About four in 10 college students believe developing specific skills needed for their career is among the most important outcomes to them in their academic experience, according to a winter 2023 Student Voice survey by Inside Higher Ed and College Pulse. However, 22 percent of all respondents indicated they had never participated in experiential learning or an internship.
Over the past two years, the partnership has resulted in real-life case studies and client-facing work for students and faculty, as well as greater engagement with young talent for employers.
What’s the need: “One thing that’s very apparent in Vermont is we need young talent,” says Angelika Koukoulas, Champlain’s Innovation Hub Project Manager, who oversees the Hula-Champlain partnership.
Vermont experiences the worst brain drain in the country, losing 57.5 percent of its college graduates, many of whom move to Massachusetts or New York, according to 2022 data analysis.
Koukoulas’s role is to help students identify work experiences in Vermont and build relationships with employers to fill holes in their workforces.
“They need more hands, they need big ideas, they need students who are excited about their work and are willing to put in effort to learn,” Koukoulas says.
There’s also a national shortage of internship opportunities, one that is tied to a mismatch in employer needs and student interests. The partnership addresses both comprehensively by weighing all stakeholders’ interests.
How it works: Hula is about a mile away from Champlain College and just down the road from the college’s Miller Center campus.
The coworking space supports 60 member businesses and up to 600 coworking individuals. The businesses belong to a variety of industries, including green technology and marketing, as well as traditional business or finance roles.
A majority of the collaborations fall into two camps: companies providing projects for capstone-like courses for experiential learning or companies creating internships for students.
Inquiries can come directly from faculty members looking to revamp curriculum or offer real-world scenarios for students to engage their skills or from employers who have a specific need and want young talent to assist them. Often, start-ups are looking for student support for social media or blog-writing campaigns, but there’s also a need for general business admin or accounting support, Koukoulas says.
For internships, Koukoulas will serve as a recruiter of sorts for the company partner, assisting them in creating the job description and posting it on Handshake and also encouraging students she believes would be a good fit to apply and increasing the number of applicants for the business partner.
“It widens their candidate pool and hopefully gets more students opportunities that they wouldn’t have even thought of otherwise,” Koukoulas says.
All projects have been pro-bono, so the company invests zero dollars to enlist a class for work, but almost all internships have been paid roles.
What’s different: Hula serves both as a business partner, hiring interns and supporting class projects, but also as an incubator for small businesses in Vermont.
The people who work on Hula’s campus rotate, meaning there’s continual variety of the types of industries or groups students could partner with. The climate of the office building also means businesses are innovation and creatively minded, making partnership more natural.
Koukoulas has an office at Hula, meaning she can directly engage in communal spaces or in building channels to solicit employer partnerships.
Vermont also has a very relational culture, something Koukoulas has had to navigate as a more recent resident to the Green Mountain State, whether the relationships are with faculty—who have taught a course for a long time and may be hesitant to make changes—or with businesses leaders, who consider their start-up to be their baby and may be uncomfortable letting a student participate in their work.
There’s an educational piece to the puzzle, both helping faculty identify their ask for project and employers create meaningful internships for learners. Koukoulas hosted an Internship 101 workshop for Hula businesses to set expectations for internships and provide guidance on best practices, such as providing students a mentor. She also hosts regular lunch for interns who work within the Hula offices to check in and provide support as needed.
The impact: Since the partnership launched in summer 2023, 90 students have engaged in a Hula-based project within a course, and 18 students have participated in an internship.
The partnership is in its early stages, so Champlain doesn’t have data on how students have translated their work with the start-ups into longer-term career development, but exposure to new careers and experiential learning are two benefits Koukoulas is eager to see manifest.
“I can’t wait to see if it works; I can’t wait to see the fruit of that labor in the next couple of years,” Koukoulas says.
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For example, at the age of 22, compared with the general population, care leavers and those who have ever been in care are four times less likely to enter higher education – 14 per cent of care-experienced people versus 56 per cent of the general population. Of those care leavers who do make it into higher education, 18 per cent drop out, more than double the withdrawal rate of their peers in the general population.
