Episode Transcript
[00:00:12] Speaker A: My guest today is Bobby Gandu, Wichita State's Associate Vice President of Strategic Enrollment Management, Applied Learning and Director of Admissions. As a part of his role, Bobby oversees the Shocker Crew Accelerator, which just moved into its permanent home inside the brand new Millie Marcus. Welcome to the podcast, Bobby. Bobby, it's good to see you today. Thanks for stopping by the podcast and talking to us about what's going on. All things enrollment recruitment.
We go back a little bit in our time together working directly when I was in the provost office and around enrollment management. And the listeners probably don't realize this, but you have in particular have been really instrumental in just the change in how we just deal with enrollment management. And there's so many things that you have brought to the office but also carried forward over the years too, and it's really made a big difference in our undergraduate enrollment. So I so much appreciate that.
I don't know how long ago, it was probably seven, eight years ago when we were working directly with one another around enrollment management, we started talking about how can we better showcase what I always say, the full life cycle of a shocker and what it means to be a shocker, and started brainstorming around that. And we thought maybe one of the things, since we're known for applied learning and experiential learning and really providing that opportunity for students the moment they show up, maybe we should actually reconfigure where people are housed in their offices. Career development later, the Shocker Career Accelerator with your admissions department. So also the listeners may not know that the Marcus welcome center has long been the front door to our campus and welcoming them. Obviously this is where students find out about how to apply and what our majors were or are, you know, how to get admitted and those sorts of things.
And then, you know, connecting them with advisors and just that whole process. With the current addition of this idea that we had several years ago with the Shocker Career Accelerator, how has that changed how you are meeting with students and their families and so forth?
[00:02:43] Speaker B: Well, as you know, we are so ultra focused as an institution on applied learning that it's always been the leading message we share from a recruitment perspective, whether we're talking to a student from Wichita, Kansas or a student from Dallas, Texas, we feel like our differentiator is applied learning and all the experiences we're going to offer a student outside the classroom for them to actually apply what they've learned in a internship or a research setting or perhaps a clinical rotation. So when you and I talked years ago about how could we Continue to tell that story and make it even more prominent with prospective students. I love this idea that we landed on and have executed on since where students as they're entering our Marcus welcome center. And we have thousands of visitors every year coming through our doors to consider Wichita State as part of their college search process. But now we can even more intentionally connect them with the Shocker Career Accelerator. We are literally taking tours by our Shocker Career Accelerator. We want to tell students and families that we understand that you are really trying to decide if you should not only attend Wichita State, but attend a four year university and potentially take on some college debt. So we want to showcase our return on investment for those families and students who are considering Wichita State. So we are walking those tours by the Shocker Career Accelerator office and we're telling those families and students we're bringing you by here because we want you to get to know the staff here. We want them to help you with your LinkedIn profiles, your resumes, your interview skills. And we don't want you to do that when you're a senior in college. We want you to start working on those things as early as your freshman year. And so we've started that process already. We also have an opportunity for our prospective students to see the employers that are coming in to meet with our career team and our current students to interview them for positions. So it's really kind of a powerful showpiece when students are coming in and getting to see companies and organizations meet with our students in the Marcus Welcome Center.
[00:04:47] Speaker A: And so if the listeners can imagine what we're really created now. And we also wanted to kind of refresh the Marcus Welcome Center a little bit, but we created sort of an experience that they walk through from the very beginning of that tour.
And then they walk through the Shocker Career Accelerator and out onto the innovation campus and they see all these businesses. And I've been to a lot of campuses and I know you have too, and I think this is really unique and resonating. When I'm out and about talking to parents and been on admissions trips with you all, I always ask the parents, particularly when we're out of town, why are you interested in sending your son or daughter to Wichita State? And it's this applied learning connection. And what I think is really cool about it and useful is that the students start professionalizing once they get here and they don't wait, as you were saying earlier, until they're a junior or senior. It's really too late in some cases. It doesn't Allow students to test things out. And so, yeah, you know, I always tell people that things take forever to happen on campus and this has been one of those things, but it's been worth it. And I'm really pleased with what it looks architecturally, but also how it's fit into what you're already doing in the department, in the admissions department. So a little bit more on applied learning.
