April 5, 2022

CHSS Students Take the Spotlight in The College Tour

"collage of participants and scenes from Montclair's episode of The College Tour"

A crew from The College Tour visited campus last October, taping 20 different segments that cover all things Montclair, including campus life, academics, internships, research and service opportunities. “The crew let me be my complete, authentic self,” recalls Nikki-James Soto. “I like to try new things and meet new people, but I didn’t know what I was walking into.”

Soto is a senior with a double major in Psychology and Elementary Education and, as part of Montclair’s 4+1 program, will earn her Master of Arts in Teaching next year. Putting herself in front of a camera wasn’t part of her college plans.

“I want to be a teacher. I want to work with kids. I never thought that I’d get a chance to do any sort of production,” Soto says. “But I had such a fun time and was able to have friends be a part of it too. This is something we’re going to have a memory of forever.”

Produced by Emmy-nominated and award-winning TV producers, The College Tour helps prospective students around the country travel virtually across America for an inside look at colleges and universities.

How to Watch

Montclair’s episode is part of Season 4. The full episode is available on the University’s YouTube channel and website. In late March, the University hosted a watch party and a live Q&A with the student cast members of The College Tour.

The national rollout on Amazon Prime Video launched in April, with the episode streaming on a number of platforms, including Roku, Apple TV and Sony, and The College Tour app.

Meet Some of the CHSS Stars of The College Tour

Nikki-James Soto, seated, left, films a segment of The College Tour with her friend Stephanie Grajales. A camera crew and equipment are seen in the foreground — Nikki-James Soto, seated, left, films a segment of The College Tour with her friend Stephanie Grajales, a senior English major in the dual certification K-6 Education and Teacher of Students with Disabilities program. “This is something we’re going to have a memory of forever,” Soto says.

Student Samantha Wilk is photographed smiling while seated in a sunny hallway — “If someone said to me a year ago I’d be promoting Montclair on a show, I wouldn’t believe them,” says cast member Samantha Wilk, a sophomore with majors in Psychology and Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies. “Falling in love with your university in a global pandemic is as hard as it sounds.”

Gian Paul Gonzales stands on a basketball court with a basketball in one arm — Gian Paul Gonzales ’07, a former star athlete and now a high school history teacher and motivational speaker, describes the concept of being “All In”… committing to your personal dreams no matter the obstacles you face. At Montclair, Gonzales says, he “developed a love and a passion for how I could help my community, not by studying something that happened in the past, but by being inspired to want to change the present.”