And it’s not just care leavers who experience unequal outcomes. The research looked more widely at anyone with experience of children’s social care – a group that is around 20 times larger than the care leaver population – and found stark inequalities in their access to and experience of higher education compared not only to the general population, but also compared to those eligible for free school meals. For example, “children in need” are two to three times less likely to attend higher education than the general population.
These results suggest that the experience of children’s social care has a lasting impact on educational prospects, and that the needs of affected young people are not being met by the current support system. Although the findings are perhaps not surprising, they are still shocking. Our report aims to act as a call to action for universities, policymakers and those seeking to close equality gaps in higher education.
Routes to an unlevel playing field
Not only is there an uphill struggle to the higher education “playing field” for those who have been in care, once there, the playing field itself is far from level. The data shows that getting those with experience of children’s social care into university is only the first challenge to address, and the high dropout rate demonstrates that targeted work is required to improve retention and support systems.
Care leavers – and others with experience of children’s social care – often take alternative routes to university. Over one-third (36 per cent) of care leavers take a vocational pathway, compared to just 13 per cent of the general population, and they are more likely to start university later in life rather than at the traditional age of 18. This suggests that the traditional academic pipeline does not serve them effectively, and that policymakers should aim to support these alternative pathways and set strategies for recruiting mature learners.
Care leavers and entry rates
There are some differences between those with experience of children’s social care overall and care leavers specifically. Although care leavers have poorer outcomes on most measures, care leavers have a relatively high entry rate at age 18/19, compared to other groups who have experienced children’s social care.
This could be due to a higher level of support being made available for this group in the transition from post-16 settings to higher education, reinforcing the importance of targeted interventions.
Accommodation outside of term time
Accommodation is another crucial area where care-experienced people are at a disadvantage, often without a stable home to go to during the term breaks. We need closer collaboration between local authorities and higher education providers to ensure they are collectively meeting their duty of support to care-experienced learners, and especially care leavers where the state has a corporate-parent responsibility.
This is one clear area where more joined-up working is needed to help ensure that care-experienced students have somewhere suitable to stay when universities close their doors outside of term time.
The people within the statistics
It is also important to note that many with experience of children’s social care enter higher education and thrive. As with all statistical reports, focusing on averages, however derived, risks missing the many important exceptions. That is, some individuals succeed despite the relatively long odds of doing so, and we should not interpret statistical results in a causal or absolute way.
We hope, in particular, that Virtual School Heads – a regional role that acts as a headteacher for all children with a social worker within a particular local authority – will find the research helpful when working on the strategic goal of improving educational inclusion and participation for care-experienced children and young people.
A call for change
The research underscores the fact that universities – including more selective or prestigious institutions – should rethink their approach to recruiting and supporting those with experience of children’s social care.
We outline some of the ways to support these groups – by recruiting mature learners, those from vocational pathways, and by strengthening retention strategies. One possible idea, previously suggested by the Social Market Foundation, is that providers could be offered an additional £1,000 for each care leaver they recruit as a “student premium”, beyond existing accommodation support. At TASO, we want to see higher education providers evaluating their interventions to attract and support those with experience of children’s social care, so we can start to build a picture of what works to benefit these students.
Our report makes it clear: universities, policymakers and local authorities must work together to ensure that those with experience of children’s social care are not left behind. The challenges they face in accessing and completing higher education are not inevitable but significant and targeted support is required to change the status quo. If higher education is a vehicle for social mobility, the continued focus on underrepresented groups – including those with experience of children’s social care – is vital.
Local lawmakers walked out of a meeting with University of Pennsylvania officials on Tuesday due to what they said was insufficient support for diversity, equity and inclusion, WHYY reported.
Pennsylvania state senator Art Haywood and state representative Napoleon Nelson, both Democrats, reportedly walked out of the meeting after a Penn official referred to diversity as a “lightning rod.”
The meeting, which included several elected state and city officials, became contentious, with lawmakers pressing Penn to hold its ground against the Trump administration’s executive actions on DEI, according to WHYY.
Penn has since removed webpages about its DEI initiatives and updated its nondiscrimination policies, despite swirling legal questions and a nationwide injunction handed down last week that blocked the Trump administration’s plans to crack down on college DEI efforts.
