The Education Abroad office is implementing new marketing strategies to recruit more UW students to study in foreign countries. With hiring new staff members, the office became more involved in social media and started promoting studying and teaching abroad on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
The overall goal is to inform more UW students, scholars and instructors about available exchange programs.
Twelve former exchange program participants formed a board of ambassadors to share their experiences with those who are going to learn abroad in the future. These ambassadors will talk about their journeys during a special information session.
“We have couple of different recruitment things on campus. The biggest one is that now we have our UWYO Abroad ambassadors – the returning students, who already have studied abroad, from exchange participants of faculty-led programs to UW students, who have done their undergraduate research abroad,” Amanda Poppe, the advisor of the Education Abroad office, said.
The Education Abroad office is planning to organize a competition on the best t-shirt design among returnees to promote the office on campus.
“I think the UWYO Abroad ambassadors are really a big part of our promotional programs on campus,” Poppe said. “We are competition for the best t-shirt design by those students. We want them to create something they would like to wear on campus, but also to signify Uwyo Abroad ambassadors. And idea is that any UW student could see t-shirt, come to an ambassador and ask questions about studying abroad.”
Information sessions for UW students, scholars and faculty members give an opportunity to learn more about existing exchange programs and different opportunities available to study at a foreign university.
During the sessions, the Education Abroad office will also answer questions about travelling.
“The information sessions are meant to put the information out there about education abroad,” the student-worker at Education Abroad office, Benjamin Gates, said. “Generally, most of the students seem, don’t have enough information on how to study abroad, or what is the application process. These sessions give student[s] an idea, what are different options for them to study abroad and what is travelling in general. We will have specific information sessions on faculty-led programs, then also travelling. They will be occurring once a week for the next few weeks.”
The Education Abroad office intends to make these information sessions readily available to students on campus.
“We are having weekly education abroad information sessions for students who are generally interested in education abroad. We also are going to be tabling almost weekly in the Union. So, if anybody has any questions some of UWYO Ambassadors will be there, at the table, to answer,” Poppe said.
UWYO Abroad ambassador, Dilnoza Khasilova, said, “Last time, when we met at the info session, there were students, who already went abroad and new students, who are just planning to participate in an exchange program. We talked about how you can apply for a program, what you can do abroad, where you can go, what is the experience, whether it is possible to apply for a scholarship. I find it to very efficient, as I can see more and more students being interested in learning abroad.”
The campaign’s target audience is undergraduate and graduate students. Education Abroad uses social media to reach other potential candidates who may want to study abroad.
“In social media we created the hashtag #uwyoabroad for Twitter, Instagram, Facebook,” Poppe said. “We are sharing and featuring both our students, who are internationals here with us and students who have gone abroad. We are doing small postcards, which are something like features from our students that have travelled abroad, accompanied with their picture in the foreign country. Now we are trying to reach students, who are abroad right [now], so that we could have a postcard in more of a real time.”
