“The College Tour” wraps up production on campus

By Shelby Clark, USI Shield I November 9, 2021

The production team from “The College Tour” TV show finished filming an episode about the university Friday. 

“The College Tour” is a national TV series that highlights colleges and universities across the country. The crew and executive producer began filming on campus Nov. 1, 2021, and finished Nov. 5, 2021.

The university selected 10 students to share the culture of campus with show producers. The students wrote their own scripts. 

Elissa Tam, a senior biology major and president of Eagles in Action, was one of the 10 participating students. Tam said “writing the script was really easy because it all came from the heart.” 

The selected students were filmed in two different ways for the episode. Students spoke directly to the camera about their experience at the university and were filmed doing their every day tasks on campus. 

Tam was filmed for the episode on Nov. 2. Tam said the production team understood they were working with students who have no prior experience talking on camera and were really encouraging. 

“There’s literally nothing I could say bad about the team,” Tam said. 

David Bradley, a senior accounting major and vice president of Student Government Association, was also featured in the episode. 

The team treated him like a “star.” He said they carried around his wardrobe for him and always made sure he looked nice. 

“They understood that we’re all students, and we don’t have a lot of camera experience,” Bradley said. “So, they wanted to make sure that you didn’t look dumb.” 

 The crew allowed Tam and Bradley to bring their friends on set with them as extras. They said having their friends with them helped take away the nerves. Bradley said even with the nerves, he would do the whole experience again if he could. 

“It was really exciting being able to represent USI in that way because I love this place,” Bradley said. “Being able to share it with that national platform was a really cool experience.” 

Alex Boylan, executive producer and host of “The College Tour,” said students “know their story better than anyone else.” 

Boylan said he was inspired to do “The College Tour” after trying to help his niece decide where to go to college. He wanted to provide a free way for potential students to see different college campuses across the nation. 

All episodes of “The College Tour” are free to view on thecollegetour.com. The seasons are also released on Amazon Prime and other streaming platforms. 

When choosing universities to feature, Boylan said “The College Tour” is looking for diversity and a great story to tell. He said they chose to film an episode about the university because “this team, this community here resonated with our partnership team.” 

The university community has a family atmosphere Boylan said. “The people in the community here are so kind and so nice and genuine.” 

Boylan was on campus Nov. 2 and filmed his segments for “The College Tour” episode as well as filmed a “Coffee with the President” segment with President Ronald Rochon. 

“Coffee with the President” is a new digital series that will be a part of “The College Tour” where Boylan has a candid conversation with university presidents over coffee. The segment is filmed on Boylan’s iPhone and is an unedited conversation with the president. 

Boylan said Rochon’s is “probably the best one yet.” 

The video series “Coffee with the President” has not been released yet. Boylan said he was not sure exactly where or how the video would be released. 

“The College Tour” episode featuring the university will be available in Spring 2022.