It's more than a priority, it's a promise. Every one of our students are guaranteed to have a hands on experience before they graduate. It's actually, as you know, a part of their degree requirement. It's part of their degree audit. They can't graduate without this experience. So how has that commitment of this applied learning influenced our enrollment over time?
[00:06:35] Speaker B: Well, I think you actually hit the nail on the head, particularly with out of town, out of state students who often don't have a strong opinion of Wichita State. They just don't have awareness of what we offer at this university and what we say our unique selling proposition is. And when they come to our campus and they see how invested we are in applied learning with all of our industry partners right here on our campus, that our students are literally going from an internship experience or from a classroom experience over to their internship experience, all within our 300, it blows their mind. I don't know how many times I've heard in the last decade from students and families like you all should tell people about this. We can't believe this is here. They just don't see other institutions doubling down on experiences like this. Our students are just so focused on completing a degree and I think that these families are seeing that we're going to give them everything they need to be successful during college. But then after college too, with all of this real world experience.
[00:07:39] Speaker A: Yeah, we just recently opened up a new front door to the innovation campus. And I don't know if you noticed, we have signage now on one of our buildings that overlooks the entire campus and that's why we positioned it that way.
And I was on campus over the weekend and we stopped in there and just to kind of look at the progress of the campus. And it's just amazing to look out over see the old part of the campus. But you can see real obviously what this new innovation campus looks like and the impact there. And we have close to 50 companies there either headquartered or have offices working alongside our students. And that's just really unique. And all of them have to have applied learning experiences with our students. I think that's also a unique Thing. It's part of their agreement to come to campus to work with our students.
So back to the Marcus Welcome Center. So we added on this new addition. It's called the Millie Marcus Annex. The rare thankful to the Marcus family that gave us a gift to add onto this facility. And we used some of our own university resources to put with that, to build out that facility. What are some of the new things that students have access to with this new addition to the Marcus Welcome Center?
[00:09:00] Speaker B: Well, first, we are really trying to make sure people feel at home that they've landed at Wichita State when they're coming in for a campus visit experience. And so when they walk into the doors of the welcome center, they will see Shocker Nation alive. They'll see signage, they'll see Wushak. They'll see really a lobby that is heavily decorated in yellow, black. And we think that's important. We want students to feel like they've landed at their collegiate home. But then as we get started with our presentation, we've made sure that we've provided the latest tech in terms of an LED screen and we can really do some great visual storytelling with videos and slides to tell the university story. And then as students are leaving to go off on our campus tour, they'll walk through what we call the Shocker Experience Walkway where they'll see real stories of students who have been out utilizing the applied learning experiences we partner with so many companies and organizations on. They'll see alumni stories. They'll also see how we connect with our city because we know that our success as Wichita State is very heavily tied to the success of our community. So they'll see how all of those things come together. Plus they'll make their way to and toward the Shocker Career Accelerator's office. So again, they'll know where they get to meet with the Career Accelerator team. And then we open the doors to our Innovation campus as part of that walk with our tour guides. And they'll get to walk right by our Pizza Hut museum. It's a 400 square foot museum, the smallest museum, but it has such a powerful story. Two of our students took a $600 loan from their mother and created this multibillion dollar pizza industry.
And of course Pizza hu. But that is just symbolic of the rest of the experience that they'll see at the Innovation Campus where students can create their future. They can connect with companies and organizations. They can live in modern residence halls. They can see the all new ymca. So it's just really created an incredible journey for Students who are here for visits.
[00:11:02] Speaker A: And I think the important thing for me when we first started talking about that was that we need students to see it, to believe it. You can't really sometimes understand what you're getting into without seeing something that just to me is the most important development out of that addition. And I think we've done a good job of kind of putting that together and goes down that walkway to the new business school and passes by other industry partners along the way.
Okay, so we have this new place for the Shocker Career Accelerator Career development. Can you talk a little bit about the differences there?
We have, basically they're working together, but they're, they're focusing on a couple of different things.
