Here’s another outreach story. Last week I had a chat with the graduate student ambassadors from our b-school, the Bryan School of Business and Economics. Savannah Martin, the Bryan School Graduate Recruitment Specialist, invited me. This was the second time I met with the ambassadors. We met online for an hour.
Since Savannah also invited me the first time, I can’t claim I did some proactive outreach to make this opportunity happen. Word-of-mouth advertising was a factor. We lean liaisons can’t do proactive outreach to every group or for every worthy event – there are too many to cover by our lonesomes. If you are in the same boat, don’t feel guilty. That path leads to burnout.
(There are a bunch of new student clubs in the Bryan School. I follow them in LinkedIn. I’m not sure if the school or the student body is the main force behind the new groups, but I love the belonging and engagement the groups are fostering. There’s potential here for more proactive outreach on my part. Just a matter of time and priorities…)
Anyway, according to the program description, these graduate student ambassadors “play an important role in the recruitment of future students by sharing their experiences at recruitment events and answering questions from students accepted to their program”.
The ambassadors represent a cross-section of our master’s programs, some of which are online only. Since I mostly work with our MBA and PhD students, I appreciated the opportunity to talk to (and learn from) the ambassadors in additional master’s programs.
In the introductions, the grad students learned I had a research consultation with one of the ambassadors last fall. Her short testimonial helped break the ice.
What happened
So, what would you say to these ambassadors? I focused on these questions:
- What research needs or questions are you hearing from prospective graduate students?
- Do you have suggestions for onboarding or orientation of new graduate students regarding research?
- What feedback or suggestions do you have for me?
And I showed the ambassadors how to access the subject guides (Libguides) for each department in the Bryan School (also my MBA guide – the MBA faculty asked for their own subject guide), an example course guide for a graduate class, and the guide I use for Business Administration PhD orientation. I also mentioned our library renovation project that begins in December, with the library tower getting shut down first.
The students brought up their own questions, thoughts, and concerns. Here is what we talked about, including responses to my three questions above. In parentheses, I added some comments.
What is the best way to access journal literature? (This student didn’t have a great experience using our discovery tool. I replied that I don’t use that tool for business research, including article searching.)
Is there a speedier alternative than inter-library loan? (I was surprised a student asked about print books. We talked about ebooks a bit, including how I can order them on request.)
Do we have off-campus access to databases? (Yes)
What kind of databases do we have access to besides those that provide scholarly articles? (By the end of this discussion, we were talking about database prices and academic licensing of content created for industry. One student said he appreciated my transparency regarding costs and library budgets.)
Do we have access after graduation? How long until our access ends? (No except for NC LIVE; it seems to vary)
Do we have a collection of resources for career exploration and planning? (That’s a good question. I used to have a library guide co-edited with our campus career services center. I should reach out [note to self: proactive outreach opportunity] to the Bryan School’s career services professionals and ask about some possible collaboration (Savannah reminded me of them). And to the campus center, which has had much turnover lately.)
Could I have a role in all the master’s program orientation sessions? (Of course I replied that I would be happy to, but research is not always a priority before a student begins their classes, given all the other details to know about and take care of.)
Wrapping up
This event reminded me of the importance of listening (and the opportunities to listen) at outreach events.
At this very busy time of the semester, writing up what happened into a blog post helps me think about what follow-ups I need to pursue based on what the students said. Yes, sorry, there’s my selfish reason for writing some of these blog posts. Journaling or composing a short report to colleagues or describing your experience at a workshop or conference could serve the same purpose.
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