Student Recruitment

General Description
Recruiting students to the field of aging remains a challenge, partly because of persistent biases and assumptions that many people have toward older adults and geriatric work. While the HPPAE model works to dispel these misperceptions, university-community partnerships should be prepared to make active student recruitment an essential part of the program. Student recruitment is most successful when these principles are in place:

• A school-wide commitment to geriatric social work education by the dean, faculty committees, admissions, and development office. A close partnership between the field education office and the schools admissions office is crucial.
• At least one faculty member who will "champion" the HPPAE and the importance of geriatric social work as a profession and who will focus specifically on recruitment over the long term.
• Understanding that recruitment is an ongoing, yearlong activityand that it gets easier after the first year of your HPPAE. Eventually, your recruitment strategies will become institutionalized in your annual marketing and outreach activities.

Benefits of Student Recruitment
Proactive recruitment will go a long way in attracting the best and the brightest to the field, creating an ever-widening network of HPPAE students and graduates who can act as ambassadors for the program and strengthen the geriatric workforce.

Implementation Guidelines
When Recruitment Should Begin
Student recruitment should be addressed as early in the process as possible, ideally before fall semester placements are made.

"While in the HPPAE program I was able to learn in three different agency settings, for-profit, nonprofit, and working with older adults. This model also forced me to step outside of my comfort zone, to learn in new and different ways. It challenged me to speak up, take initiative, and learn fast.

As I learn more each day about what it means to be a leader, I look back and am thankful for the dynamic experience I had in the HPPAE program. I know that the HPPAE program is the foundation on which I am building as I move onward and upward in my geriatric social work career."

Lisa Tatge, HPPAE Graduate, University of Iowa School of Social Work

Who to Involve in Recruitment Efforts
Successful recruitment is a group effort that can involve:

• Field instructors
• Directors of admission
• Current HPPAE students
• HPPAE graduates employed in the field of aging
• Deans
• Field education staff
• Admissions committee members
• Development officers
• Publication staff
• Agency staff, including CEOs, field instructors, and other administrative personnel
• Undergraduate program faculty and staff

Setting a Target Number for Recruitment
The number of students in an HPPAE will vary according to the size and interest of the student body, the time commitment of faculty and staff, and the scope of the community partnership. Successful HPPAEs have been implemented with as few as four students per cohort; the mean enrollment for the first two cycles of Hartford-funded HPPAE was seven students.

Profile of a Potential HPPAE Recruit

• Students with knowledge of or interest in aging, possibly including individuals, or so-called "nontraditional students," who already work in aging but do not have an MSW degree and are interested in applying to a graduate social work program
• Students who are just entering the MSW program and attending orientation, regardless of whether they have selected a concentration
• Students with advanced standing
• Students with strong research skills who appear to be responsible, motivated independent, resilient, and confident

• ?Tip: Interviews and references, including references from prior field instructors and/or employers, should be used in the selection process.

Recruitment Strategies That Work
We have found the following to be the most persuasive "selling points" for encouraging students to apply to the HPPAE:

Field rotations:
Our research consistently shows that the rotational model especially attracts because it offers opportunities for instruction and immersion in multiple settings. It is also important for participants to hear that, as interns, they will be treated as students, not as employees or substitute staff.

Stipends:
The availability of stipends (or fellowships) is a critical factor in getting students interested in geriatric social work. The amount of stipend may vary from school to schoolstipends at existing HPPAEs have ranged from $1,500 to $7,500. They should be at a level necessary to secure and motivate, rather than establish, program interest. To determine the right amount for your HPPAE, assess:

• Tuition and other university, educational costs, as well as local cost of living expenses
• Stipends in other fields of practice; often, stipends in child welfare and mental health are quite high and easily attract students
• Availability of stipend funds from schools, agencies, and other organizations that may be willing to offer support to attract good students

Peer endorsements:
Word-of-mouth testimonials from former and current HPPAE students are extremely influential. Many schools have second-year HPPAE students actively recruit first-year students at field placement days and special events at school and in the field.

Strong instructional support and the HPPAE brand:
HPPAE students also indicated that the opportunity to participate in a specialized curriculum increased peer and field instructor support. Access to specialized resources influenced their decision to specialize in aging, as did being part of an innovative, nationally recognized model.

Job placement or career opportunities:
Once informed, students understand that specializing in aging can position them well in the current and future workforce, given the countrys changing demographics. The Social Work Leadership Institute is working to facilitate networks of HPPAE graduates and to connect these graduate networks with employers throughout the country. For details, check out www.socialworkleadershipinstitute.org and a MySpace page exclusively for HPPAE students and graduates: www.myspace.com/swli.

"My HPPAE program was a demanding and intense experience, and it was just a great introduction to the field of aging. I am now a psychiatric clinician at the Acadia Hospital in Bangor, Maine, a nonprofit psychiatric and chemical dependency treatment provider. Whenever I serve older patients, I put my HPPAE learning to use."

Mary Kellogg, HPPAE Graduate, University of Maine School of Social Work

Additional Recruitment Strategies
You may also reach out to potential students through:

• Recruitment talks in foundation-year classes
• Information in booths at field placement fairs
• Announcements on HPPAE Web sites and via your listservs or e-mail newsletters
• Brochures mailing to incoming students
• Open houses at aging agencies
• Conferences on aging issues, didactic seminars, and talks by experts in aging
• Promotion of the project in all application materials for school or department of social work or social welfare
• Talks at concentration selection workshops
• Creation of student interest groups
• Formation of Gerontology Student Associations

Reach out to faculty as conduits to the students and as champions of gerontology through:

• Presentations about the project at faculty retreats
• Assisting faculty to incorporate aging content into foundation courses, increasing interest in aging through discussion of aging issues in the classroom

• Tip: Existing HPPAEs use a combination of recruitment strategies, tailored to their individual social work programs and needs. We recommend experimenting with combinations of strategies and tracking results (e.g., conducting surveys on how students first learned about your program) so you can refine your recruitment efforts.