[00:11:51] Speaker B: So with the setting that they have now in the Marcus welcome center, we have a couple of interview bays where companies and employers can come in and interview our students if they would like to on our campus. We also are making sure the career accelerator team actually connects with our campus visitors. So aside from just walking by, they actually will sit down with campus visitors and talk with them about their respective paths and help them understand what the experience is, either through internship or just post college job placement and careers, what that might look like for each major. So we were able to have some pretty intentional conversations. And I think again, that's demonstrating to families how we're going to help those families make their decisions on how to make a return on their investment. In addition to that, we found that we need to do more to connect students, both prospective and current students, with something called PathwayU, which is an opportunity for our students to do a self guided career assessment that's available online and they can decide early and explore early different majors and career paths. And that gives, that's something that our career team is already doing with students as they come through the doors and making sure they're aware of that. I think aside from that, we also are using the building to host employers. We're gonna be doing an employer event next month. It's the first one that we've really done at this scale in a long time. We're excited to bring that particular event back and we're gonna be looking to do regular workshops in the building that brings employers together where they can and frankly learn best practices from one another. But then that's all with some exposure to our students.
[00:13:28] Speaker A: So that kind of leads me to the next question. Well, first, before I go to that, the career development folks are also providing guidance on resume building, making sure that students have a LinkedIn account. There's also some LinkedIn tools that they can have access to to begin that professionalization aspect, too, as well.
[00:13:50] Speaker B: Yeah. Wichita State students, as part of just being a student, have access to LinkedIn learning courses that are available at no extra cost. And it's literally thousands of courses the students can take. And they could range from basic digital photography to being a better writer. All really relevant professional skills. So through the services available through the career accelerator, students tend to learn about those things.
[00:14:16] Speaker A: When I talk to students, when they are admitted and have enrolled and they go through orientation, I always put my LinkedIn account up there and tell them, connect with me. This is really. And I didn't really know personally how to use LinkedIn in the very beginning when that social media platform was made available, but it really does.
It's a very useful tool to get connected to people and think about things that you have thought about before, but also, you know, when you're thinking about moving in your career and also being able to fully display your accomplishment.
It's like a online resume, basically, but more interactive.
[00:15:04] Speaker B: Yeah. What I found is, especially this time of year, I don't know if you've noticed this as you scroll through LinkedIn, too, but in August and September, our students post about their summer internships, and they're just incredible. And I take so much pride in what those students are able to accomplish. And they range from one young man I saw, his name's Alicio. He did an internship at Northrop Grumman in California. Another young lady I know did an internship at NASA, and she got her internship extended to the fall. And it's just incredible. Story after story. Natalie from Jefferson West High School near Topeka, she had an internship at Hasbro in Rhode island, and she was able to work with brands like GI Joe, Transformers, Star wars, and she even got to go to Comic Con in San Diego. And those were stories that came through on LinkedIn. And so I take, again, great pride in what our students are doing. So LinkedIn is so powerful.
[00:15:56] Speaker A: Yeah. It just reminds everyone of the importance of that tool that you really, as a professional, you really need to be connected to.
So we talked a little bit about employers, or you talked a little bit about employers. How do you connect with them and. Or how do they connect with you all to.
To want to come to campus, to one of those career fairs or.
But it's also you all connecting with them, too, because we have students who want opportunities, and so we want to get those set up. So how does all that come together?
[00:16:29] Speaker B: Yeah, we want to make sure Employers know that we have a dedicated employer relations team within the Sharker Career Accelerator. They're anxious to connect with our employers and the community and beyond. Because we want to give as many possibility, as many opportunities as possible to our students. So. So any employer who is interested in connecting with our students, they can get started by visiting Wichita Edu hireashocker. And that gives them an opportunity to complete a questionnaire where then one of our professional employer relations staff members can reach out and kind of understand what the employer is looking for, whether it's just one position that they're posting for, or if perhaps they want to form a deeper partnership with us and attend a series of career fairs, perhaps do some workshops with our students or formalize partnership to where they have access to a multitude of services, where our employer relations team can build out a recruitment plan to connect our students with their job openings available at a given employer or organization.
