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

2. The School Next Door

3. Naperville
NCC & NCHS close proximity
Attractive campus town
Thriving shops & restaurants
Scenic Riverwalk & Parks

4. Naperville Central High School
&
North Central College
A mutually effective partnership

5. Benefits to Students
•College ready students
•Recruitment
•Smooth transition to college
•Community outreach

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

8. Gifted Student Program
Lederman Scholars Program
Earn up to two years of college while
maintaining enrollment in high school

9. Athletics
Youth sports camps
High School athletics
•Cross-town football
•Soccer championship

10. Creative Arts
Fine Arts Performances
World Class Artist Concerts
District 203 Art Show
Youth Music & Theatre Camps
Lecture Series

11. Summer Enrichment Programs
Camps & Workshops
Musical Productions
Academic Camps
Athletic Camps

12. Advisory Committees

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

18. Survey Responses
Admits Yard Signs & Backpacks
Students transfer back home
Summer Programs

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?