The Office of Admissions is hosting Multicultural Day, a luncheon for incoming minority students, March 24 in the Cotillion Ballroom.The event is a scholarship program held for minority students about to graduate high school. People who qualify for minority recruitment are those who are not white. It usually includes African American, Native American and Asian students. Ariel Triggs, coordinator of minority recruitment, expects about 80 students to participate.

The criteria for these diversity scholarships require students to have been accepted into Nicholls, have scored a 2.5 GPA, be a minority and scored at least an 18 on the ACT. Invitations are sent out to over 200 students who are qualified and have applied to attend Nicholls in the fall. Students who accept will come to Nicholls on that day to receive their diversity leadership scholarship, which is worth $450 and lasts for four semesters, Triggs said.

Multicultural Day consists of many activities, including tours for future students. The ceremony consists of a luncheon in the Cotillion Ballroom. University president Stephen Hulbert will give a speech. There will be a couple of guest speakers, including Ashlee Nickerson, culinary arts sophomore from Houston, Texas, who will be the student speaker. Nickerson was also asked by Ariel Triggs to help pick out recipients of the awards.

“I am going to be talking about why I chose to attend Nicholls and my experience when I attended Multicultural Day. It helped me become more involved in organizations at Nicholls,” said Nickerson.

“This year, I decided to invite student leaders from minority organizations to get them involved in Multicultural Day,” Triggs said.

Triggs also invited minority faculty members to participate and talk to some of the students who will attend the event.

This is the third year Triggs has coordinated this event. The goal of Multicultural Day is to encourage minority students to attend Nicholls and to show them that we do offer aspects of college that minority students can appreciate, Triggs said.