[00:17:28] Speaker A: Yeah. And some of these employers that we have associations with really count on Wichita State to provide them their talent needs. So it's a really, really useful process that we have.
One of the things I just will just mention too, that we have thousands of students who are working with employers, many of them on campus. Depending on how you slice it, we think that students are making more than $30 million a year in income working with these employers, which not only helps them apply the skills that they're learning in the classroom, but also gives them a paycheck. Many of our students have financial need that helps support them and their family and their education. One of the things that we were able to convince the legislature this past year was to invest for the first time in our applied learning model. So the legislature and the governor signed into law $5 million of ongoing dollars to help with this process, particularly focusing on majors that may not have a lot of applied learning opportunities for them already. Like, you often have a lot to offer students in engineering and business and the health sciences, but not so much in the humanities and the social sciences and teacher preparation. So I know that you've been involved in helping set that up for this year, so that theoretically will create another 1400, we're hoping, positions for students over the next year.
[00:19:04] Speaker B: It's really exciting. We've launched our application process for that for folks on campus who are helping employers or other experiences come together where students can apply for those funds. But essentially, we've already rolled out funds for that. The first round of approvals that we granted included students who are in internships that are not typically paid, sometimes in the Sports settings. So for example, some of our students who are going to be working with the NCAA tournament being hosted here in Wichita in the spring, we're going to do a grant for those students. Another sport management major is going to be helping to organize a conference. So we're going to supplement that student's account. And then you mentioned student preparation or student teaching preparation. And we have a big request that we feel like we're going to be able to move on to provide some support for students who are in student teaching roles.
[00:20:00] Speaker A: Yeah. So this all just, this reinforces the importance of our model and that the legislature, the governor understands the important role we play in helping create jobs, but also feeding the talent into those jobs, which is so important. We can talk to companies all the time about creating job opportunities, but if you don't have a talent pool that's feeding into that, it becomes problematic for companies to grow. And so that, that's one of the, that was the genesis really of starting our applied learning model, the development of Innovation campus to help feed that talent pipeline. So any last words that you want to give to me about this before we sign off on this particular podcast?
[00:20:50] Speaker B: You know, I have an opportunity to visit with high school counselors, parents, students really all over the Midwest as we take Wichita State on the road to other communities.
And I think here in Wichita, you know, we're familiar with Wichita State and we know that we have some real treasures here on this campus. But it's really interesting to think about or to hear a family from outside of Kansas who again, just maybe lacks familiarity with Wichita State as a brand and who we are as an institution.
And so when I have those conversations with students and families from outside of our state and our community, it's reaffirming for me the things that we're doing as an institution in terms of these applied learning experiences and making sure we connect our students with employers. It really makes a difference. And every time that I get to see on LinkedIn some of our students pursue a really incredible internship opportunity or post college job placement.
It's exciting for me to see that student succeed and know that Wichita State played a role in that.
[00:21:56] Speaker A: Yeah, that's great to hear that. You know, just one last thing. You know, if anybody's looking for a return on investment and you know these numbers probably more than I do, but more than 70% of our undergraduates stay here in Kansas. And then these students who are recruiting from out of state producer, particularly along the i35 corridor, about half of those are staying. So that's an outcome that is kind of unusual in the state. And again, I think that's the reason why the legislators, the governor is so interested in helping us make this program succeed for our students, because they know it really does have a return on investment in the economy, increasing economic prosperity. So, yeah, it's all good. Thanks for that. Well, it's good to see you, Bobby, and thank you for everything you do and this work, and we'll look forward to catching up with you later.
[00:22:54] Speaker B: Thanks for having me.
[00:22:55] Speaker A: You're welcome.
And thank you all for listening. And be sure to rate, review and subscribe wherever you listen to the Forward Together podcast. Go Shockers.
[00:23:14] Speaker B: Sponsorship for the Forward Together podcast is provided by Scott Rice Office Works and the Shocker Store.
Additional thanks to Nair Amp WSU Carpentry Shop and gocreate.
