Grace Ostrosky, Arts & Life Editor–
To high school students, Denison’s Office of Admission may seem intimidating. But to members of the office itself, it is a community.
Carianne Meng is at the heart of this community, working as a senior associate director of admission. But she started off like many college students, unsure of what she wanted to do professionally.
Meng attended Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois, and studied English and sociology with a concentration in writing.
From there, she became very “burnt out from being an English major” and ended up deciding to go into housing and residential life. She was working as a residential advisor at the time of college graduation. She became a hall director at the University of St. Francis in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where she remained for six years before going for her master’s in higher educational administration at McKendree University.
From there, Meng was searching for a new role and applied to Denison as an assistant director of residential education.
“I wanted a more inclusive environment, I wanted an environment where I could grow,” Meng said when asked why she applied to Denison.
Meng climbed the ranks of residential communities and housing, eventually becoming the senior director of residential communities and housing. Despite excelling in this role, after the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, she pivoted to the office of admission.
“I had never thought about doing [this] job ever in my life…My brain was just like ‘This is what’s next,’” Meng said.
She was an associate director of admission before becoming a senior associate director after a year and a half in her initial role.
“[My] title fools a lot of people because I actually don’t do anything with admitting anyone,” Meng laughed.
In her role, Meng coordinates campus visits, manages student employees in the office–also known as the docents–and plans and oversees events for prospective students and families.
Recently, she planned visits for over 400 college admissions counselors participating in the National Association for College Admission Counseling 2025 Conference. She also hosted three events in Columbus where counselors could meet with Meng and other admission counselors and explore Denison Edge, an extension of Denison’s career exploration center.
When asked about how Denison’s docents compare to other schools’, Meng said, “It’s incomparable.” She explained the docents are skilled in small talk and come off as “real humans” to prospective students and families. “[They’re] not little admissions robots.”
“We hire for personality…we seriously have 62 personality hires in the office.”
She explained that the office of admission is not so strict about the product that the docents lose their personality, that prospective students and families like to meet current students who have individual interests, passions, and experiences.
“[Meng] is so kindhearted and treats all of us docents as people and not her employees. She’s very supportive,” said Ellen Hansen ‘28.
Hansen is majoring in journalism and psychology and is from Columbus. Hansen has worked in the office for nine months, brought on board in the second semester of her first year.
Meng uses Tuckman’s Stages of Group Development with the docents. The theory is based around “forming, storming, norming, performing,” which occurs in the time after new docents are hired in the spring semester. Forming is the when the new docents are introduced, storming is when there is inevitable conflict between the new and returning docents, norming is when everyone gets used to one another, and then, finally, performing is when the new and returning docents learn to work well together, thriving in the office.
“[It’s] a way I can acknowledge that we have new people in the mix and we need to think about group dynamics and need to be welcoming and open,” Meng said.
When asked what she would change about her work, Meng said, “I wish that there were easier solutions to really complex problems…I’d rather have complex problems here as a community than to be doing it at a corporate job somewhere where I have no input, say, or control.”
“What keeps me [in the Office of Admission] now is the awesome relationships I get to have with students,” Meng said. “[The housing office] was super transactional. Now, with [the docents], there is team, community…we’re all in it together.”
The Office of Admission will host three Fall Open House programs, which will be coming in the following months. The office is also seeking applications for docents, and students can apply until Nov. 1.