Multiple times a year, Iowa State’s campus seems to be overrun with zealous high school students eager to show off their various talents on a state-wide scale. Though the presence of these high schoolers elicits many eye rolls from college students who are unaccustomed to the extra population, the festivals and conferences that bring these prospective students to Ames can often play a big role in where they eventually call home.

Not only does Iowa State’s campus serve as a hub of education and fun for thousands of college students, but it also hosts the Iowa High School Speech Association All-State Festival, the Iowa High School Music Association All-State Festival and the State Future Farmers of America Convention.

Each of these events brings thousands of high school students to Ames and many times serves as their first Iowa State experience.

Kara Gerke, a sophomore in Event Management, claims that though she had visited campus before with her parents, the All-State Music Festival was the first time she was able to explore the campus on her own.

“I think that coming here for All-State choir further solidified why I wanted to come to Iowa State,” Gerke said. “Since my parents went here we would come up for tailgates all of the time and we would go to games. Coming back for All-State I was able to become more and more familiar with Ames and it made me feel more at home when deciding where I wanted to go to college.”

Gerke also said that her weekends spent rehearsing and performing in the music facilities played a roll in her decision to join a choir when she arrived in Ames her freshman year.

“I was very into choir in high school and when I came to Ames [for the All-State Festival] it was so exciting to see where I would be practicing and performing and see all of the things that I could be doing if I did choir at Iowa State,” Gerke said.  

Quinn Hemesath, freshman in business, had a similar experience when he visited Ames for the IHSSA All-State Speech Festival, which is an event that showcases the top rated speech team performers in Iowa.

Hemesath claims that the Speech Festival allowed him to get a behind-the-scenes look of Iowa State while becoming more familiar with the layout of the buildings.

“All-State Speech allowed me to see so many different buildings like the Scheman building, CY Stephens and Fisher Theater,” Hemesath said. “The festival introduced me to a bunch of buildings that I never really knew existed and it showed high schoolers that Iowa State has all of these resources that you would never really see within a normal college tour.”

Though he had already been considering Iowa State, Hemesath says that his involvement in the All-State Speech Festival in Ames sealed the deal.

“Visiting Ames for this event made me want to go to other schools even less than I already did,” Hemesath said. “If anything, visiting just kept making me want to come here sooner and sooner.”

The State FFA Convention is another event that brings a multitude of students to Ames each year, and Claire Baudler, a freshman in agronomy, claims the time she spent on campus for the convention was the first instance where she felt like more than just a visitor.

“The atmosphere in Ames was honestly really fun during convention, and it felt like I was actually a part of the college town instead of a younger sister coming to see what my siblings were up to,” Baudler said. “Everyone I encountered from adults to students was super kind and helpful and it just made me feel like I was at home.”

Though crowds of high schoolers taking over areas of campus for a few days at a time can be seen as a nuisance to current students, it’s important to remember that these festivals and conventions can be the moment that first sparks someone’s love for Ames and Iowa State.