-: Alright, so I briefly want to talk about recruitment
in our four department majors.
So, we have Agronomy, Horticulture, Plant Biology,
and Turf and Landscape Management
that really are associated with our department.
This is a graph.
Every great recruitment talk needs a graph
and so it kind of tells you where we have been
and where we currently are
and so you can see that we've had great growth.
The last eight years, 2008 to 2015, to actually 2014.
We've grown quite a bit.
If you look at this last year, this last fall,
we did drop down a few students,
but if you take a broader view at that,
look at the whole picture from 2008 to 2015
our department has grown over 73 percent
so that's like quite a large increase
in just undergraduate student numbers.
If you want to take a look at our numbers,
it did drop in 2015, but we can kind of explain that
if we go back and look at the data, between 2010
and 2011, we had an enormous growth
in undergraduate students in our department.
We increased by 61 students.
That's a lot of students for one year.
Lot of gain right there and so as all good students do,
they graduate and so those students coming in
in the fall of 2011, they graduated in May of 2015
and so as a result, we didn't see that a huge class
coming back in and so that is kind of the result
of why we have maybe a smaller class this fall,
but thinking, going back and looking at the broad picture,
our growth has been very very tremendous
over the last eight years.
There are a number of ways that we reach our students
and we know that all of our students are very connected
to the internet nowadays and so,
one of the first things that they do is they don't call us
right away, they go to the internet,
they go to our website and they look and see
what do we have, what does the University of Nebraska
have in an area that I am interested in
and so, what we've done over the last couple years is
really try to emphasize that those common issues,
those common questions that students have,
students and their parents for that matter
and so on our website we have information,
very specific to each of our majors.
That's the common questions.
So, what am I going to do once I graduate?
Am I going to be able to get a job?
Are their scholarship dollars in your department?
What type of internships are out there for me?
So, we try to get that information out there
so they can review that by themselves
and kind of peak their interest
and then that next step is for us to contact them
or them to contact us and get them onto campus.
One of the things that we do have on our website
and that I use during our campus visits
is this information sheet.
We have this sheet that is associated
with each of our majors.
So, we have four sheets that are very specific
and what we try to do with this is really connect
our current students to our perspective students.
So, we have examples of our current students.
Have quotes from them.
Have information about everything they've
been involved with.
Some of the clubs.
Some of the internships.
If they've graduated.
Where are they now?
So it just kind of gives them that additional information.
It also connects our future students to our students
that are already on campus,
because a lot of times when
I have a student sitting in my office,
they'll say oh Amanda, I know Amanda.
She was two years older than I am
and oh she's doing really well here.
That gives them a bit of a comfort level,
knowing someone that they knew in high school
or competed against in FFA or athletic events,
that they're here and they'll have someone
that they know and that that person has succeeded.
So, one of the things, so after they have this information.
We're trying to use social media as well.
So we have Twitter and Facebook and Instagram accounts
that we really use to not only reach the students,
but the students, the people who are influencing
our potential students.
So, their parents, their teachers, community members,
employers, and so hopefully they're seeing
some of the cool things that our students are doing.
So, we're putting that information out.
We're putting student awards out there.
We're putting what some of the club activities are doing.
What are we doing in our classrooms?
Hoping to get those students interested in coming here
and so our Instagram account, really is completely focused
to undergraduate recruitment and in here
we really highlight some of the neat things
that our students are doing.
So, for example, had a student at Augusta National
this last summer from January through June
and so that's a great internship
and so trying to promote that to other students.
Our clubs are doing phenomenal things.
We have Turf Club doing, they challenged K State
to a golf match, a Rider Club golf match.
Our Agronomy Club went to our research facility
to learn more about what's going on up there.
Our Hort Club, they take a ton of trips.
So, if we can get our future students excited
about what our current students are doing,
hopefully that will increase our student enrollment
in the long term.
So, once we get them excited.
We're hoping to get them on campus.
If we can get them on campus
we have a great chance of getting them to apply to UNL
and actually enroll in one of our departmental majors.
So, we do have group visits.
I'd like to have those visits tenth grade and younger
if they're doing individual groups,
I want to see them, they're junior and senior year.
I want to get them on campus.
I see over 100 students.
A 100 juniors and seniors each year individually
and that's where I can really meet with them
and see where their interests are
and be very specific to what they want to do.
Tell them how they'd fit in best here
and finally, one of our best recruiting opportunities
is to get to know them.
Tell them what we do and how we teach
and so we have some teaching gardens
that we utilize quite a bit.
When I take students out there,
they are very very excited.
Their parents are very very excited about what they see,
because they're working with real plants.
They're just not looking at PowerPoint presentations
like we are today.
But they get to go outside and actually feel
and look and use those plants.
So, it's a great opportunity that they see
and they want to be here on campus with us.
So, if you know of a perspective student,
please have them contact me
or let me know about them.
A lot of times people will give me a call
and say Anne, I have this great student working for me.
Do you think you could contact him or her
and tell them all about the university.
I'm more than happy to do that
and appreciate your help.
(audience applauds)