She Rebuilt a 120-Year-Old Brand to Survive the Enrollment Cliff | Lauran Hundshamer

[0:00]  I think the biggest thing that we offer is we are the number one university in the state for upward mobility. What we do is we actually recruit students where, you know, 51% are BIPOC. We are 49% Pell. And this is something that I'm really, really proud of — we get students into Saint Kate's. They will major in a health science major or a nursing major. And then when they graduate, they will go off and make a lot more money than what they were making before they came to Saint Kate's. So that upward mobility is real. And then they go back to their communities and they help their communities, especially in the health science and nursing fields because they feel so passionate. That maybe they don't have the same access that other communities do. So, it is really, really integral to everything that we do at Saint Kate's, knowing that we are literally taking people who might be in poverty. Our Pell rate is really high and setting them up for success in this world and then again going back to their community.

Another piece I think that is just phenomenal is that we were just ranked by Newsweek as being the top three university for women in the entire country. So, yeah, I mean we focus on leadership and we focus on developing every woman as a whole in our college for women. And you know, those are the pieces that are most important to me as I'm helping to recruit and retain these students.

I love that, and I loved what you mentioned. I actually had a leader, Ethan from Hartford, kind of mention "fertilizing the future," right? And it's exactly what you just kind of mentioned, you know, taking individuals that may have lived through abuse or family instability and really come out on the other side rewriting their story. Like, how amazing is that? And I know it's probably like that weight on your shoulders realizing that when people come to university, we want them to see the other side. We want them to go back and break the cycles that are happening. So, fertilizing the future, when he told me that, I'm like, "That's exactly what we're doing."

I love that. And I will say that what's, you know, I've been at Saint Kate's for almost four years now, and one of the very cool things about that when you talk about fertilizing the future is now we're starting to see a lot of their sisters. So, a lot of our current students who are graduates, now their sisters are coming up and they want the same experience that their older sister had. So, it's really cool to see that it's in the family now. They know the expectations and the growth that they're going to receive at Saint Kate's — the great outcomes.

Yeah. So, four years, you did you come from — you said you were just in marketing, right? What do you feel was different going from the for-profit to non-profit?

Is that I've done everything. So, I've worked in universities, I've worked at other universities, I've worked in EdTech, and I've also worked in for-profit B2B spaces, too.

Yeah. Which I'm guessing you enjoy this one, but what does everyone feel like everything you do has to teach you something, right? There's always what's in it for me, what am I learning here? What are some of the things that you learn that you were able to bring to Saint Kate that really levels you up?

You know, I think higher ed in general, especially in the marketing space, isn't necessarily as caught up yet to, I think, the regular for-profit world. The direct-to-consumer marketing, the gamification of marketing plans, things of that nature. And so, what I'm able to bring to Saint Kate's is that for-profit world of how are we going to get from A to B, and it's not going to just be through email campaigns, it's not going to be just through text. We have to think differently about these campaigns that we're pushing out.

Um, and again, thinking about it in that kind of whole lifestyle or life cycle of campaigns that we're pushing out. So, we literally started looking at, you know, top-to-bottom funnel. It's no longer about buying lists, right? I mean, you can buy the list all you want, but at the end of the day, how are you going to convert them? The personalization is so, so key to converting these students. It doesn't matter if they're College for Adults to Graduate or a College for Women student.

Um, so making sure that we put those personalization pieces in there, making sure that, you know, we're reaching out to the right candidate at the right time of where they're at. Um, you know, and really pushing messaging based on their motivations. So, our College for Adults, those students are much more about time and money. I mean, they're 35 years old, they want to finish their bachelor's degree, but they also have, you know, three kids at home and a full-time job. So, how do we get them to finally make that decision to come back to school, knowing that, quite honestly, they're going to get their kids' hockey schedule, and then all of a sudden be like, "Oh, no, I can't do this anymore."

So, how do you coach them through all those pieces that people in higher ed, I don't think, recognize as much as they should — those outside challenges of the adult learner?

Um, so I think, you know, just bringing that kind of outside knowledge of how for-profits work has been really beneficial to St. Kate's. Just like I said, looking through the top-to-bottom funnel and making sure that we're communicating to them everything that they need and solving their problems for them up front.

I love that sometime when people come from the outside, it really just beneficial for everyone because you get to see things from a different lens. I was talking to another leader and he was mentioning, he's like, "Man, a lot of it is just common sense."

It is. You know, when you think about it and he had no background, just like you, in this role. You know, he was a history major, but he's like when he fit in, he just realized it was just common sense. Like we really got to just think like our students.

Um, and you've done that so good. Not only have you done that, you really pivoted for what's to come because we're in a time where enrollment cliff is happening, right? A lot of people are just not signing up for whatever reason. But I spoke to you, you said you were preparing for that pivot for like three years now. What does that actually look like and mean to you? What does preparing for pivot look like?

There's a supply and demand issue. It's a classic economics issue, right? There's not as much demand as there is supply. And so, what we've been able to do is really kind of reconstruct our brand through the lens of lead generation, direct admission, making sure that our students understand what they're getting into when they come to college.