University officials denied backtracking on Penn’s commitment to DEI, according to lawmakers’ accounts of the meeting.
A university spokesperson told the Philadelphia radio station that Penn remains “committed to nondiscrimination in all of our operations and policies” and said the institution appreciated the concerns raised.
Lawmakers indicated that they would continue to press Penn on its commitment to DEI; several provided fiery statements to WHYY casting the university’s response as weak.
“Penn has made a cowardly move, rushing to heed dog-whistle demands from a feckless federal leadership and dismantle their programs that welcome students and workers from an expansive range of backgrounds,” state senator Nikil Saval, a Democrat, told the radio station.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is essential for improving your school’s online visibility, ensuring that when local families search for educational options, your school is among the first they see. SEO helps your website rank higher in search engine results, making prospective parents more likely to find you before other schools in your area. SEO gives your school a competitive edge in reaching families who are actively seeking information on local educational options.
Knowing the value of SEO, most people ask how to do SEO for a school? To begin implementing SEO, schools can focus on three primary areas: On-page SEO, technical SEO, and Local SEO. In this blog, we’re focussing on local SEO.
An optimized online presence is crucial for K-12 schools to attract and engage prospective families within their local communities. By focusing on Local SEO, schools can increase their visibility in search engine results, connect with families nearby, and build trust as a leading choice for local education. With our 15 years of experience driving results for schools like yours, we know the unique challenges K-12 schools face in reaching prospective parents and students. This guide will walk you through the essential strategies to enhance your school’s local SEO, even if you’re new to search engine optimization.
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Understanding Local SEO for K-12 School Websites and Why It Matters
Local SEO optimizes your school’s website and online presence to rank higher in local search results. This optimization specifically targets potential families searching for schools in your area, making it an essential component for K-12 schools looking to expand their visibility.
When someone searches “best private school near me” or “elementary school in [City],” the results that appear are influenced by local SEO practices. Google and other search engines analyze local relevance factors such as your school’s address, the presence of local keywords, online reviews, and overall domain authority to decide which websites to show at the top. Mastering local SEO for K-12 schoolwebsites can make a difference in being found online by families in your community.
Are you trying to implement effective digital advertising for parents of students? Reach out to learn more about our digital marketing services.
Claiming and Optimizing Your Google My Business Profile
What is the most effective strategy for local SEO? One of the most powerful steps you can take when marketing to K-12 students’ families in your area is to claim and optimize your Google My Business (GMB) profile. This profile is essential for local SEO because it provides search engines and families with critical information about your school, such as its location, contact information, and operating hours.
Begin by verifying your school’s GMB profile. When editing the profile, ensure all details are accurate, including the school’s name, address, phone number, website URL, and a brief description of the school’s values and offerings. Google also allows you to add photos, which can be a fantastic way to showcase your school’s facilities, activities, and unique educational experiences. Families browsing through profiles will be drawn to authentic visuals, which can help them feel connected to your school before they even step foot on campus.
Adding relevant categories (e.g., “Elementary School” or “Private School”) and attributes to your GMB profile increases your chances of appearing in local searches specific to your school type. Regularly update your GMB profile with fresh photos, events, and posts, as Google favors active profiles, enhancing your school’s local SEO ranking.
Example: This is how Google presents your institution to searchers when you create and optimize your Google My Business account. Your GMB profile provides critical information about your institution in an easy-to-consume layout.
Source: Randolph-Macon Academy | Google
Optimizing Your Website for Location-Based Keywords
Your website’s content should reflect keywords families might use when searching for schools in your area. Instead of generic phrases like “top K-12 school,” incorporate keywords that feature your location, such as “top K-12 school in [City]” or “private high school in [Suburb].” These location-based keywords help search engines understand that your school serves families in a specific area, increasing your chances of appearing in relevant searches.
Consider adding a dedicated “Location” or “About Our Community” page that details your school’s surrounding area, landmarks, or neighborhoods. This page could highlight the community values and amenities available, reinforcing that your school is embedded within the local community. Mentioning nearby cities, neighborhoods, or districts can also strengthen your local SEO, especially for families who want their children to be educated within specific geographic boundaries.
