A welcome that lasts for generations


A blue blazer. A crisp white button-down. A Palmer-issued pin. And, above all, a welcoming smile. Whether visiting Palmer’s Iowa or Florida


Serving the whole student As director of student experience, Kaitlin Clevenger helps provide a community for students that makes them feel like they belong.


campus, that has been the first impression thousands of prospective students have had of Palmer College of Chiropractic for decades. It’s a student campus guide greeting visitors, leading them through the halls, answering honest questions over lunch, and helping them imagine a future at the first and best chiropractic college in the world. It’s the Palmer experience that starts before a student even enrolls. Established in 1959 by David Palmer,


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D.C., campus guides have become one of Palmer’s most enduring traditions. Buildings have changed. Tour routes have evolved. Programs like Palmer 360 and Palmer Pathways have expanded the visit experience. But the heart of the program has remained remarkably consistent: students letting future students know they belong. Makenna Maxymillian is a student leader and vice president of the campus guides on Palmer’s Florida campus. For her, that sense of belonging began before she ever became a guide herself. “I walked into the cafeteria not knowing a single person,” she says. “A campus guide came over and started talking to us. Her energy made me feel so comfortable. I remember thinking, ‘I want to do that for someone else.’” Today, Makenna helps organize tours,


welcomes prospective students during Palmer Pathways events, and shares the experiences that convinced her to


enroll. Her favorite stop is the technique room, where visitors often begin to picture themselves as future chiropractors. “You can see their ears perk up,” she says. “That’s what they’ve been waiting to see, and you can feel the connection immediately.” That same enthusiasm is what first drew


Associate Dean of Clinical Sciences Siri Leech, D.C. (`11), to become a campus guide when she was a student. Dr. Leech remembers having lunch with guides who spoke openly about balancing family, academics, and campus life. The experience helped confirm her decision to attend Palmer. She later became a campus guide herself


and now serves as faculty advisor for the program in Iowa. “The guides are a very special group of students,” Dr. Leech says.


“The shared enthusiasm, care, and love for the College creates a real bond. The guides I worked with as a student are still some of the alumni I’m closest to today.” Dr. Leech says that while campus looks


different now compared to her days leading tours, the qualities that make a great guide are timeless. “Their professionalism, their energy, and the fact that they genuinely care about people — that’s never going to change.” For Makenna, serving as a guide has


strengthened her own connection to Palmer as much as it has influenced prospective students. After one event, a future student told her the experience had solidified their decision to enroll. “I realized I had played a small part in helping someone choose Palmer,” she says. “What could be better?”


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