Office of Admissions issues inaugural ‘first acceptance’

Raven Calahan, a senior at Davidson Fine Arts Magnet School, has been the first student accepted to the Fall 2021 freshman class at Augusta University.

But her acceptance wasn’t just delivered in her mailbox.

To commemorate the university’s first acceptance of the season, four Admissions staff members (accompanied by Augustus himself) visited Calahan’s home on Dec. 8 to announce the news in person. She was then dubbed an “A1 Accept,” or the first student of her class to be welcomed to Jaguar Nation.

Recruitment at Augusta University has been unusual in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic — namely due to the lack of travel — so this home visit was a way to make an in-person impact with at least one new student.

“Typically, the recruitment team would travel the state and distribute acceptance letters in person to hundreds of students, but that wasn’t an option this year,” said Caleb Rogers, associate director for recruitment at Augusta University. “But we still wanted to find a way to make this experience as exciting as possible for at least one student.

“Despite the pandemic, we wanted to find a way to still celebrate this milestone and officially welcome the new class of students to AU,” said Rogers. “So, we figured, ‘Why not show up at someone’s doorstep?’”

Even when Admissions returns to normal recruitment and travel, they plan to make the A1 Accept a tradition for years to come.

“We believe that at its core, Jaguar Nation is a family, and families celebrate big events,” said Rogers. “And that’s exactly what we did with Raven and her family.”

Calahan is particularly excited about theater at Augusta University, and has plans to work in the industry after graduation. “I want to study psychology and technical theater,” said Calahan. “Long term, I want to travel and work on shows, and go wherever life takes me, really.”

In addition to working with the Maxwell Theatre, Calahan will have the opportunity to join the student theater guild, Theatre AUG, and work on theatre productions when she starts at AU next year.

Augusta University will continue to issue acceptances over the coming weeks, and students who completed their applications early should start receiving communication about their decision this week. The Office of Academic Admissions is expecting to accept one of their largest classes of early admits.

For more information about the admissions process, visit the Office of Academic Admissions website. To apply to Augusta, visit the application page.