Student spotlight: Senior Cora Haste impacts others through various roles
Cora Haste
By Cam Adams
As an Entourage tour guide, Cora Haste is the face of 甜瓜视频app to a group of strangers for about a couple of hours.
It sounds daunting, but Haste鈥檚 job isn鈥檛 too hard. She just has to talk about a place she鈥檚 grown to love over the past few years 鈥� and there鈥檚 a lot to love about it. One of the things she loves most?
Seeing the gears turn inside the heads of prospective students.
鈥淚 enjoy seeing how people's attitudes towards Western and towards college change through just two hours of interacting, especially when you show how much you care about the school and that it's genuine,鈥� Haste said. 鈥淚t's not like an act you're putting on.鈥�
Haste doesn鈥檛 have to. WCU has given the senior a plethora of opportunities to take advantage of. In addition to being a tour guide, Haste is the managing editor of the Western Carolinian, a student newspaper at WCU.
鈥淚 love telling the stories about students at Western whether it's a good story or a hard story, just getting to know people and sharing their stories,鈥� Haste said.
鈥淭here's a similar through line with tours and working for the newspaper of telling stories and wanting to share stories, and the fact that stories are how people relate to one another like facts are great but personal experiences are better.鈥�
The Richlands native is also heavily involved in Reformed University Fellowship, a campus ministry, where she leads worship and Bible studies. And following graduation in May, Haste will continue to work with RUF.
Barring any changes, Haste will spend the next two years on the campus of Queens University of Charlotte, connecting with younger students who need guidance and helping them get plugged into the ministry.
That provides Haste with yet another opportunity to lead students in an unfamiliar setting 鈥� just like her tours.
鈥淚 love talking to people when they're in those transition periods of life because I think those are really hard times,鈥� Haste said.
Haste interacts with several different people from all walks of life in her current roles, and sometimes, her work can even be life changing.
She鈥檚 had tour attendees who weren鈥檛 even considering college before come up to her wanting to learn more. And even months after a tour, Haste can run into some familiar faces on campus who will cite her tour as a reason they came to WCU.
鈥淭hat is really awesome because it's like OK, this is impactful work,鈥� Haste said, 鈥淎nd even though it feels like maybe you're just showing up for work, it's cool because you're actually impacting someone's life and where they decide to go to college, which is a big deal.鈥�
Her pitch? Her own experience at WCU.
鈥淲estern feels personal,鈥� Haste said. 鈥淓ven through the application process, I was applying to colleges all the way until now two months out from graduation, I have felt like I have been looked out for as an individual and not as a collective.鈥�
