Enrollment Marketing for Higher Education

Cathy Donovan:

Successful athletic programs at colleges and universities can lead to significant increases in applications and enrollment. And athletic success drives social media conversation and engagement more than any other campus topic. There’s also what athletics can do for brand reputation, regardless of what division.

Student athletes are also excellent influencer marketers. Sharing their stories to friends, family, and fans, not to mention the positive impact of sports to belonging, wellness, and even academic achievement. As higher education enrollment continues to face challenges, athletics can play a huge part in recruitment, retention, brand, and so much more.

I’m Cathy Donovan, agency marketing director at Paskill, a higher education enrollment marketing firm where we believe that every student deserves an incredible college experience.  On today’s episode of Innovating Enrollment Success. We’ll be talking with an athletics director who increased student athlete enrollment by 53% at Hood College in just a few years and the student athlete recipient of last season’s Big 10 Sportsmanship Award for the Big 10 field hockey championship team, Northwestern University. Their head coach is now in Paris for the Olympics as coach for the U.S. Women’s Field Hockey Team.

Dr. Susan Kolb became Hood College’s Director of Athletics in 2018. She previously served in various academic and administrative roles at the University of South Carolina Upstate, George Mason University, and Eastern Mennonite University. A former four-year letter winner in women’s soccer at Davis and Elkins, she also played semi pro soccer for the Charlotte Eagles and holds a Doctorate in Athletic Administration from North Central University.

Magnolia Powers is a recent graduate from Northwestern University, where she majored in Biology with a concentration in Human Health and Disease and is on her path to pursuing a career in medicine. She is a member of the 2021 National Championship Field Hockey Varsity Team at Northwestern, where she was recruited in ninth grade after helping her high school team secure the Pennsylvania State Title in 2017.

Welcome Sue and Maggie.

Maggie Powers:

Thank you.

Sue Kolb:

Thanks for having us.

Cathy Donovan:

Well, clearly sports have had such an impact on your lives and careers.  I would hope that you could both start us off by just sharing what about sports has kept you so committed to competing at advanced levels and how athletics influence your college experiences? Sue, will you get us started?

Sue Kolb:

Sure. Um, thank you again for having me.  I would say that ever since I was four years old, I’ve been involved in sports, at different levels. I was thankful that my parents put me in sports. I’m an only child and so I guess my siblings became my teammates at a young age.

As I went through high school, I went to a really small high school, I graduated with 36 in our class and every athlete in our school played every sport. It just was something that you did. So when I got to the college level, I probably liked soccer the most but maybe I was better at softball or basketball.

But anyway, I went to college on a soccer scholarship, walked on to the softball team and somehow ended up walking on the ski team as well in my last year. When I graduated, I really always thought I’d follow in my mom’s footsteps of being an educator. At that time in 08/09, we were in the recession, and it was really challenging to find jobs in education.

And so a friend of mine, a teammate of mine said, why don’t you become a graduate assistant? You know, they’ll pay for your master’s degree. You’ll get, you know, you’ll get some good experience coaching. So I did that and I absolutely fell in love with coaching, which is so close and similar to education. Um, so after I became a graduate assistant at Bluffing University, I worked with the men in the women’s teams.

I knew I wanted to be a head coach. Um, so at 23 years old, I became a college head coach. And looking back on that now, it was probably a little too young at the time just to make those tough decisions, but it was a great experience. Nonetheless, I will always be grateful for that experience. But at the time I also was given an opportunity to be on an NCAA women and minority grant at EMU, where I was coaching, where they were trying to elevate and promote women and minorities in sports.

So I quickly became the senior women administrator, the assistant athletic director, and I went back for my Doctorate in Athletic Administration at that time. I’ve learned so much through athletics, knowing that this is what I get to do every single day and it is the next best thing to playing.

Um, so it’s something that I, I’m incredibly passionate about, and I just hope to give back to, to some athletes that come to Hood and, and really anyone that I come in contact with. So. I don’t know if I directly answered your question, but…

Cathy Donovan:
Sure you did. Sure you did. It’s a journey.

Sue Kolb:
It is a journey.

Cathy Donovan:
I appreciate it. How about you, Maggie?

Maggie Powers:
Yeah. So, uh, sports have been a part of my life. I agree with Sue since probably I was four years old. Um, I always had a stick in my hand or was kicking the soccer ball around. And so I actually played soccer my whole life, like peewee soccer, soccer, and, um, both of my parents played a sport in college. And so sports were always a big, um, part of our house and my family is a big Philadelphia sports family. All my cousins and grandmom, aunts and uncles, everybody, we always cheer loud for the Eagles and Phillies. So I feel like sports have always been a big part of my life and have taught me that there’s something bigger than myself out there and just the idea of a team and community.

And so I played soccer my whole life. Um, like growing up as a kid. And then in middle school, um, I went to an all-girls Catholic middle school and my soccer team didn’t win one game the entire fall season and I remember my mom said, you’re done with soccer. Like, I’m not sitting through another season of just like a crapshoot basically. And so she put me in field hockey. Um, and I ended up really loving it. And I really like the challenge of it. I obviously it’s different than soccer and it’s a like more hand eye coordination, I’d say and I played lacrosse too growing up so it’s a little bit more similar to that  And I just really loved how challenging it was and the strategy behind it and so I played club field hockey, which is a year round commitment taught me a lot of sacrifice for my family and I trying to get recruited and, um, just, you know, the fees of being on a competitive travel team and traveling to tournaments and planes and driving. It was the whole shebang. Um, but then in high school, I started getting some looks and I had to decide if I wanted field hockey or lacrosse in college. And then I ended up going with field hockey, um, just for the challenge reason. I really liked lacrosse, but I felt like you just had to be fast to be good.

And I liked that field hockey kind of pushed me the like kind of mental side of it, um, with technique and things like that. And so I guess the main, and then I ended up getting recruited, um, and playing, and I got a scholarship to go to Northwestern University. And I mean, it was an incredible experience.

It taught me the person that I am today and I’m really grateful for that. And I think the three things, the three main things that I’ve gotten out of sports is just the love for competition. And I think this is more like an internal competitive edge. It always taught me to kind of strive to be a better version of myself. And I’m very goal oriented and I kind of like that.

Piece of sports that you’re kind of earning the next corner. You’re earning the next foul or a goal and you’re working hard for something and I kind of translated that into myself outside of sports and earning for something, um, bigger than myself and I’ve always had dreams of going to medical school and so that kind of competitive edge has helped me along my classes and things like that.

But also, the sense of community that sports has brought me, just the relationships with all different types of people, coaches, players. Field hockey is very big internationally and so we’ve had a lot of foreign students come over on our team and that’s just been an incredible experience learning new ways of life, and just communication skills with coaches and refs and players.

I think part of the person I am today is like, it wouldn’t be the same without sports. Um, so I’d say competition and community are the big things that I’ve gotten from it.

Cathy Donovan:
Fantastic. So, Sue, now you get to support student athletes at Hood College. You know, talk about that recruitment process and, and how that functions at your institution and, you know, why you think you’ve had such a strong success rate?

Sue Kolb:

Well, I’ll be honest. It changes every single year. And we’ve had to learn the trends and the ebbs and flows of recruiting from when I was a coach. Um, now over 10 years ago to now as an administrator, what I’ve realized is more than ever, recruiting happens much earlier in the process of, of in their high school journey.

So I know that we are looking at sophomores. We are, we’ve opened up the application. The NCAA allows us to have official visits starting the junior year, January of the junior year, but if we’re not seeing them as sophomores, then that’s probably not giving us an early enough look to invite them to come to campus their junior year, when a lot of athletes are making decisions their junior year or the summer between their junior and senior year.

The other thing that’s really playing a huge part in today’s recruiting that certainly was not a part in my day when I was getting recruited is a social media aspect of things you know, it’s the videos that we’re putting up when, you know, they, they commit, it’s the love that we give them.

And there’s so many nuances with compliance and NCAA compliance. You, you can like, but you can’t tag in, in social media. Yeah, so you have to be really careful about how you utilize social media in recruiting, but we track recruiting all the time through social media and it’s really important that you know, we give our recruits love through social media. Um, how many times do you get to see them play? How many how many coaches are contacting them? Um, how many times are you texting them during the week, but not over, you know, overdoing it. So, it’s, it’s a fine balance. Whereas again, when I was getting recruited in 03, it’s like, I was lucky to get a phone call on our, on our phone at home, um, from a coach.

And that was just so exciting. And now, you know, recruits really need that constant, they want that constant feedback.  That reassurance from the coach. It’s a big decision. This is the biggest decision that, you know, a young man or woman has to make in their life. And there’s a lot at play. And I think there’s been a lot that has changed since COVID, you know, I think that we’re seeing more recruits want to stay closer to home, um, than when they maybe were four years ago.

And so how does that play a part? Um, are they thinking about commuting instead of staying on campus? Uh, do they really want to be a flight away anymore? And I’ll tell you the last piece that’s really, really been a factor for us is NIL. Name, image, and likeness. That’s been a huge factor for recruiting. And at Division Three, we don’t see it as much when recruits are deciding between Division Three schools, but it does affect us, um, when we’re battling D2 and D1 schools who do seem to have more NIL deals at significant amounts.

So, we do have some recruits, and some athletes that do get NIL deals once they get to campus. Um, but that’s really changed the landscape of recruiting for us.  But we’ve been able to find success. We find the niche that we have at Hood, and that has been different everywhere I’ve been. It’s really that sweet spot, what academic level, what socioeconomic level, what major, what ethnic background, everything that plays a part in it, because we don’t provide athletic scholarships at the Division Three level.

So, it really is trying to find that right fit, you know, with taking advantage of all of our scholarships at hood, um, and how can they be successful here? So, we’ve been really, really just transparent in the process and persistent on finding that right fit. And it’s really, really worked out well for us here.

Cathy Donovan:

Cool.  How about you, Maggie? Will you talk about your recruiting experience? You know, how did you know Northwestern was right for you? And what were some of those lessons that you kind of look back now, um, that could be of insight to all those aspiring athletes or other institutions out there?

Maggie Powers:

Yeah, um, so I’m going to second a lot of Sue’s points with the NIL stuff, but it is really daunting that this entire decision is up to sometimes a 16-year-old developing brain. And so that’s how it was with me. I obviously wanted, like I said, med school was kind of the end goal for me. And so I wanted to look at schools that I could use my athletic ability to get the best education I could. And so I looked at a lot of different schools, um, obviously just the process of recruiting and traveling to places and like Sue said, deciding if you want to stick close to home or go a little bit farther away.

Do you want a city school? Do you want more rural? Um, and all these things are up to someone who’s still in high school and just passing geometry. Um, and so I would say it was daunting and there were definitely highs and lows. It was kind of a roller coaster of am I making the right decision? Um, but when I went out to Northwestern, I just absolutely fell in love with it.

And I just, it felt like home out there. Um, and so obviously it was a plane ride away, 12-hour car ride, which we did do multiple times. But I just really liked what Northwestern, kind of their selling points and the way they took care of female student athletes was just really inspiring to me.  And I think one of the biggest pieces I learned, so I had a hip injury at the end of my high school career and it led into college and, this really taught me that kind of sports aren’t a forever thing and that sometimes they can be taken away for different reasons.

And so I really wanted to pick a school that, say, field hockey didn’t work out, that I would still love the campus and what the school had to offer. And so that would be my biggest piece of advice to young people getting recruited is just to pick a school that really fits you.  Your entire sense of you, not just your athletic identity.

But I think coaches and admin can really help with this during recruiting processes and kind of sell the entire school and not just the athletics. I think that really builds a sense of community within the athlete and non-athlete communities within a school. And it also shows to the athlete being recruited that their athletic identity isn’t the whole thing that’s being recruited that they want you as a person.

And I think that’s really comforting, especially as you talk about mental health and student athletes and how you’re more than your sport. And I think if you start that within the recruiting experience, yes, with the NIL and everything, it gets crazy. But to really sell that like we want you as a person, I think can go, just looking back on it now from a college graduate perspective, it goes a long way when you know you are wanted for like your entire self and not just your athletic abilities. But the NIL stuff is just crazy. It feels like it skyrocketed in two years. I was a freshman in 2020. And I don’t even remember the words NIL. And now as I got older it really became more a part of every conversation.

And so field hockey is a fall sport. And so our compliance meetings were always in the heat of preseason after like three days and you’re sitting through these compliance meetings, you’re not really understanding anything that’s going on. So that was a very big trial and error experience with just learning that, yes, there are opportunities for girls to earn money and, uh, through their name, image, and likeness.

It’s really exciting that that is a possibility, but obviously you do see the discrepancy between female and male and different budgets and D1, D2, D3. So it’s just like opening a whole can of worms that I still don’t even fully understand and I’m done with the process. Um, but yeah, so I’m really happy with my decision and I thank myself, my 16-year-old self, for deciding Northwestern because it couldn’t have been a more perfect fit.

Cathy Donovan:

Well, let’s talk a little bit about the power of sports on your school’s brand recognition. You know, what are some good stories about how maybe one athlete or one team’s accomplishments created a lot of buzz for your institutions? I mean, everyone loves an underdog story and could be, I mean, just watching the Olympics it’s so inspiring to see.  You know, people put their heart and soul out there on the field. Um, well, you both share. Sue, you want to start us off with any good stories of something that happened at Hood that was pretty remarkable, that got got people really excited.

Sue Kolb:

Sure. I am proud that we have been to the NCAA tournament now three times in my six years here, twice for men’s basketball, once for men’s golf, which had not been done in quite some time. And that’s truly a dedication from the coaches and the student athletes.  We’ve been able to certainly add resources to help them elevate their success and their preparation for that level.

Um, but it’s so interesting each time we’ve gone, it’s been a different experience, and the athletes just have the best time. The families travel in a pack. You know there’s tailgating before the game. but it’s so funny because the last time that we were at the men’s NCAA first round of the regional tournament in Guilford College in North Carolina. And of course, I’m at the game, but for my family that couldn’t make it, they were all watching it on live stream and fortunately, Hood Men’s Basketball has been successful for several years and, and we have gotten that brand recognition for Hood College through Hood Men’s Basketball making it to that level, especially in the sport of men’s basketball, which again, as Maggie kind of alluded to tends to I think attract more fans sometimes.

But when, when my family was watching the game on live stream the announcers kept calling us The Hood, the Hood scores and the Hood comes back. Um, so even though they were saying our name wrong, it did generate a lot of buzz and a lot of coverage around the college and where is Hood and why is this Hood have the name? We were actually named after our founder, Margaret Hood. Um, but yeah, no, that’s, that’s a funny story with some buzz around the college, but, but absolutely again, just growing from  287 when I got here in 2018 to now going into this fall with over 450 athletes, I think it’s only fair to say that we are trying to pump our athletes with as much gear to take home to their families and giving alumni as many bumper stickers as possible because they are our marketing tools for us.

They are the vehicles that are taking Hood College to their hometowns. They’re wearing it all over the place. And we try to, we try to do that as much as possible because it’s free marketing for us. And so I always say that it’s the front porch of the institution. I don’t think all of our administrators would agree with that, but I think that it absolutely is when we beat our rival, we’re going to be on the front page of the paper when we win the conference or we make it to the NCAA tournament we’re getting more love than maybe what some other departments are on campus.

And we take that responsibility very seriously on both ends. Um, because we know that as much buzz around athletics, it can also hurt you if it’s for the wrong reasons why you’re getting the buzz. So we take that responsibility very seriously. And, I think we’ve certainly been able to help Hood make a name for themselves through athletics.

Cathy Donovan:

Great. How about you, Maggie? Any good, um, Northwestern victory stories or stories of triumph?

Maggie Powers:

Yeah, I have, I have two. One is, more NIL and then one is kind of an underdog story. But our, Girls Lacrosse Team at Northwestern has just been a dynasty. And one thing similar about, lacrosse and field hockey is a lot of teams across the country wear skirts, but at Northwestern both teams wear shorts and this was kind of a deliberate decision by admin to say, look, take them seriously. This is female sports. It’s changing. These are, and we’re two of the best, better programs at Northwestern.

And so we kind of always felt connected by that. Um, but they have just done an incredible job with marketing and, like Sue was talking about social media, their presence on social media can really change a program. And it’s always so inspiring because all the local teams have, they’ve been a dynasty for about like 10 years now, so they have a huge following.

And it’s so nice to see such a packed stadium for a girls’ event. And so they always have, um, end up hosting the NCAA first couple rounds, and it’s always just so fun to go see and all these little girls who are packed in the stadium cheering on with Northwestern Wildcat t-shirts, it’s just so exciting.

And it kind of taught our field hockey team, like, why can’t we be like that? Like, why can’t we work as hard as we can to get to NCAAs and try to make a name for ourselves. And it was just really inspiring. And to just know the platform that you have as a student athlete in college, and the people who that you could be inspiring is just really incredible.

And when you see there’s like certain events that we do signings after games and stuff and I always get choked up signing little girls’ jerseys, “you can do it.” Like you almost just want to like tell them like what’s possible for them, but then my other one is with our football team, so with the NIL stuff  for me, it felt very random.

Like it was like a random email. That’s like, “Hey, do you want to do this?” Um, and so I was like, sure. And so I didn’t really know what I was signing up for, but I ended up going to the Lincoln Park Zoo, which is a zoo in Chicago with a couple of student athletes with a foundation called Chicago Hopes and it’s for helping kids who are in and out of homelessness.

And it’s an event at the zoo where you dress up as costumes and kind of take pictures with kids. And, you know, like we weren’t entirely close with our football team here. So it was really funny to see them in a different light than they normally are on the big screen or in their media day. And they were dressed up as Mike Wazowski and Sully in like 70-degree weather and it was absolutely hilarious and we always call ourselves Chicago’s Big Ten team, Northwestern is. But here it really felt like we were connecting with the greater community around us. Um, and just knowing that we’re more than, uh, our sports and just being at Northwestern and trying to spread the joy and love of sports with other people. And showing everyone that there’s a possibility that they can kind of play in college. Um, and so I’ll never forget just seeing like goofy giant football players dressed up as Sully, like with kids jumping up on their backs. It was absolutely hilarious.

Cathy Donovan:

Maggie, you left out what you were dressed up as though, I feel like if you were there, you may have been dressed up as well.

Maggie Powers:

Well, those costumes, I really wanted them, but they were already taken when I walked in. I was Batwoman. And they were like, “Are you Batman? I’m like, I’m Batwoman.” But Mike and Sully were just hilarious.

Cathy Donovan:

That’s fun. Well, I want to talk a little bit more about women in sports because right now there are more women enrolled in college, but fewer female athletes. I did hear that at the Olympics, at least for USA, there were equal number male and female athletes. And, you know, while athletes like Caitlin Clark may have set some new records for fans of women’s athletics, I just want to talk about some of the challenges for women in sports and your thinking on new trend trends and predictions for female athletes going forward. Sue, did you want to get us started?

Sue Kolb:

So new trends and predictions moving forward? I think there’s a lot of great organizations right now trying to promote women in athletics. I think the NCAA has taken the right steps for that. I think they’ve done a great job in inclusion the whole way around.

They knew, I think probably the most eye-opening moment that I can remember was at the Women’s Final Four about four years, maybe not four years. It might’ve been pre COVID maybe post COVID where they compared the women and men’s locker rooms, and weight rooms, between the two sports. And that was an Oh No moment.

I think Charlie Baker, the new president of the NCAA is,  I’ve met with him several times. I was the chair of our conference this year, and I had a chance to meet with him a couple of times as well as the Division Three and, and both of them are really trying to be intentional on how to promote women in athletics and also just enhancing the experience in general. So continuing for, for sport after college, I think they’re very intentional about, I think the opportunities for women are continuing to increase. I know women’s flag football is on the rise. That’s a new sport that’s emerging. And from what I understand, that should be the Olympics just announced that they’re going to host it, um, in LA in the next four years. So that’s cool. Um, colleges are starting to sponsor it. It’s taking off in high school. One of our baseball players is actually a woman on our team. And she actually just emailed me yesterday. She competes in the, for the team USA women’s baseball. And, uh, they just got a silver medal. They lost to Japan at the Worlds. Um, but she made the all-world team and the DH position. So shout out to Remy.

Um, so there are opportunities for women, but the biggest challenge that I see in this seat is women, women being hard on other women.  So many times people ask me, does the old boys club still exist? And the answer is yes, it very much does. There are still those pockets that, you know, if you’re not a part of the, you know, the guys that smoke cigars and drink Scotch after a meeting, after, you know, a meeting on the golf course, then you’re not going to fit in. But I probably could out drive most of those men, number one. And number two, I don’t want to, I don’t want to be, I don’t want to work for someone like that. I don’t want to work with someone like that. However, those pockets are getting fewer and fewer and fewer because they’re retiring or they’re just getting with the times.

What I found to be the most disappointing is women dragging down other women. I don’t know if it’s jealousy. I don’t know if it’s this competition of who’s going to hit the ceiling first. I don’t know what it is. And so every time I’ve been given an opportunity to speak to young women or student, female student athletes. I have said, don’t be that woman. Um, one of the best books I’ve ever read is by Sheryl Sandberg. Um, and it’s called Lean In. It’s very intentional about women leaning in at the business table and not being so shy. And not feeling like your voice isn’t an equal. And that was one of the best books I ever read to really kind of spearhead my dissertation.  Um, but that doesn’t mean, one of my favorite quotes is “don’t blow out someone else’s candle to make yours shine brighter.”

And I think women sometimes do that. And I don’t know why. So in my opinion, one of the biggest challenges is women being harder on other women. And I think we need to recognize that that is something that exists. I think the old boys club still does exist, but even on a very, very much smaller level than, than women, um, who just need to be supportive and inclusive of other women who want to continue in this field.

It’s, it’s a tough field, especially if you want to have a family, it is possible. Um, but those are some of the things that I see. It certainly wouldn’t, um, hinder me from ever encouraging other people and other women to get into the field of sport, whether that’s as an athlete or an administrator or in some other capacity, because every day isn’t a great day. Some days are good. Some days are great, but I love what I do. And there’s a lot of opportunities for women, for sure.

Cathy Donovan:

What about you, Maggie?

Maggie Powers:

Yeah, I totally agree. And you can really see that too, in the media and especially in the WNBA, you see how players are being pinned up against each other. For what reason? Like they’re just competitive and trying to showcase their skill. Why are we talking about this versus this? Um, so I think that’s such a good point to make when you’re talking about, um, women in sports. Um, but obviously, so Northwestern really took care of its, um, female student athletes. And that’s why I chose it. Some of my other visits, I remember it. Okay. Then being like, Oh, here are the football gyms and facilities. And then it was like, okay, here’s the field hockey gym. And I was like, oh, really? And so when I went to Northwestern, I was just so impressed with our facilities and how everything felt equal.

But obviously it’s not always like that. And so there was frustrations. Especially field hockey is a people would come up to us at practice and they’re like what sport is this? I’m like, it’s field hockey like come on. But anyway, so when we won the National Championship, it was incredible and such an amazing experience and you just felt like all your hard work was finally being um, kind of, I don’t know, uh reciprocated or just rewarded, I guess.

And um, and then we get back and we’re kind of like so excited about it and I go into the gear store and there’s just not one field hockey t-shirt and I was like, “Oh, do you guys have any field hockey gear? Like we just won” and they’re like, “Oh, no, sorry. I didn’t know we had a field hockey team here.” I’m like, oh my God.

So like you feel like you those little reminders are like, yep, although we like have made a lot of progress, there’s always something worth fighting for. And so our coaches were really incredible with this and kind of yeah, teaching us how to be grateful for what we have, but also to keep pushing for what’s next. And we also did a lot of, um, we would do like an event each, um, quarter and just to kind of thank some of the pioneers who have come before us and learning about what it was like. In the 80s with, um, title nine and or that was in 1972, but just learning about and educating ourselves on the female athletes who have come before us.

And I’m really grateful for our coaches for doing that because we can see how much progress we’ve made. And at the same time, how much we can still keep fighting for. And so I think for the future it’s really awesome to see the rising fame of some of the female athletes in the news and at the Olympics. It’s really exciting and I think inspiring for young girls to see that they can go just as far as men in sports. Um, but also the idea that you need to keep pushing for broadcasting equality and things like that, and now there’s a lot more pro leagues for women and ice hockey, WNBA, lacrosse, there’s a pro league. And so you just want to keep, fighting for being able to watch those. Sometimes you need subscriptions. So I think the next step is pushing for streaming services to pick them up.

But it was really awesome I will say watching the March Madness this year. I live with a couple of field hockey girls and it was so exciting to cheer for both men’s and women’s March Madness and to make brackets for both.  I was like this is so exciting I’ve never done this before and I think honestly the media is a big part of that like trying to get people talking about it. And so I think it’s exciting and I think there’s a lot to fight for still.

Cathy Donovan:

Awesome. Well, you know, being a student athlete just means a lot of practice. So you can’t be that great without working really hard for it. And that’s travel and it’s training. I just wanted to talk also about, you know, fitting that in with your academic performance.

I know Maggie Northwestern’s field hockey team earned a perfect academic progress rate score for the NCAA data. Just wanted to talk about the challenges and strategies of being so driven to succeed on your team and how you make that work in the classroom too.

Maggie Powers:

Yeah, totally. So I really chose Northwestern for its academics and athletics and a lot of my teammates did, which was really awesome to have a team of grinders. We would be in the hotel lobbies, like before games, it was actually this past fall, we were in the National Championship again. And me and like four of my teammates all had an exam the next day. We’re like, this is absolutely brutal, but I mean, that’s what we signed up for. And we kind of love the grind.

And so it’s really nice to have a team of people supporting you in that way.  Like academic staff and our coaches were really good and said, you can be whatever major you want. Um, and I think that’s why I was drawn to Northwestern is a lot of people said, you can’t be pre-med and play collegiate field hockey. Um, and I was like, I think I can. And so when I talked to my coaches about it, they were like, yeah, you think you can do it like we’ll help you as much as we need. Um, and so it was hard and it was difficult. It’s a heavy course load and a tough training schedule. Um, but you do have a lot of help. And I learned a lot.

And I think some of the big lessons I learned was one compartmentalization. If you have a bad exam that day and then you’re going to practice, you kind of have to block it out and just focus on what’s in front of you. And I think that’s a really big skill that I rely on now is if I’m having a tough day in some area to kind of learn to deal with that later and focus on what’s in front of me.

And I think that’s given me the ability to give 100 percent of my effort and focus in the moment. And I think that has gotten me really far. And I remember like being a good student freshmen and having like a rough exam or a rough day at class. And I’m like, you know, like all rattled at practice. Um, and just thinking how far I came from that is really nice to see.

Um, and then also resilience, like you’re going to get knocked down in the classroom, especially at Northwestern. I definitely got knocked down a couple of times. Um, but to know that, like, you’re not defined by your grades. I think that’s kind of the awesome part of sports is like you can have a tough day in the classroom and still have a great practice and kind of realize that you’re not just defined by one thing.

And I think that’s almost that sense of community and being able to kind of blow off steam at practice and then also realize like there’s bigger things to life than one exam or one practice and just being able to kind of balance both personas was definitely not easy, but I am much better for it. So I owe a lot of our success to our academic staff at Northwestern.

 

We had kind of like guidance counselors or academic counselors who were in our athletic building so they really knew the ins and outs of our athletics commitments and they’d help us pick classes around our field hockey schedule and it just felt like I had so much help.  If I ever needed a tutor or if I ever needed a question about  taking one of my exams on the road like I had a lot of people to turn to and so I think it’s really the team around the team that helped all of us like pursue our majors and really want to get the full experience out of Northwestern.

So definitely it wasn’t an easy process but it really taught me a lot of valuable lessons that I think not everyone learns until later in life. Um, so I’m really grateful for that.

Cathy Donovan:

Cool. So how about at Hood College, you know, how do you, how do your students balance athletics in their education?