Each page of your website should also include the school’s full name, address, and phone number (often referred to as NAP – Name, Address, Phone Number) in a consistent format. Placing your NAP details in the footer ensures they appear across the entire site, building user trust and Google’s confidence in your school’s legitimacy and location.
Example: WillowWood School’s metadata uses the title WillowWood School | K-12 Private School | Toronto. In your metadata, include your school’s city to rank for location-based searches.
Source: WillowWood School
Creating High-Quality, Locally Relevant Content
Content marketing is an excellent way to boost your school’s visibility in search results. Develop blog posts, articles, and resource pages that speak to local concerns, events, and topics families in your area care about. Writing blog posts on subjects like “Why Choose a Private School in [City]” or “The Benefits of Small Class Sizes in [Neighborhood] Schools” can help attract local searches and establish your school as a knowledgeable voice within the community.
Another powerful content idea is to publish posts about school events, open houses, and seasonal programs like summer camps. These posts can generate interest from families looking for activities within your area, leading to higher engagement on social media platforms.
Local content can also come as testimonials and success stories from parents and students within the community. Encourage current families to share their experiences and post their stories on your blog or testimonials page. Positive testimonials boost your school’s reputation, and add keywords and phrases that resonate with other families in your area.
Example: Here, Nanjing International School shares culturally and geographically relevant content on its YouTube channel, helping it to attract prospects. When creating content, particularly visual, highlight your school’s location and discuss any advantages it offers students.
Source: Nanjing International School | YouTube
Encouraging Positive Online Reviews
Online reviews play an important role in local SEO, particularly for schools. Families considering your school will likely check online reviews to gauge what other parents and students think of your programs, culture, and overall quality. Reviews posted on Google, Yelp, Facebook, and niche educational sites help build trust and credibility while boosting your local SEO ranking.
One way to encourage reviews is by setting up an easy process for parents to leave feedback. After key events like open houses, school performances, or parent-teacher meetings, follow up with an email inviting parents to share their experience on Google or other review sites. Always respond to reviews in a timely, professional manner, whether positive or negative. This responsiveness shows that your school values feedback and is engaged with its community, which search engines recognize positively.
Example: Western Heights Montessori School’s website displays several positive reviews. These personal and specific reviews highlight the school’s unique selling points. When encouraging parents to write reviews, try to prompt them toward a similar result.
Source: Western Heights Montessori
Building Citations and Directory Listings
Citations, or mentions of your school’s name, address, and phone number on other websites, are a key component of local SEO. Citations help search engines confirm your school’s existence and location, ultimately building your website’s authority. Common places for citations include online school directories, community websites, and local educational resources.
Research reputable, relevant directories specific to education or your geographic area, and ensure your school’s information is listed accurately. Local chambers of commerce, community pages, and educational sites often provide directory listings or profiles where your school can be featured. Each additional citation strengthens your local SEO, contributing to a greater chance of appearing in local search results.
Example: This is GLCT’s listing on the International School Database. By appearing on directories like this, you’re expanding your online presence, making it easier for prospects to find your school.
Source: Great Lakes College of Toronto | International School Database
Building Local Backlinks
Backlinks, or links from other websites to your school’s website, are essential for establishing credibility in SEO. Local backlinks are even more valuable, as they signal to Google that your school is an authority in the community. Consider contacting local organizations, libraries, businesses, or news outlets that could mention or link to your school.
For example, if your school partners with local businesses for community events, ask them to link to your website in their event descriptions. Participating in community service projects or sponsoring local events can provide backlink opportunities. Press releases about notable achievements or events at your school, published on local news sites, can generate valuable backlinks.
Implementing Schema Markup
Schema markup is a form of structured data that helps search engines understand specific information on your website. For K-12 schools, schema can highlight important details such as your school’s name, location, contact information, and even specific features like tuition or grade levels offered.
Adding schema markup helps Google better understand the context of your website, often leading to enhanced search result displays with additional information like ratings, contact details, or event dates. Schools that use schema have a competitive advantage in local search results, as this markup can make your listing stand out.
