Alumni Recruiters

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Rose-Hulman adopted Hallmark Cards’ familiar slogan this spring as the college’s enrollment recruitment team grew with more than 120 alumni volunteers writing personal notes, interviewing scholarship candidates, talking with prospects, and helping host information sessions—in hopes of encouraging the 2020-21 incoming class to follow in their pathways to campus. “What better way to highlight the values of a RoseHulman education than our alumni, the people who are benefiting from those experiences?” states Tom Bear, vice president for enrollment management. “Our alumni are Rose-Hulman’s best brand ambassadors.” Handwritten messages featuring many of those themes resonated throughout the nearly 1,400 postcards that more than 100 alumni wrote to prospective students during the last month of this year’s recruitment campaign. At the bottom of each card was the printed statement: From One Rose Grad to a Future Rose Grad. This effort originally sprouted from members of the Alumni Advisory Board, and the Office of Alumni Relations accumulated other alumni volunteers. The Office of Enrollment Management put together the prospects’ names and addresses while the Office of Institutional Advancement mailed the information and Rose-Hulman blank postcards to the legion of note writers. “We wanted each postcard to be genuine and reflect each alumni’s beliefs about the value in Rose-Hulman that they hold so near and dear,” says Steve Brady, vice president for institutional advancement. “We thought a postcard would be much more personable than sending an email message. It showed that each alumnus cared enough about Rose and its future to put their thoughts down on paper, in their own handwriting.” Meanwhile, 20 alumni conducted online interviews to review this year’s most talented prospective students to be chosen for scholarships and other financial resources. These students were identified for their high academic credentials, diverse backgrounds and strong interests in science, engineering and mathematics. “Our devoted alumni, along with increased scholarship opportunities, allowed us to identify some of the best high school students from across the world to attend Rose-Hulman,” says Bear, adding that 50 percent of the originally designated scholarship candidates chose to enter the 2020-21 incoming class. “This new program has been a big success and we’re going to continue to reap its many benefits.” Finally, several alumni helped Rose-Hulman’s admissions team host student recruitment meetand-greet events for students from the Chicago area, Houston, San Diego, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, and Terre Haute. A December event in Denver allowed President Rob Coons to hand-deliver enrollment acceptance letters to area students. “We want our alumni to remain actively involved with Rose-Hulman and its successes,” Brady says. Alumni wishing to join in these campaigns can reach out to alumni@rose-hulman.edu. n

Recommend a Future Fightin’ Engineer Know an area high school student who might be a candidate to attend Rose-Hulman or one of its summer camps, like Operation Catapult or Project Select? Reach out to the Office of Admissions for the 2020-21 recruitment year. Better yet, alumni can help underwrite a student’s application fee for these programs and others. Join the

Admissions’ alumni team at admissions@rose-hulman.edu.