Um, and we're really doubling down on our health science and our nursing programs because we know that that is going to be the largest outcomes at St. Kate's. This is where our students grow the most. This is where they're going to graduate and get really high salaries off of that.

So, um, we've been able to focus on just basically recruiting the right student to — we look at data every single day. So, we have a couple of different vendors that we have multiple dashboards with that we can see exactly, okay, where do we need to follow up with the students? What is their GPA? What is their family income? Things of that nature that we can download down those lists and say, okay, we're behind on this segment of population. We're behind, we're ahead.

What does it look like geographically as well? So, we're kind of able to weed through student populations and focus on the high-intent learners that we know are going to be able to convert. Um, and it gives us a stronger relationship with them as well. So, then they convert at a higher rate.

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Data is so important. I don't think people realize it. Like you have especially nowadays, like you got to be looking at data if you think you're going to move forward, right? And that's all data, not just data in the school, but what's happening in our country.

I mean, I think I told you last time there's seven schools that have closed down here in Orlando. Like definitely seeing it across and I didn't even realize it until I start talking to people in higher ed like, wait a minute. This is getting crazy. Like I knew about the baby boomers and how many people are going to be over 65 than under 18 or something like that. But now we're really feeling it into the schools and we're getting people to become an influencer. Look at trades.

What information do we give them? One of the things I heard is like if we let them know the ROI, right? The investment of going to school with three times, you mentioned that. But investment in a $28,000 car or whatever that looks like, you lose value as soon as you come off the lot, right?

Like the investment, do you think that we do a good job just kind of giving it from that perspective of the ROI perspective?

To tell kids. I mean, that it is all outcomes-based. That is basically our entire marketing plan. As we want to show them that you're going to graduate, you're going to get a job, you're going to earn money. And that, I mean, that's the goal of going to college, quite honestly. And that's why we earned the number one upward mobility in the state of Minnesota for our university.

So, yes, absolutely. I think, you know, long gone are the days where students and you see it everywhere throughout the entire country. Again, going back to the supply and demand, right? You see students whose parents, if we're talking just traditional undergraduate students, parents don't want their kid to go into debt. They don't want them to graduate with kind of a degree that they deem is unworthy, if that makes any sense.

Um, they want their child to have a very direct outcome. If they're going to be investing this kind of money, they want to see an ROI. Um, I think one of the things that we do, you talked about influencers, and we have influencers all over the place. Like we have our current student population, we have our alumni population, we post stories all the time about how our alumni is helping our current students.

So, I think it's really important for people to see that not only are you going to get a solid outcome from getting a college degree, but you're also going to set yourself up for success with our networking. And I think that is something that people don't necessarily think as much as they should about, but your alumni — I mean if you think about people who are just so passionate about their university and what they experienced at their university, they just want everybody else to have that same experience.

And so that networking piece again is so crucial. Being able for us — I think another point of distinction with St. Kate's is that we actually set them up for their clinicals. So, our students don't have to find their own clinicals, which is pretty phenomenal.

Yeah, and again, just knowing that when they're graduating, they're going to have a job. And that it's, you know, especially in the health science or nursing field, whereas I think the news is basically saying, you know, the unemployment rate for recent grads is so high. Um, but if you choose a major that you know there's going to be a solid outcome, that's what parents want to know.

And that's what they want to see is that return on investment. You mentioned parents. Are you think parents nowadays are more involved in the decision-making for students and how are you communicating with them?

Because I feel like, let's be honest, without that parent, you know, we're probably not really getting them into the schools that we want.

Yeah, no. Parents, I mean, we've seen everything. Now we call, you know, lawnmower parents basically, where they're just mowing the path for their child and their child just kind of follows, you know, um behind. But I think, you know, one of the interesting pieces of that at Saint Kate's is that because we have such a high Pell rate, and we actually have a high immigration rate as well.

You know, immigrant students. There are parents that don't speak English. And so, students are navigating this on their own. And that's one of the things that we do really, really well at Saint Kate's is we kind of hold their hand and help them get through it. I mean, if you're a good student, there's no reason why you shouldn't be going off to college, right?

So, we walk them through their financial aid packaging. It literally is just kind of this hand-holding experience for them of here's your financial aid package, here are the classes that you're going to have to take, and literally lining it up for them so that they have a good understanding of what it means to go to college.

Because I think that's one of the challenges that we can face is with that high Pell rate is they're first-gen students. And so, they don't have their parents to rely on what was their experience and how do I get through this? How do I fill out a FAFSA? Oh my gosh.

So, we spend a lot of time making sure that our students understand what is necessary and how they're going to kind of create their path to get to college and helping them any way that we possibly can.

I love this. I love that you are so just involved. I mean, from the perspective of marketing, I think there's so much from the marketing when you understand data. I think that's what really helps you out is understanding data.

Anybody that's in a marketing space understands data, data flywheel, understands how that works, and how that operates. And Saint Kate being 135 years old, right? Is it 135 years old?

Well, 1905, so I mean, 120-ish.