For example, implementing schema to highlight upcoming events, open house dates, or application deadlines allows families searching for local school options to identify important details quickly. Schema markup may require technical assistance, but it’s worth considering to boost your local SEO efforts further.
Tracking and Adjusting Your Local SEO Strategy
After implementing these local SEO practices, tracking your progress is essential. Use Google Analytics and Google Search Console to monitor key metrics such as organic search traffic, click-through rates, and the keywords driving traffic to your site. These insights can help you understand which strategies are working and where adjustments are needed.
Regularly updating and refreshing your website’s content, profile listings, and SEO practices is vital to staying competitive. Local SEO is an ongoing process, and search engine algorithms frequently change, so periodically revisiting and refining your strategy can ensure your school continues to attract and engage the local community effectively.
Implementing local SEO for your K-12 school’s website may initially seem complex, but by focusing on the essential practices we’ve discussed today, you’ll soon see its value. By investing in local SEO, you’re building a more robust digital foundation and positioning your school as a valuable resource in your community.
Struggling with enrollment?
Our expert digital marketing services can help you attract and enroll more students!
FAQs
How to do SEO for a school?
To begin implementing SEO, schools can focus on three primary areas: On-page SEO, technical SEO, and Local SEO. In this blog, we’re focussing on local SEO.
What is the most effective strategy for local SEO?
One of the most powerful steps you can take when marketing to K-12 students’ families in your area is to claim and optimize your Google My Business (GMB) profile.
One of my favorite grocery stores is H-E-B. Seriously, after our major grocery store in Carthage, Texas (a very rural area in East Texas) left a sizable gap in the strip center between Wal-Mart and Eckerd’s (CVS Pharmacy), we were pleased when H-E-B moved into the grocery store space that was vacant for 10+ years. It opened in the late 1990s and the city has shown their love for H-E-B since that time. It greatly contributes to the health of the region.
One of my cousins works for H-E-B and she absolutely loves the company. Even when she travels, she is all about visiting the nearest H-E-B store. Talk about H-E-B-based travel, that is her favorite thing!
H-E-B, like other stores, had to pivot during the pandemic. In fact, our local H-E-B store in Carthage, Texas was very proactive in implementing measures to keep their team members and shoppers safe. They enabled only a certain amount of people to enter the store at one time, etc.
Earlier this month, I saw this amazing webinar focused on how the H-E-B organization reflected on how they changed procedures during the pandemic and other aspects of their store.
So, take a BIG bite of this webinar and reflect in the comment box below about how your local grocery stores pivoted (or did not pivot) during the pandemic.
Thanks for visiting! Sincerely, Dr. Jennifer T. Edwards Professor of Communication
Executive Director of the Texas Social Media Research Institute & Rural Communication Institute
As a lifelong rural resident, I think about the proximity of my home and my work to a local hospital. Actually, I always think about my proximity to a Level I hospital when traveling in a rural area or visiting a relative.
Many rural sections of our Texas interstates are located far from a Level I hospital. This means that when I am traveling to another location in Texas, I have to be very careful to practice defensive driving because I do not want to end up in a situation when I have to be transported to a high level hospital from a rural area.
As a result, I looked forward to this live session from the Texas Tribune for weeks. This panel highlighted the perils that many of our rural residents encounter everyday. In many of our rural Texas counties, you cannot deliver a baby in a hospital, because there is not a labor and delivery unit. Also, some of our rural counties like Shelby County, TX, do not have a rural hospital any longer.
Which part of the video stands out to you?
Thanks for visiting! Sincerely, Dr. Jennifer T. Edwards Professor of Communication
Executive Director of the Texas Social Media Research Institute & Rural Communication Institute
What are the implications for universities and their governing boards/trustees/councils of becoming increasingly embedded in global networks?
There are many implications, including the ability to be interconnected with flows of knowledgeable people (aka human capital), ideas, money, technologies, and so on. These global networks also ensure that international collaborative research and co-authorship occurs, a phenomenon explored on a number of levels in these fascinating reports:
Pause for a moment, too, and explore this fascinating visualization by Olivier H. Beauchesne of indexable co-authorship between 2005-2009:
What political boundaries, if any, do you notice in this empirically-based visualization of collaborative activity?
