Update: The event was canceled as of Monday morning.
Megan Zahnle’s photograph has smiled at students as they walk past the Career Connections Center at the Reitz Union since last Spring semester.
Now, the 19-year-old UF biology sophomore is excited for another chance to pose today, she said.
The UF Office of Admissions is recruiting students to model for brochures and its website from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. on the Plaza of the Americas, said Addie Burchell, the event organizer and a UF Admissions website writer.
The office is looking for five to 10 students to pose with their backpacks, pretend to talk to friends, walk to class and study, Burchell said.
Zahnle, who is half Filipina, is ready to model again and enjoys promoting the university’s diversity, she said.
“It’s just another way of doing my part in making UF great,” she said.
The open call is not a formal modeling audition, and anyone who wants to participate can be photographed, Burchell said. The Office of Admissions will decide which photographs to keep in a folder to use later as stock photographs.
“It’s not supposed to be super Vogue or anything,” Burchell said. “It’s just showing what it’s like to really go to UF.”
Burchell, a 20-year-old UF advertising junior, said her boss, Allison Wicker, UF’s marketing and communications specialist, wanted updated pictures of students to publish online and in print. Burchell came up with the idea for the open call and created a Facebook event on Friday.
The original plan was to photograph Burchell and her friends, she said. But the event gained more traction than she anticipated after 70 students listed themselves as interested or attending on the Facebook event.
Caleb Deckert, an 18-year-old UF exploring science and engineering freshman, is not a seasoned student model like Zahnle but decided to go when Burchell invited him on Facebook.
Deckert said he had nothing better to do so he figured he might as well be photographed while hanging out with friends, he said. He has never modeled before and has no plan.
“I’m just winging it and seeing how things go,” he said.
