For many high school students, deciding where to attend college or university can be an incredibly daunting task. Over the past 25 years, University of Michigan alumni have proudly volunteered to help prospective students navigate this pivotal moment through the University’s Alumni Student Recruitment Program.
As an Alumni Student Recruiter (ASR), alumni have the opportunity to build one-on-one connections with admitted students in their area to share their insight as a U-M graduate.
Phyllis Taylor, ’91, who now serves as a senior assistant director of student success at the Alumni Association, played an instrumental role in the program’s launch back in the fall of 2000. She says the program today is about supporting and encouraging admitted students.
“The word ‘recruitment’ is kind of a misnomer, because we’re not necessarily using alumni to get students to apply,” Taylor says. “The program is more dedicated to making sure that once students have been admitted to the University of Michigan, they have an opportunity to have alumni contact them with the goal of encouraging them to enroll.”
Connections That Count
Dan Chiorean, ’03, president of the U-M Club of New Orleans, has volunteered as an ASR for more than five years. Like other out-of-state Alumni Student Recruiters, Chiorean is assigned up to three high schools in his area to “adopt” and help serve as a local resource for admitted students.
“University of Michigan doesn’t get a lot of applicants from the New Orleans area,” he says. “Frankly I wish they got more, but when they do, I get a little spreadsheet with the students who have been accepted and I’m encouraged to reach out to them.”
Chiorean says it’s worth the time and effort to extend opportunities to students considering U-M.
“You might form a mentorship there, or a relationship with their family, or be able to really make a difference in how they think about going to Michigan,” he says. “You never know whose life you might touch.”
In more densely populated cities like New York City or Chicago, ASRs may also be tasked with staffing college fairs or helping to organize receptions for admitted students, where they can share more about their experience at the University and answer any lingering questions they might have. Heather Yablon, ’92, is an ASR based in New York City, and has two children currently enrolled at U-M. She says the reception events have been especially rewarding for her, because they afford her the opportunity to connect with both students and their parents over her experience as a student herself, and as a parent to students enrolled at the University. “It’s a wonderful way to give back and to see the new classes that are coming in and all the different students that are applying,” she says. “It’s just very gratifying.”
A Growing Global Community
Beginning with only about 168 ASRs in the program’s first year, the Alumni Student Recruitment Program has grown significantly since its inception — with more than 600 alumni volunteers actively participating today.
“We have a lot [of ASRs] where we have a lot of alums,” says Jody Gore, assistant director of national recruitment and alumni relations at U-M. “We have about 175 in Michigan, 94 in New York, 47 in California, and 49 in Illinois — those are the biggest states.”
In addition to the many alumni volunteers across the country, there are more than 70 ASRs spread out across 30 countries around the globe, including China, Indonesia, Canada, and many more.
While it’s difficult to quantify whether those connections directly lead to enrollment, Gore says the program has helped influence thousands of students to choose U-M.
“Because of the selectivity, the students we do admit, they have really good options besides just Michigan, and a lot of times they not only have good options, they have good options with enticing scholarships that they might not be getting from us,” he says. “We’re using alums to really make the case sometimes that we’re worth the investment.”
Jenny Sherman is a freelance writer based in Ferndale, Michigan.