It’s no surprise if you read the reports flagged above that governments and funding councils across the worlds are enamored with facilitating more international collaborative research. Why? It is perceived to enhance the quality of the knowledge produced, the ability to address key global challenges, and that collaborative output (e.g., articles, reports, books) can generate relatively higher interest and impacts.
When I examine the above graphic, I think of all of my colleagues at the universities I’ve been educated and have worked at – the University of British Columbia, the University of Bristol, the National University of Singapore, Sciences Po (albeit just for one year), and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. At all of these universities I was (and am, in the case of UW-Madison) surrounded by colleagues who collaborate with colleagues in other universities, national and regional (e.g., European) research councils, firms, government agencies, international organizations, etc., all of which are scattered across the planet. Of course there is variation in researchers’ individual collaborative geographies, but there is evidence of a progressive deepening and extension of global networks, and this is backed up by bibliometric research on the basis of Thomson Reuters and Elsevier data.
From a broader perspective, it’s worth noting that these globalizing networks are structurally supported by the operation of segmented academic labour markets that are increasingly supra-national in nature, the digitalization of research infrastructures (think of research databases, publication platforms, the Global Research Council, ORCID, etc.), university internationalization strategies, global production networks (value chains), open access online higher education media, etc.
Now when things go well, universities benefit, as do the economies and societies (both territorialized) they are most closely associated with. Think, for example, of the myriad of ways the local, regional and indeed national economy benefited when one UW-Madison faculty member established the largest medical records company (Epic Systems) in the world, with offices in Verona WI, the Netherlands, and Singapore. When things go well, universities see increased attention from the higher ed media, and the business/economy-focused media (given the critically important role of universities in constructing vibrant knowledge-based economies). Said universities see higher positioning in world university rankings, increased flows of international fee-paying students, more diversity and competition in the make up of job applicant pools, more spin-off companies with genuinely global perspectives, greater competitiveness in extramural funding competitions, and so on.
As with many phenomenon, the existence of vibrant global networks that run through universities is a double-edged sword. They have the capacity to, if things go poorly, propel near instantaneous and surprisingly durable echoes and reverberations that span out across global space. Information flows, like water – it can’t be suppressed. Epistemic communities care little for the complex causes of major budget cuts, the detailed factors underlying poor leadership, nor the diverse causes of governance ineptitude. These global epistemic communities, supported by mediatized services (e.g., via Twitter, Facebook, email), pay negligible if nil attention to detailed rationale and nuances of controversial policy shifts (e.g., about tenure and layoff provisions). These increasingly global epistemic communities treasure, above all, freedom of thought to produce innovative forms of knowledge in the search for truth, clear and evident autonomy from the interventive impulses of the state, church, society, and governance systems that are proactively supportive vs repressive/micro-management in inclination.
Unfortunately, while higher education, as well as the associated knowledge economy, is going global, higher education politics with respect to budgets and university governance (at the board/council/trustee level) is at risk of regressing, of becoming more local, regional, hyper-politicized, and ideological. Think, for example, about the messy local/provincial politics shaping key aspects of the University of British Columbia‘s ongoing leadership/governance crisis, or an evident regional agenda to mess about (a ‘solution in search of a problem’?) with one of the foundational principles of academic freedom – tenure – that has built the University of Wisconsin (System), over a century plus, into what it is.
Going global brings with it amazing opportunities. Going global is a necessary developmental agenda for universities that seek to excel and build resilience in the 21st century. Going global is an integral part of supporting of regional knowledge-based economic development strategies, something I learned much about via colleagues on an OECD mission. But, hand in hand with going global is a global eye on the local.
Are those governing universities, and provincial/state higher education systems, as aware as they should be about the global networks that play a fundamental role in sustaining the vibrancy, effectiveness, and stature of their universities? If not, they should be, for local controversies and tensions are also simultaneously global in nature – they reverberate, at the speed of light, through global networks.
