Algonquin is showing its diversity by casting students of many backgrounds to be featured on promotional materials for the college.
“We want to accurately represent students that represent Algonquin so we want the people we photograph to be diverse,” said Lindsay James, an assistant marketing manager for Ancillary Services at the college.
Many of the models that were cast this year were students from James’ twenty-first century media class that she teaches at the college. James is one of the staff members tasked to find student models to represent the college.
Ancillary Services typically advertises via social media and posters around campus to draw students’ attention as well.
While the students who are selected to be models are culturally diverse, James said that this diversity is not necessarily intentional.
“The way I see it, if you’re coming from another country and you see this Arab guy goes here or this Indian guy goes here or this Asian goes here, it would help them make their decision,” said Ali Houmani, Algonquin alumnus and former model for the college.
Houmani said that he and a friend were approached on campus for model positions and he believes their races might have been a deciding factor in their selection. Regardless, he believes the models used are an accurate representation of the college community.
Ancillary Services tries to maintain gender diversity as well by casting equal numbers of both genders.
“In the beginning we were trying to make it diverse program-wise,” said Alanna McDonell, the marketing manager for Ancillary Services.
McDonell said that initially most students were from the business program but now models are drawn from students from any program.
James said that she would like to see more students of diverse ages to be models as well. Although most models are typically between the ages of 18 and 22, the college still has many older students.
Models are paid with gift certificates from Connections, the campus store.