Wayne Young, Charisse Williams, Mary Ann Tietjen and Joe Ecklund of Creighton University's interdivisional student success team share some of the secret sauce behind how Creighton built and maintained a 3-point jump in first-year student retention over the past three years. The episode includes a look at Colloquium, a unique human-powered intervention with a 70% success rate retaining students who are preparing to leave the institution. Hat-tips throughout the episode to Mary Chase, Creighton's Vice President for Enrollment Management.

Although there is no Rapid Descent with the Creighton University team, Charisse identified Industry Baby by Lil Nas X (feat. Jack Harlow) as their walkout song.

Theme music arranged by Ryan Anselment.

The ALP is supported by RHB, a division of SIG. Music arranged by Ryan Anselment

Andy Borst,  Director of Undergraduate Admissions at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, shares tips on nurturing and managing relationships with the media (with hat-tips to Scott Jaschik and Eric Hoover). Andy also shares his morning routine (itself a pro tip) as well as the origins of his name, which we somehow accidentally trip over early in the episode.

Rapid Descent

• Walkout song:  Know Your Enemy by Green Day
• Best recent read: The Black Family's Guide to College Admissions by Tim Fields and Shereem Herndon-Brown
• Eager to read next: Campus Economics: How Economic Thinking Can Help Improve College and University Decisions by Sandy Baum and Michael McPherson
• Favorite podcast(s): The Truth About College Admission, the  new podcast by Rick Clark and Brennan Barnard. 
• Favorite thing to make in the kitchen: Crab boil
• What he uses to take and keep notes: leather-bound notebook stuffed with Post-it notes.
• Memorable bit of advice: No-one owns the university loyalty.
• Bucket list: Write a book about college admission.

Theme music arranged by Ryan Anselment.

The ALP is supported by RHB, a division of SIG. Music arranged by Ryan Anselment

Joe Montgomery may be one of the busiest people between enrollment jobs right now: a member of the advisory board to the Partnership for Education Advancement; a consultant through the United Negro College Fund; and now one of the newest members of NACAC's board of directors. Joe reflects on how creating your network with your body of work can sustain you when the headwinds come: "Lean into the headwinds and answers will reveal themselves."

Rapid Descent

• Walkout song:  Before I Let Go by Frankie Beverly and Maze
• Best recent read: Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain
• Eager to read next: Managing the Whole Student Life Cycle: A Handbook for Higher Ed by Paul Mathers
• Favorite podcast(s): The ALP and Enrollment Edge 
• Favorite thing to make in the kitchen: Grilling BBQ pork ribs
• What he uses to take and keep notes: Legal pad
• Memorable bit of advice: "Be in control of the outcomes through your daily decisions."
• Bucket list: "Travel to the continent of Africa to visit the tribe/tribes my family originated from."

Theme music arranged by Ryan Anselment.

The ALP is supported by RHB, a division of SIG. Music arranged by Ryan Anselment

Tim Fields (Emory University) and Shereem Herndon-Brown (Strategic Admissions Advice)—co-authors of The Black Family's Guide to College Admissions: A Conversation about Education, Parenting and Race, and co-hosts of the podcast, Application to Admission: Understanding the Choices—provide a master class in leveraging complementary experiences, skillsets and mindsets in the collaborative process as they discuss how their groundbreaking new book grew from idea through process to reality.

Rapid Descent

• Walkout song:  Got to Give it Up  by Marvin Gaye (Tim); U Don't Know by Jay-Z (Shereem)
• Best recent read: Rocket Fuel by Gino Wickman (Tim); Women Talk Money: Breaking the Taboo by Rebecca Walker (Shereem)
• Eager to read next: The Shape of the River by William Bowen and Derek Book (Shereem): "I'll be reading a book a day [during application reading season at Emory]" (Tim)
• Favorite podcast(s): How I Built This (Shereem); Earn Your Leisure (Tim)
• Favorite thing to make in the kitchen: Enchiladas (Tim); "Mean chocolate waffles" (Shereem)
• What he uses to take and keep notes: Mohawk journals (Tim); "I'm a paper guy" (Shereem) 
• Memorable bit of advice: "Life isn't fair; fair is a place where they judge pigs." (Tim); "Do hard things." (Shereem)
• Bucket list: Skydiving (Tim); Taking my wife to Italy to ride on a gondola, then do a Mediterranean/Northern Africa tour—also, have an intrusive pedicure (Shereem).

Theme music arranged by Ryan Anselment.