Yeah. So, yeah, up there, right? And you're running this enrollment institution. How do you feel personally knowing that it all kind of relies on you? You're that wheel that brings these kids in and keeps them in.

Well, it's a ton of pressure, quite honestly, especially when you think of how many universities are closing down. I mean, I think that the last average was one a week across the country, right? Um, so, it is a ton of pressure, but I have to tell you my team is phenomenal.

I have an incredible team from my director of marketing to my director of admissions and our college for women. Um, and then also our institutional research people are amazing. Um, you know, I could go through everybody, but I've got operational managers in our college for adults and our graduate programs. I think if it wasn't for them, we would not be this successful.

Um, you know, everybody brings ideas to the table. We all decide, "Okay, well, what are we going to do? And how are we going to move forward?" Um, and at the end of the day, yeah, I'm the one who has to make the end decision of where our budget goes and how we're going to allocate.

And luckily, I also have great vendors in that space that provide any, you know, additional knowledge that I'm going to need to make those decisions. But the team is amazing. So, it's not me, it's them. And they're the ones who are on the ground doing all this work. I'm just in the background basically saying, "Okay, where are we going to spend our money now?"

I mean, you're in the background because you've mentioned earlier you had really good mentors and leaders that were pouring into you. What were those leaders and mentors? What are some of the things that you still resonate with that they've taught you?

I think, you know, integrity is one of those pieces that will just constantly flow through everything that we do. Being honest. You know, I’m a Gen Xer and I will tell you that it can be hard to have hard conversations with other generations for fear of constructive criticism, right?

You have to especially in higher education and especially in leadership, you have to develop a hard shell. You really do. Um, if you don't then I think that constructive criticism just kind of makes you wilt instead of taking it and saying, "You know what? You're right. I think we can move in this direction instead."

Or maybe I didn't handle that in the right way. Um, so, just building up a really hard kind of attitude of, "You know what? I know this is a direction we need to go in. How do I get my team on board?"

And hopefully, you know, at the end of the day I have listened to all of their concerns and taken them all into consideration before we make those decisions. But I think, you know, I've had some really good mentors in my life and I think listening and those skills are probably the biggest pieces.

Um, just making sure that I don't operate in a bubble. And, you know, I bring people in that need to be brought into the conversation.

Making space at the table is what you're doing. Somebody made space for you and now you're making space for the next generation, right?

Absolutely. You got it.

I love it. I love it. I love it. Um, talking to our higher ed leaders that are listening right now, who is feeling the pressure of this moment and wondering if the mission is still worth fighting for, what do you say directly to them?

Oh my gosh, every single day I see the looks on our students' faces and, you know, they're going off to their classes or just, you know, I volunteer at commencement every single year. I volunteer at graduation every single year because I want to see them walk across that stage.

It is four years of the best years of your life and being able to convince those prospective students that it's really truly a mission-driven position. This is not, you know, I'm going to go market the next blow dryer or make a product or something like that.

This is truly mission-driven and if you're not behind the mission of basically lifting people up and getting them the education that they need to go off and do amazing things, then you know, find another job because it's stressful enough.

Uh, but to see the outcome, to see what you've helped to create is a pretty amazing thing.

I love it. And how about to our young woman who has never even heard of St. Kate's to now, um, what's waiting for them?

Oh my gosh, you're coming into an incredibly thoughtful community of female leaders who want absolutely nothing more than to raise you up and make sure that you're not falling behind.

It's not competitive at St. Kate's. I think that's the biggest thing in the entire world is that you're not competing with your peers and your colleagues. You are literally coming together. You're making sure that everybody is successful and everybody brings talents to the table.

And it's just been really cool to see all of that kind of mold together — all the different talents.

A big sisterhood. It really truly is.

Okay.

I love it. Kate, where can people find more information? What is the URL? I'm going to imagine we mentioned socials. What is the socials?

stkate.edu and if you just look us up on Instagram, Facebook, it's all St. Kate. So, um, we're known as Katies or the graduates are known as Katies.

Um, and yeah, if you just look us up on St. Catherine University, you'll find us anywhere.

I love it. And is there any other things you want to leave the people with on information or things that St. Kate could do for them or anything you just want to leave off of?

Yeah, I just think at the end of the day, coming to a female university is something very special. Um, we are Catholic, but we're also very intentional about inclusion of many other religions, quite honestly.

Um, and so, just make sure as you're looking through your universities, you don't cross a university off just simply because they are a woman-driven university.

I love it. Well, guys, if you guys are still watching, this has been Lauren. Such a phenomenal conversation. We definitely thank you so much for having this, taking the time and doing this and just for the work that you do.

Um, especially I love that you would come from marketing and you went into enrollment because I can believe that you just bring so much value to the organization. In four years, you continue to just every single year grow.

So that obviously there's value to that as well. So for anyone that is also looking forward to maybe having a conversation, are you on LinkedIn by chance?

I am on LinkedIn, absolutely. So it's just Lauren Hunsamer and you can absolutely look me up.

All right guys, we appreciate you having this time here with us. Remember to like, subscribe and comment. I'm Efrain, this is Lauren. We'll catch you on the next one. Laters.