Sue Kolb:

Yeah, no, I think a lot of what Maggie said is exactly what our students have to balance. And, and it’s not to the same level just because of the different division. You know, we probably have a closer travel schedule than what Northwestern does. Um, so we’re certainly not flying to any games. Our farthest game might be three hours away and so any types of, any longer trips we’re trying to do on weekends to minimize classes.

You know, I think that we try to do our best to, to teach them about time management. Um, I think that we certainly prioritize academics. Division Three is absolutely huge about academics. And, you know, there’s no secret, there’s no special sauce. There’s just organization. There’s time management. There’s communication. And there’s a lot of hard work. And, you know, we give them tools, even as simple as, are you using a calendar to keep track of when you have due dates and when you have all of your games? And if you can prepare for that. If you have a, you know, a huge project on the day of a game and you’re not going to be able to, to go to class that day, you know, finding out the day before is not ideal.

So we do certainly try to teach them about planning and giving them, uh, planners and, and organization tools for that. I was, um, I was an academic administrator at USC Upstate and George Mason, and that is certainly a nice resource that most Division One schools have. That is not the case for us at Division Three. And so my associate ad here, um, he really does.  All of our teams, we have 25 teams, and so he’s not their academic advisor, but he is their resource that he really works with, um, any athlete that really falls below a certain GPA. He’s really kind of tracking very closely on and works very much in conjunction to our, um, staff, dean of student success and their department.  So, um, again, it’s nothing that is a secret. It really does take exactly what Maggie said, just the hard work, the, the organization, the time management and the communication.

And the communication piece, I think, just goes under…  I don’t think we talk about that enough because I think this generation of student,  I won’t even say student athlete, just students in general, I think walking into a professor’s office and having a conversation with them is not as easy for them because we’re so used to sending a text.

And it’s, you’re not going to call their office for office hours. Um, and emails sometimes can be sent as a text. We do have those conversations too, but it’s how to communicate and how to communicate appropriately. It is a privilege to be a student athlete, so it is not a right. And if the, if the professor makes, you know, an alternative opportunity for them to do it, and it doesn’t fit in with their social life, they need to understand that that comes first.

So it’s, it’s trying to teach them, um, those lessons. And, um, again there’s some bumps along the road. There’s some there’s some disappointments of wanting to do something and they can’t because they have to make the tough decision to do it. But I think anyone that’s ever been a student athlete has had to make sacrifices. And that’s something that you have to do as a student athlete. And that comes along with balance and everything else that was talked about.

Cathy Donovan:

And I think with that sacrifice does come some belonging though. So, um, yeah we attend a lot of higher ed marketing conferences, so we’ll be talking with folks from different kinds of schools, and they’ll say it’s just a little bit harder for students coming in to start up conversations and feel like a sense of belonging.

If they’re coming in, not as an athlete, maybe they’re, they’re coming in just as a student. So I just wanted to talk about can you get that sense of belonging, even if you’re not on an official team? Could you cultivate that in a club or in some rec sports?  Just a little bit about the pros of belonging if you’re on a team and, can you make that if say, you’re not. Maggie, will you start us off on that?

Maggie Powers:

Yeah, definitely. I will say, I think just the power of sports to bring people together is just incredible. And so whether you’re not on a team or you are on a team to just support the athletics at your school is really important and can help you meet so many friends sitting in the stands.  Um, so I definitely will say football games and some of the events at your school to really, I encourage students to get out there and you can meet people and just get a sense of school pride.

I think is really important. Um, I will say that, uh, intramural leagues are pretty awesome. My field hockey team joined as a basketball team and we had matching uniforms and we were horrible. We were literally the last place in the league, but it was still really fun to kind of mix with non-athletes at your school and just get that competitive edge that sports brings.

Um, but there’s definitely just such a sense of belonging when you’re on a team and to enter college. I entered in 2020 so obviously the world is in chaos and we were all in our bubble. We got COVID tested every day. Um, so we really relied on each other to kind of get through those times and it was really like you couldn’t really see other, um, teams or other people. You kind of had to stay with your team. And so we had 10 people in my class freshman year on the team. And so we’ve really just bonded and kind of, um, really leaned on each other to get through it and I’m really grateful for that time together because now as a senior we’re all still pretty close and you don’t always get that and so I think that was one thing that COVID really brought to our team was just getting really close really quickly and leaning on each other right away.

Um, and I think you can get that in a lot of different ways with clubs and certain things at school. Um, but I will, I think that social media can really help with this and I think varsity programs, promoting club programs, or intramural intermural programs on social media can really go far. Um, and I think that some schools can really kind of hone in on these, um, posts and really try to promote school pride in any way and just even reposting other team successes or just showing support. It really goes a long way. And then I think people who are getting recruited are like, huh, they’re posting their basketball team or they’re posting their lacrosse team. Like I want to be a part of a school that is so proud of their sports. Um, in one way or another, if that’s being on the team or just supporting the athletics at your school.

