalized response.”

For Martinez, a Latinx student, becoming an admissions assistant meant providing a relatable perspective to students of color who are concerned with the challenges of entering a predominantly white institution.

“One of the main reasons that I wanted to apply is because as a tour guide, you’re the face of the school,” Martinez said. “Diversity is something Chapman struggles with. It was really important to be some sort of representation for prospective students.”

That was an aspect of the university that Sharman, despite being committed, was concerned with.

“There’s a lot about (my identity) that makes me feel like I don’t know if I’m going to be accepted everywhere I go,” Sharman said. “I’m very openly part of the LGBTQIA+ community and that’s something I think about when I go somewhere new. I’ve known Chapman to be a primarily Caucasian school, so that’s something I’m nervous about.”

Despite that concern, Sharman is excited to begin a new chapter of their life at Chapman. For Sharman and high school seniors across the globe, their first semester at Chapman could potentially be their first time in a normal, fully functioning classroom since their junior year.

“I still feel like a junior,” Sharman said. “When I was filling out applications, it didn’t feel like I was supposed to be doing this yet because there was no closure to high school. Either way, I’m excited to be on campus, to get to know people and to just exist there.”