High schools—are you interested in creating more effective partnerships with the colleges in your neighborhood? Colleges—are you interested in more effectively reaching out to high school students in your own backyard? This type of proximity offers some unique opportunities for forming partnerships with the school next door. Come prepared to hear how two colleges and two high schools have used these relationships to their advantage, and bring some of your own examples as well.
1. Presenters
Karen Dahlstrom, Blackhawk College - Moderator
Rachel Gustafson – Assoc. Director of Admissions
Augustana College
Sterling Kingery – Counselor
Rock Island High School
Martha Stolze – Director of Admission
North Central College
Jean Childers – College & Career Center Assistant
Naperville Central High School
6. Instructional
•Bachelors in education for local teachers
•Masters in education program for teachers
•Theatrical programs resource for English classes
•“Calculus – the Musical” for Math classes
7. Teacher Preparation
•North Central provides novice teachers
•NCHS provides opportunity for student teaching
•30 of NCHS teachers North Central College grads
•Supervisory teachers receive reduced tuition
13. Possible Pitfalls
• Assume the local students don’t need
as much support
• Assume that commuter students
don’t want to be involved
• Assume they know their way around
campus
14. College & Career Fairs
IACAC College Fair Kids Matter Job Fair
Kids Matter Volunteer Fair
15. ICE College Fair Survey
“What special services or programs does your
college offer to local high schools?”
16. Survey Responses
Group Visit Info Day in Spanish
Career Event at High School
Financial Aid Workshop
17. Survey Responses
Theology Class for Private HS
Chicago Public Schools AVID
Students can take class for free
19. Survey Responses
Sports Facilities
Career Development Programs
and Tours of Chicago
AVID Class Presentations
20. Survey Responses
Dual Enrollment AP Courses
Take classes free during HS year
Campus Tours for HS busloads
21. Survey Responses
Masters Programs for Teachers
Presentations “Social Media”
College & Career Support &
Scholarships
22. Survey Responses
Multicultural Arts Show/AVID
HS Visiting Students JR-SR year
Engineering/Pharmacy Camps
Physics & Math Competitions
& summer enrichment programs
23. The School Next Door,
a Quad Cities partnership
Augustana College and Rock Island HS
Rachel Gustafson, Associate Director of Admissions, Augustana
College
Sterling Kingery, Guidance Counselor for Rock Island High School
24. Augustana College
Augustana is located in the Quad Cities, a
metropolitan area of 400,000 spanning the
Mississippi River
Partner with high schools in Illinois and Iowa
Quad Cities
About 10% of our student population is from
the “schools next door” (Illinois and Iowa
Quad Cities)
25. Whose job is it to partner
locally?
Two counselors have the schools next door as
part of their regions, along with an
admissions counselor who works specifically
on multicultural and community outreach
Recruited Kane and DuPage counties for 16
years
Recruited “schools next door” for 4 years
26. Rock Island HS
Located in Rock Island, IL
School of 1679 students
32% go to 4 year colleges
34% attend 2 year colleges
4 full time counseling staff
27. Pros and Cons of recruiting
in your neighborhood
Pros:
Allows a higher level of engagement with students and
other influencers
Opportunities for outreach and recruitment are endless
Requires creativity in meeting students where they are and
overcoming objections
High name recognition
Large base of alumni and others connected to campus
High percentage of students who have grown up aspiring to
attend
Increased willingness of campus partners to participate in
recruitment locally
Limited travel
28. Cons:
High percentage of students overlook the institution
Students who have spent limited time on campus (i.e.
football games) think they know the institution
Base their view of the college on rumors, myths,
misperceptions or assumptions
Recruitment and outreach could take place 7 days/week,
24 hours/day
Families sometimes expect a greater amount of
recognition and service being from “the school next door”
29. Outreach vs. recruitment
Start early and often
Participate in community events
Presence at local festivals and fairs
Using student ambassadors wisely in the community
Working with marketing & communications to
publicize events that already happen on campus (i.e.
science open house, planetarium shows, dinosaur
day, etc.)
Our staff has been known to do school visits to
elementary and junior high classes to get them
excited about college
30. Outreach
Classroom presentations
How to write college application essay – English
classes
How to choose a career
Foreign study in college - Foreign language
classes
The college application process
Interviewing skills
Careers in art
31. Academic Partnerships
Augustana Summer Academy
HS freshmen-juniors
In its 3rd year
Courses offered on Gross Anatomy (cadaver
dissection), CSI Forensics, Neuroscience, Pipe
Organ, Sports Medicine, Harry Potter
Live on campus in res halls
Grant money for local students offered
32. Academic Partnership
Faculty involvement
Accounting faculty speak to all local high schools’
accounting classes about careers in accounting
HS Anatomy classes invited to a tour of cadaver
lab and able to see work in progress
AP English classes invited to the library to do
guided research with librarians
33. Guidance partnership
FA nights for parents and students
Bilingual FA night
College planning 101 – invite local guidance
counselors to work with visiting alumni
students and their families
Taking current local Augie students to high
school visits at their home school
Guidance counselor/admissions relationship
34. Arts Partnership
Offer free tickets to QC high school students for
every concert, play, dance show, improv show,
etc.
Second Baptist Music Academy – Augustana
faculty work with low-income high school
students to offer free music lessons and free or
discounted use of instruments
Bucktown Center for the Arts – annual
photography show which highlights Augustana
students’ work includes a high school photo
contest which draws dozens of high schoolers to
the show.
35. Athletics partnership
Invite local teams to games and meets,
making them a “big deal”. Announcing
visiting teams and players at the game and
meeting with the coach.
Sports camps
Shared use of facilities – local Catholic HS
shares our football facilities every Friday
36. Recognizing local students
Newspaper project
Student ambassadors comb through local papers
Find articles on local high school students making
news
Drop them a note congratulating them
37. Using local resources from
the high school side:
Group visits to local 4 years and community
college
Financial aid night – use ISAC
FAFSA workdays at Black Hawk
Support local college fairs
ELL recruitment (Rocky has over 160 ELL
students that speak 19 different languages)
Legacy event partnership with Augustana
38. Discussion groups
1. What ideas has your school tried in terms of
neighborhood partnerships that are unique or seem to
have worked well?
2. Have you tried partnering in ways that were not
successful and why?
3. Where do you see potential to try something new
that hasn’t been tried in your neighborhood?
4. What do you hope to gain from partnership with the
school next door?
39. 5. Whose responsibility is it at your school to
reach out to the schools next door? Is there just
one individual this falls, is it a committee or is it
everyone?
6. For the schools you feel you have a good
relationship with, what contributed to that?
7. For colleges, do you publicize events
differently, or host different events, for local
students?
8. For high schools, do you see the local
colleges as a resource? How could they be a
better resource?