Students featured in Amazon Prime Video series

‘The College Tour’ showcases URI campus, community

Amazon Prime Video stops in Kingston to feature the URI students in TV series. PHOTO CREDIT: amazon.com

The University of Rhode Island was recently featured on the second season of the Amazon Prime show, “The College Tour,” a show by Emmy Award-winning producers of “Survivor” and “The Amazing Race,” which showcases college campuses around the country and the culture of the schools.

“The College Tour,” which is hosted by “The Amazing Race” season two winner Alex Boylan, released its second season on Amazon Prime Video on Nov. 8, focusing on nine different schools around the country, with URI being one of them.

The episode featured a wide variety of students from around the campus, such as senior Joel Roache, who is a mechanical engineering major from Warwick, Rhode Island. Roache believes that he was approached due to the fact that he is also very involved in the URI community as an orientation leader.

“We met with the producers on a Zoom call and they explained the scope of the work that we would be doing so I was like ‘okay that sounds pretty cool,’” he said.

Roache said that the show did a good job of making him feel comfortable, as the producers were professional and had a lot of experience. 

Kate Dubois, a senior in the Chinese Flagship Program and the Chinese Language Fellowship Program, said she was approached by someone on campus to be featured, though she can’t remember who specifically.

“I thought it was great because I love URI and I’m very thankful for everything I’ve been able to gain from the experience, so I was happy to participate,” Dubois said.

According to Dubois, they had meetings with producers prior to filming in which they went over technical details on things they should do to prepare to film. 

She added that she thought the producers did a great job in letting her say what she wanted to say about the campus and representing students from other programs on campus, of which she was not as familiar with.

Alana Parrott, a senior theatre major, was also featured as a result of her time as a tour guide. She said she was asked by Erin Earle, director of Campus Visit Experience. 

“It was really cool,” Parrot said. “I felt very taken care of because of David Howard [chair of the theatre department]. He made sure that everything was taken care of in between shots, he fixed my dress and everything.”

All three students said that during pre-production, they wrote a script of sorts that helped them explain why they loved the school and what it offers for people on campus. Filming took place in the morning during the student orientations over the summer.

Pre-production took roughly a month, according to Roache, as students revised their scripts. While not everyone in the cast initially knew each other, they did meet over Zoom and had a watch party when the show premiered.

All three agreed that it was a great opportunity for them to represent the URI community.

“I just feel very honored that I get to showcase the theatre department, me, myself and all the work I have put in over [my] four years,” Parrot said. 

Parrott added that being on camera and all of the pre-production experience can be used towards her resume, which was another thing from the opportunity that she liked.

They also hope that this will help incoming freshmen choose URI as their university.

“I hope that this video allows people who are thinking about coming to URI sort of an inside look into the opportunities that await them if they come and attend here,” Parrot said.

“The College Tour” is now available for streaming on Amazon Prime Video, with each segment available on the show’s website.