February is one of my favorite months….it’s not the sappy love ballads or chocolate covered strawberries that gets me excited, even though the second sounds pretty tempting.  In the world of undergraduate admissions, February is scholarship competition month!  Eager students from across the country descend upon college campuses with their tubas tuned and resumes polished to compete for the elusive scholarship dollar.

Last weekend I had the opportunity to interview students for one such scholarship.  This particular scholarship, titled the “Legacy Scholarship”, challenged students to describe what sort of legacy they would like to leave at the school.   From All-American athlete to campus policy changer, I listened as students shared their goals, passions and talents with me.  I found myself astounded by the plans that these 17 and 18 year old students had made for themselves.  A renewed sense of comfort came about me as I realized that the future of my college, this country, would be at the hands of these amazing students.

I have to hand it to the admissions team that dreamed up this competition.  In just a few hours on campus they were able to:

1. Connect alumni to the school in a unique way
2. Help prospective students picture themselves on campus
3. Create opportunities for passionate and successful alumni to share their stories of success with prospective students
4. Get families to campus to interact with current students, professors and administrators
5. Award scholarship dollars to well-deserving students

Not too shabby for a Saturday.

With one program, the college was able to connect alumni and prospective students who all left campus with a little more bounce in their steps and a little more pride for the school.  I have to think that this scholarship day will only help their annual giving both in amount collected and overall participation as well as enrollment numbers and overall sense of pride in the school. As we all know, that’s a rare feat.

So my challenge to college development and admissions offices today is this – What are you currently doing to connect your prospective students with influential alumni?  Could you be doing more?  Consider the possibilities if you did.

Here’s more information on how Converge helps colleges across the US engage alumni through research and communications visit.