Marketing your SIS Program on your campus

There are many ways to advertise the SIS program on your campus and the way you advertise the program will be determined by the goals you have for your program as well as the time you have to make contact with various offices and faculty on your campus.

Flyers

The easiest way to advertise the SIS program is to put together a simply flyer and post it throughout the campus, with special target market areas such as the education bulletin board, the service learning center, the campus center bulletin board, etc. Flyers can also be used as handouts to all interested and the flyer should always direct attention to the SIS website.

SIS sample Flyer
This flyer can be tailored for use on your campus.

SIS Web Site

Always try to direct members, faculty, community organizations, etc. to view our web site to learn more about the SIS program

Faculty

Faculty are the best source of members because some faculty have implemented a service requirement in their curriculum, such as counseling, environmental education, nursing, EMTs, Emergency Management program and many others. Request to speak to the Chair of the Department or start small with one interested faculty member who can then be an advocate on your behalf and ask if you can present the benefits of SIS to their students in the department and/or in the classrooms. Ultimately, you want to do presentations in the faculty classrooms at the beginning of the term. Once you get your foot in the door, you can return again and again so as to have a steady stream of SIS member applications.

         Example of an outline for a classroom SIS presentation

Education Department/Student Teacher Internship Coordinator

Posting SIS flyers/posters in the Education Department is a good idea; however, contacting the Chair/Dean of the Education Department and possible scheduling a short presentation to teaching faculty is a best practice. It would be a best practice to schedule a presentation in an actual classroom filled with students who are about to choose sites for their student teaching internship. Also, letting the Student Teacher Internship Coordinator on your campus know about the SIS program will help with letting student teachers know about the opportunity to get involved in the SIS program.

Another idea is to contact local schools directly in your area that you know receive Title 1 funding, have a Special Education program, ESL/ Bilingual Education program, or high needs in Math and Sciences Education.  Let the school do the recruiting for you as it benefits your SIS program, the school, and the enrolling members. 

Department Workshops/Fairs for community organizations

Many departments who already work closely with the community may have an afternoon where they invite community organizations to recruit their students to do community service at their organization. For example, I went to a Human Services Community Fair and met 38 Directors of organizations that were interested in the SIS program. Ask the chair or coordinator of the fair if you can set up a table to talk with the students at the fair. Usually the department will be very happy to have you involved.

Financial Aid Office

Students in financial need may be awarded federal or state work study. An institution is required to set aside at least 7% of these work student slots for “Community Service” work study. It is this 7%+ that can double-dip and do both their work study and participate in the SIS program. Contact you Financial Aid office to speak with the representative who works with the “Community Service” work study students to see if you can perhaps contact them or make a presentation about the SIS program to them. You may also see if you can be a special guest at the Financial Aid staff meeting so you can do a 15-20 minute presentation about the SIS program and they can help you recruit members. You can also try to get a list from the Financial Aid office of non-profit organizations that are assigned community work study slots and contact them to let them know about the SIS program so students have an added incentive to participate in a community service work study slot over a regular on-campus work study slot.

Community-Based Organizations

Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) are clamoring for help and most CBOs love the SIS program once they learn about it. If available, contact your Community Volunteer Center to educate them about SIS as well as find out about various community fairs where students are involved and see if you can participate in the fair. As mentioned above, fairs coordinated by campus departments (ex. Nursing, Counseling, Human Resources, Environmental Studies, etc.) are very good fairs to attend.

Service Learning Centers

Another excellent source of members as their mission is to engage students in their community. Any student working at a Service Learning Center should be signed up for SIS because they are good sources of recruitment for other members in the community. Make sure the Service Learning Center has plenty of flyers and knowledge of the SIS program. Let them know you are open to do presentations to their students.

Student Clubs and Fraternities/Sororities

There are many students clubs, social clubs, volunteer clubs etc. that would be very interested in learning about SIS for their students. Sometimes contacting advisors of these clubs or their executive staff to do a presentation is a good idea.

Special campus offices

Contacting various offices that focus on special areas or student groups to do a presentation to the staff and students can be a worthy pursuit. Residence Halls, TRIO, Student Union, Career Services, Academic Honor Society, Multicultural Center, etc.

Campus Newspaper

Campus newspapers are always looking for interesting articles about great opportunities for students so the SIS program is a popular topic. Usually the campus newspaper will send over a reporter to interview you and you get free advertising for your program.

New student orientation

Many times at the beginning of the year, there is a new student orientation or what to do on-campus fair that you can register to attend and either set up a table, make a presentation, post flyers, etc. that can advertise the SIS program to new and current students on your campus. It is a great way to make students aware of the SIS program before they are overwhelmed with schoolwork and the like.

 

There are many other ways to advertise the SIS program on your campus and the ideas above should get you started and will help you determine what works best on your campus and with your student population.