Marian University: Growing Programs

Situation

Marian University had a number of programs that they were trying to promote. Because of the success of other recruitment efforts focused on filling knowledge gaps at the campus, they tried this approach with several of the programs, including the Neuroscience program which was becoming increasingly popular but not well understood, with the School of Education that was trying to reach more teachers (not just prospective students), and with the 21st Century Scholars program (a need-based aid program in Indiana that required additional participation and engagement beginning as early as middle school) who was trying to reach students earlier so they could fill all of the requirements in order not to accidentally disqualify themselves.

Solution

We helped Marian partner with faculty to create an educational piece that defined what neuroscience is, as well as why it’s important in a classroom setting. We developed a clear Venn diagram to illustrate as well.

We also partnered with Marian faculty to develop a handout and website that outlined evidence-based practices for better teaching in the classroom, as well as a practical exercise application.

Finally, we partnered with 21st Century Scholars staff to capture the long-term and labor-intensive process of fulfilling the requirements so that they could receive the funding once they enrolled in college. The engaging checklist was more attractive than lists available at the time, providing a resource that teachers could share and students could hang on to.

Success

All three of these efforts saw notable success. Neuroscience faculty had more engaged discussions with students that focused on the science they were interested in rather than the mechanics of admissions, creating better prepared classroom students as freshmen.

We learned that school teachers with partner schools, particularly elementary and middle schools where Marian alumni were teaching, were actually using our exercises to improve classroom instruction.

We shared entire stacks of the 21st Century Scholars checklist with staff in both middle schools and high schools who willingly and gladly distributed the checklists on our behalf to the students they were coaching, thereby incidentally also recruiting future college students to the 21st Century Scholars program at Marian.