Amazon Prime is in Wichita for the filming of “The College Tour,” a series that travels to colleges and universities worldwide, giving viewers a glimpse of what life is like on college campuses.
From Sept. 9-17, the show will be filming on the Wichita State campus, the first time a Kansas school has been featured on the program.
Bobby Gandu, who works in university admissions, said his department, and many others, are working with “The College Tour” crew.
“’The College Tour’ has solicited universities from all over the country to be a part of the show, and we’ve worked together to really bring this show to life here at Wichita State,” Gandu said. “There’s a four-person crew here on campus right now from the show, so we’re helping with all those logistics.”
To be featured on “The College Tour,” a college or university must go through a process to partner with the show.
“’The College Tour’ is looking for partners that students will identify with, that they’ll be interested in learning more about. They did solicit Wichita State, and we felt like we’d be a good partner,” Gandu said.
Gandu said the university paid a fee of $188,000 to be featured on a one-hour segment of the show.
Over the course of the 10-day shoot, “The College Tour” crew will spend a few hours each day gathering footage to make 18-20 feature segments, each around two minutes in length.
Students from each of the academic colleges will be featured. The featured students were selected from different majors, activities and walks of life, and will talk about their experience at Wichita State and be filmed in different areas around campus.
“We want them to see what a genuine Wichita State experience is like, and we’re intentionally bringing the camera crew into spaces that our students are enjoying right now,” Gandu said.
Each academic college will be featured, as well as applied learning, campus living, the Steve Clark YMCA and other aspects of the WSU experience.
University President Richard Muma and Wichita Mayor Lily Wu will both be interviewed for the show.
After filming is completed, the production company for “The College Tour” will create a finished video that can be reviewed and collaborated on by the university.
“Our hope is that this will help to elevate Wichita State’s brand on a national scale, meaning that there will be opportunities for literally millions of individuals to see Wichita State in a new way through this show,” Gandu said. “We think that’s going to benefit our students and our alumni by raising our brand with them.”
The filming of “The College Tour” is an open set, and behind-the-scenes updates and footage will be shared on WSU’s social media pages.
“This is a really exciting project,” Gandu said. “I think that people will be really proud of their affiliation with Wichita State. It’s going to put more eyeballs on the university in a good way, and give us an opportunity to showcase what we’re all really proud of around here.”