Um, so I think there’s such an incredible sense of belonging in sports that athletes on the team and athletes or students who are just viewing really can get from that. Um, so I encourage people to really get out there and try to support the athletes at their school, um, at the games. I think that can go a long way for freshmen and newcomers.

Cathy Donovan:

Sue, do you see similar experiences with belonging if you’re on a team or you’re not?

Sue Kolb:

Yeah, you know, I, I think at, at Hood and at other places that I’ve been, there certainly are still some silos of, of athletes and non-athletes, but I think when we’ve addressed that here. Um, some athletes are like, I wish more, more kids, you know, more, more classmates would come out to our games.

And I’m like, well, what have you gone to of theirs? If they’re in theater, have you gone to the play? Or if they’re in a band, have you gone to see them play or whatever that might be? Um, and so the answer is no. And I’m like, well, you can’t just expect them to always come to your things. Like you have to get to know them. For them to want to come and support you also. So we have those conversations. Um, I will give a shout out or we have a new Dean here and, um, I really love the way that he’s restructuring, um, orientation for the fall.  Because I’ve always said when I’ve coached, you meet your bridesmaids on the first day.

And, and that was true to me, to my experience in college.  But what I like that they’re doing is that what we’re doing differently this year for the past several years. We’ve been pumping information into our students about the college when they arrive. And it’s all the resources and it’s all the classrooms and it’s all the departments and da da da da.

And it’s like, it’s, it’s overwhelming at some point. Don’t get me wrong. That stuff is important. But we’re trying to find a different way to introduce that to them. That’s just not so, uh, boring, I guess is as simple as way as I can put it. And instead, what our Dean is trying to do is getting to know our students. During that time, how do they identify what are their different interests? So for example, if someone is incredibly interested in photography,he wants to find a way, do we have a photography club? Sue, do you need someone to take pictures at games? Um, if someone’s really, you know, great at singing. Can they get involved in this club? Can they sing the national anthem? Can they, and so it’s, we’re flipping it in a sense to try to get to know everybody. And so athletes, non-athletes, however you identify as, um, we’re trying not to put the labels on them, but have our students tell us their labels and then, you know, having them fit within the campus.

Cathy Donovan:

That kind of segues into the last question, which, you know, is the name of the podcast and our tagline is Innovating Enrollment Success. And that sounds like a very innovative approach, but just asking both of you, you know, how should colleges and universities innovate to keep their institutions growing more positive experiences for their students and their student athletes?  Maggie, any ideas there?

Maggie Powers:

Yeah, I think, uh, just reminding, um, student athletes and athletes of the resources that they have in front of them and constantly promoting mental health, health and resources for your mental health. I think that’s huge. Obviously, there’s rising mental health crises all over the world. And so I think by reminding people of opportunities for wellbeing and getting kind of team yoga sessions or just resources and events for student, student athletes and, students just to come together and promote good habits and, kind of events for wellbeing. I think that’s really big. We have these really fun workout classes in kind of the gym at Northwestern are not for student athletes, but for anyone, and they’re so fun. And it’s like Zumba and like professors can do it. I’m like, why can’t like more people do these? I don’t think they know about them. So I think just promoting some of those events and resources.

And then kind of broadcasting some clubs and things where people can have conversations if they feel that they need to or just learning new perspectives or having tough conversations I think is huge Um, like Sue was saying everyone’s getting used to texting and emailing instead of having in-person conversations. So I think schools can really kind of broadcast those clubs and stuff where people can learn new perspectives of life and voice their concerns. I think when students feel heard they are able to kind of succeed the best, and so I think giving people, everyone a platform to address concerns or to talk about issues. I think just making people feel heard and seen is going to be crucial in today’s world.

Cathy Donovan:

Sue, any other ideas for innovating on campus for today’s students?

Sue Kolb:

No, I echo what Maggie was saying. I think assessment is crucial and how to assess your program and, and giving the opportunity to our athletes to assess how the season went, um, and then building goals off of that assessment.

Um, I think being very goal driven and being transparent and in leadership to say, this is, this is what we have. This is what we’ve accomplished. And this is what I understand. This is where we want to get to. This is how we’re going to do it. And I think that that’s really important to, to deliver those expectations to continue with positive experiences. And certainly that affects enrollment ultimately. So, um assessment and goals. I think is a big part of that.

Cathy Donovan:

Fantastic. Well, thank you so much for joining me today. Appreciate it. If you’d like to learn more about Sue or Maggie, please see the episodes show notes.  to talk about how your institution can attract right fit students and amplify your athletic marketing efforts, reach out to us at Paskill. We are always eager to support the outcomes of your students for a stronger, higher education experience.