SSATB is pleased to partner with the University of Southern California's Rossier School of Education's Center for Enrollment Research, Policy and Practice (CERPP) to provide scholarships to and guidance for independent school enrollment management professionals to enroll in the online Leadership in Enrollment Management Certificate program.

In my first six years working in the admission office of a girls’ boarding and day school, I learned a great deal from my mentor and friend Andrew Wilson.  Andrew served our school for 29 years before retiring in June of 2015 and achieved quite a list of accomplishments.  Andrew passed away in July 2015, but one accomplishment of which he would be especially proud is the tight-knit community he established in his long tenure at Grier: one that has supported the efforts of the admission office for almost three decades.  As a good and decent man and as a successful director of admission, Andrew knew the importance of developing a friendly relationship with colleagues in all departments.  In addition to support from colleagues, strategic enrollment managers need institutional support to keep our efforts and initiatives moving forward. I’d like to share the wisdom I’ve gleaned from both my participation as an SSATB scholar in the USC/CERPP Leadership in Enrollment Management certificate program (which boasts an impressive faculty that leads enrollment management divisions at universities across the nation) and my own experiences to discuss the ways in which we can all gain the confidence and appropriate resources needed to support our schools’ missions via strategic enrollment management agendas.

Youlonda Copeland-Morgan, one member of the USC CERPP program faculty, serves as associate vice chancellor for enrollment management at UCLA, and suggests that a strategic enrollment manager needs the following to garner the institutional support of an institution:

• A vision that is shared broadly and effectively;
• The knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to be an effective and valuable member of the senior leadership team; and
• Collaborative relationships with colleagues in units across the institution.

In the years I served as a faculty member and associate director of admission, I developed a clear vision of my role in our boarding school community, yet it wasn’t until I assumed the role of admission director that my enrollment management vision for our admission office took form. In truth, the topics in session one of the USC/CERPP Leadership in Enrollment Management certificate program provided the framework and opportunity for me, as a new director, to step back and consider how the work we do in enrollment management can support our institutions’ missions. I have gained insight as I’ve traced the enrollment management trajectory of our school, examined the philosophical bases of our selection criteria, identified the ways in which our enrollment goals align with our mission, and crafted an argument in support of additional resources so that we may participate in the North American Boarding Initiative (NABI). These exercises provided clarity, and I encourage my independent school peers to engage in this same process of scholarship and reflection to develop both vision and institutional confidence in their roles as valuable members of their schools’ senior leadership teams.

While the ever-growing demands of an enrollment management division make it easy to have our “heads in the handlebars” (a French idiom I recently learned from another faculty member), Copeland-Morgan encourages us to look up, to invest in our managerial skill sets and our networks of colleagues. A good leader, she proposes, should be able to understand and present data effectively, manage change, navigate complex organizational landscapes, influence others, and build successful teams.  Years of experience can help develop many of these skills; my mentor was inspiring in his ability to navigate the changes boarding schools experienced between 1986 and 2015 as well as the school’s transition through four heads of school in his time as director of admission.  I feel very fortunate to have learned from my predecessor and also to have professional organizations and opportunities for development that did not exist in the early years of his career.  Today, we have many opportunities for professional development and networking, including organizations such as NAIS, TABS, SSATB, CASE, and AISAP.  These types of professional organizations provide each of us with the opportunity to continue to grow in our abilities as a leader, whether we are new, mid-career, or seasoned leaders in our profession.

Finally, to garner institutional support and confidence, we must work to build and sustain collaborative relationships with colleagues throughout our institutions.  From my time working with my mentor and friend, I learned the importance of working relationships (and friendships) crossing all boundaries of departments and divisions.  Andrew ate breakfast with the housemothers, cycled with the director of the board, played tennis with the students, enjoyed breakfast outings with the business manager’s husband, and took admission visitors on trips to buy quilts from the local Amish women.  He worked hard and made sure everyone knew how important he or she was to the school and to him. He was always willing to help colleagues in other departments and worked to collect and provide information in a timely and digestible manner. Through these measures, Andrew Wilson earned the respect of the faculty and staff as well as the rest of the leadership team and the board of trustees; thus, when he had an agenda item that required additional resources, he could move forward with support from the institution. Boarding school communities are often connected in this way, but I encourage all of us to learn from this example and reach out in new ways in the new year.

About the Author

Jennifer Neely began her tenure at Grier School in Pennsylvania in 2007 as a faculty member in the English department and currently serves as admission director. In the fall of 2009, Jennifer assumed the position as associate director of admission and continued to teach in the English department part-time through the 2014-2015 academic year. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in secondary education (English and communications), a Master of Education degree in curriculum and instruction (language and literacy education), and a reading specialist certification (k-12). In 2015, Ms. Neely was named an SSATB Scholar in USC’s Leadership in Enrollment Management certificate program. Jennifer, her husband Andrew—a fellow educator - and their daughter Joan reside on campus with their Golden Retriever Ari.