International Journal of Education and Social Science (IJESS)

Formal high school programs in which students spend half of a day on campus learning and applying college topics such as entrepreneurship, digital marketing and business analytics as taught by University professors serve as an informal college recruiting event which increases the knowledge of high school students about the University as well as specific majors at the college. Recruiting efforts on University campuses typically include formal open houses, various events and athletics. These become the first point of contact for student involvement, which introduces students to the University (Astin 1984). Formal recruiting events are formally followed-up within the University through the recruitment department which creates further student involvement. Previous research has demonstrated student’s preference for Universities based upon field of study preferences, course and institutional reputations, courses, entry scores and easy access to home (Maringe 2006). Since this research has been published, higher education facilities have become more competitive in recruiting students (Sautar and Turner 2002). Students still gain knowledge of the University through typical formal recruiting efforts; however, more informal recruiting events are starting to occur which have the opportunity to create a higher student involvement leading to higher recruitment and higher retention. This study seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of a formal high school event which also serves as an informal recruiting event for Benedictine University. A group of 197 local high school students spent half a day on Benedictine’s campus kicking-off their semester long research project. The University professors guided the students in developing their investigative approaches to their research thesis and research methodologies while they were on Benedictine’s campus. University instructors introduced their respective fields of digital marketing, business analytics, entrepreneurship and finance. Throughout the workshop instructors made themselves available to the students to provide guidance for their research inquiries. The introduction to the campus, instructors and majors should heighten the students Benedictine brand awareness. Additionally, having participated in active learning sessions involving the professor’s respective disciplines, the students should gain a deeper knowledge of these business majors as well as their respective applications.