The ALP is supported by RHB, a division of SIG. Music arranged by Ryan Anselment

James Miller,  Assistant Vice Provost and Dean of Admission at Seattle University, reflects on the value of self-reflection in your own decision-making, the power of pausing when you're "in the grip," and why "relaxed is fast, slow is relaxed" and "slow is fast." (Also, there's randomly like 11 minutes of silence after the bumper music ... consider it an invitation for reflection. 😉)

Rapid Descent

• Walkout song:  Saving Grace by Tom Petty
• Best recent read: In Conversation: Honoring Ideological Divides On and Off Campus (by Lisa A. Kloppenberg, Vincent D. Rougeau, and Eduardo M. Peñalver)
• Eager to read next: something non work, like Tom Clancy
• Favorite podcast(s): The Daily and Still Processing (like a warm hug and a stern lecture) New York Times
• Favorite thing to make in the kitchen: "Some kind of stew or roast beef, something that takes a long time with really cheap ingredients that tastes better than the price suggests."
• What he uses to take and keep notes: Leuchtturm notebooks and a fountain pen 
• Memorable bit of advice: "If it doesn't scare you a little bit, it's probably not worth doing."
• Bucket list: Go to Cuba.

Theme music arranged by Ryan Anselment.

The ALP is supported by RHB, a division of SIG. Music arranged by Ryan Anselment

Five women who ascended to leadership roles just before or during the pandemic discuss what it's like to be the first in their roles—first woman, first person of color, first first-generation college student, first transfer students. Get ready for a torrent of great advice from Eva Blanco Masias of Santa Clara University, Jennifer Sandoval-Dancs of Claremont McKenna College, Lisa Keegan of Bucknell University, Melinda Wood of James Madison University, and Nikki Kahealani Chun of University of Hawai'i at Manoa.

Theme music arranged by Ryan Anselment.

The ALP is supported by RHB, a division of SIG. Music arranged by Ryan Anselment

Ineliz Soto-Fuller,  Assistant Vice President of Undergraduate Admissions for Enrollment Management at Seattle Pacific University, discusses how to lead with integrity and authenticity in the midst of challenging circumstances. Turns out that a clear sense of what authenticity looks and sounds like (as well heavy doses of Quirkle and  karaoke) go a long way.

Rapid Descent

• Walkout song:  Roar by Katy Perry and Vivir Mi Vida by Marc Anthony
• Best recent read: On Managing Yourself by Harvard Business Review
• Eager to read next: The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
• Favorite thing to make in the kitchen: Arroz con gandules
• What he uses to take and keep notes: OneNote 
• Memorable bit of advice: "Don't let your passion speak louder than your wisdom or you'll lose your voice."
• Bucket list: Go to Europe.

Theme music arranged by Ryan Anselment.

The ALP is supported by RHB, a division of SIG. Music arranged by Ryan Anselment

Angie Cooksy, Assistant Vice President for Enrollment Management at Bradley University (Peoria, Ill.) and host of the podcast Elevating Admission Voices, discusses how she established herself as a regionally-based (in Kenosha, Wis.) admission professional 15 years ago and has steadily climbed the leadership mountain as a remote teammate ever since. Angie offers several great questions that new middle managers need to know ... and muses on the remarkable wonders of the Woodman's Market cheese aisles.

Rapid Descent

• Walkout song:  Girl on Fire by Alicia Keys
• Best recent read: Open Book by Jessica Simpson
• Eager to read next: The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace by Gary Chapman
• Favorite thing to make in the kitchen: charcuterie boards
• What he uses to take and keep notes: Remarkable. 
• Memorable bit of advice: "You don't have to do everything all at once."
• Bucket list: Visiting Okinawa, Japan, her birthplace. 

Theme music arranged by Ryan Anselment.

The ALP is supported by RHB, a division of SIG. Music arranged by Ryan Anselment

Is it the Great Resignation? The Great Reckoning? The Great Contemplation?

ALP Alumni Adrienne Amador Oddi (ep. 28), Heath Einstein (7), Marie Bigham (4), Rick Clark (3) and Tony Sarda (15) join Ken in a lively discussion of the causes, implications and potential remedies for the Great Resignation ... as well as some reconsidered walkout songs.

Music arranged by Ryan Anselment

The ALP is supported by RHB, a division of SIG. Music arranged by Ryan Anselment

It seems fitting to drop the final episode of Season 5 on Ken's last day as Vice President for Enrollment at Lawrence University with the man who brought him to Lawrence 18 years ago: Steve Syverson, Dean of Admission Emeritus at Lawrence University. Steve served as Lawrence's chief enrollment officer for 28 years before handing the reins to Ken in 2011, and the episode is as much a trip down memory lane as it is an expansive view of what still matters most in the college admission profession.

Shout outs from people who have worked with Steve include: Jen England, Carin Smith, Jim Miller, Patrick O'Connor, Ray Brown, James Miller, Lynn Van Zeeland, and Nicole Schultz.

We will be back in fall 2022 with Season 6.

Rapid Descent

• Walkout song:  Stayin Alive by Bee Gees
• Best recent read: Ten Lessons for a Post-Pandemic World by Fareed Zakaria
• Eager to read next: Some beach fluff
• Favorite thing to make in the kitchen: Mean nachos.
• What he uses to take and keep notes: Pen and yellow legal pad. 
• Memorable bit of advice: "People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel ." -Maya Angelou
• Bucket list: Scuba diving off the Great Barrier Reef. 

Theme music arranged by Ryan Anselment.

The ALP is supported by RHB, a division of SIG. Music arranged by Ryan Anselment