WEBVTT 1 00:00:02.970 --> 00:00:03.720 Sharlyn, Content Strong: Okay. 2 00:00:45.020 --> 00:01:01.640 Sharlyn, Content Strong: Hello, and welcome to higher thinking on higher. Ed. I'm Charlene Carrington, communications steward and strategist, excited to continue diving into the biggest trends, the common challenges and the most effective solutions encountered by communications and marketing leaders in higher Ed. 3 00:01:01.640 --> 00:01:25.909 Sharlyn, Content Strong: I am honored today to talk to Raisa Frida Raisa is the director of marketing and admissions at Mcg Career College, where she leads with a passion for community empowerment and inclusive education, with over a decade of experience in sales and marketing and sustainable business growth. She's also the host of Mcg's legacy, podcast sharing transformative stories that inspire and uplift. 4 00:01:26.120 --> 00:01:35.719 Sharlyn, Content Strong: Thank you so much. Again for bringing your expertise to this conversation. And also, I'm I'm hopefully to get some good tips from you as well on your podcast how are you doing today? 5 00:01:35.720 --> 00:01:52.889 Raisa Afrida: Thank you so much, Charlene, I am so honored to be in your podcast I am doing amazing. It's Friday here, the weather is nice, and we had a very successful open house last night, so I'm full of energy, gratitude, and lots of sugar. 6 00:01:52.890 --> 00:01:57.900 Sharlyn, Content Strong: I love that. Oh, lots of sugar. I need some of that. So if you could send some through your email, that would be great. 7 00:01:59.380 --> 00:02:16.600 Sharlyn, Content Strong: So I know I talked just a little bit about. You know your role just there in the intro. But if you can just try and set the context a little bit. Tell me a bit about your role at Mcg Career College, and how your work in marketing and admissions really supports the broader mission of student and community success. 8 00:02:17.320 --> 00:02:18.330 Raisa Afrida: Perfect. 9 00:02:18.480 --> 00:02:45.129 Raisa Afrida: Well, I have been in this college for past 3 years before working at Mcg Kerr College. I was working one of the largest Canadian post-secondaries in the country, and before that I worked with 2 big public institutions. I was in their business development team. I taught for a while, and also I was mostly in admissions and sales. 10 00:02:45.290 --> 00:03:07.949 Raisa Afrida: Now, when I moved to Mcg Career College, I actually did not know the name of this college. I did not know who they were, what they're doing, and all those kind of things, because it was a much like Newer College. And then I got to meet with the founders of the college, especially the CEO Monica, Chavergupta. 11 00:03:08.010 --> 00:03:26.800 Raisa Afrida: and she literally stole my heart, and I've never met any founders of any college where they genuinely asked me questions about who I am as a person. Where do I see myself? What do I want to do in my life? What's my life goal. 12 00:03:26.910 --> 00:03:32.229 Raisa Afrida: And they talked about why they started the college. 13 00:03:32.820 --> 00:03:54.670 Raisa Afrida: They did not ask me about. Hey? How many millions of dollars can you bring in? What was the roi of this? And you know what's your quarterly blah blah. Nothing like that. They knew about my work through Linkedin. So, thanks to Linkedin, I got my best last 3 jobs through Linkedin. But also they get to know me. And they get to tell me that 14 00:03:54.780 --> 00:04:06.769 Raisa Afrida: they really want to create community leaders. And I'm big on giving back to community. I do lots of volunteering, and you know, as a new, when I came here as a new immigrant. 15 00:04:06.840 --> 00:04:12.700 Raisa Afrida: lots of other people and non-for-profit organizations helped me, so there was a magical click. 16 00:04:12.710 --> 00:04:41.400 Raisa Afrida: and I said, You know what I want to join the team. I don't care what I'm going to do, but I would love to join the team. So then I'm so lucky to have my mentor, Tim Ogilvie. He's very famous in the industry for his passion for private education. He's the one who found me through Linkedin when I was working in public education industry, and he brought me to private, and when I moved here. He also moved here, so I still have my mentor with me. Who's my ex-boss? 17 00:04:41.400 --> 00:04:41.800 Sharlyn, Content Strong: Fine. 18 00:04:41.800 --> 00:05:02.130 Raisa Afrida: He's still my current boss, and we together we do everything and anything that helps the college. I am not attached to my title. It's just a title. We do everything and anything that means. Some days we're working with the government officials, with the ministry. The next day we're mopping the floor to make a content. 19 00:05:02.130 --> 00:05:17.320 Raisa Afrida: The next day we are in the community doing volunteer work, cleaning up garbages from the river, or we are in pride parade. So it's everything. Because we love the college. We really believe in the values of the college. 20 00:05:18.170 --> 00:05:34.480 Sharlyn, Content Strong: That's I mean, that's such a robust answer. It's great like I got so much from just getting a good understanding about how you yourself are so tied to the mission and the values of the school, and that your role, you know as 21 00:05:34.480 --> 00:05:57.900 Sharlyn, Content Strong: director is so far reaching, and this idea that even the smallest tasks are kind of bringing your institution forward in its own way. And what I pulled out a lot of what you said. There is just this idea about the community outreach piece, so it seems to me, and you correct me if I'm wrong. But it seems to be like there is a strong importance, let's say, a strong value on 22 00:05:57.900 --> 00:06:11.219 Sharlyn, Content Strong: creating, not just a student experience, a university experience, but connecting the students to the community. Is that something that you feel is driving your enrollment, let's say, or driving the culture as a whole at the university. 23 00:06:11.600 --> 00:06:12.980 Sharlyn, Content Strong: Absolutely. 24 00:06:12.980 --> 00:06:13.510 Sharlyn, Content Strong: College. 25 00:06:14.240 --> 00:06:33.030 Raisa Afrida: The the name of the college also resonates a lot about community, because Mcg stands for Monica Chavra Gupta, who is the CEO of our organization. However, our mission statement is making communities great. 26 00:06:33.180 --> 00:06:36.930 Raisa Afrida: So Mcg stands for making community 27 00:06:40.010 --> 00:06:51.390 Raisa Afrida: community supporters. And a big part of our culture is really thinking about. Okay? If we are, we have programs like sonography. We're the only private college in Alberta that offers 28 00:06:51.390 --> 00:07:12.070 Raisa Afrida: sonography, diploma. We have architectural technology, medical office administration, massage therapy global operation. We're working on getting some new programs which are going to work with a community work support worker mental health. We're also working to get nursing. And this kind of program. 29 00:07:12.070 --> 00:07:39.660 Raisa Afrida: all the programs that we have, we always train our students that how you can help the community and every single employee. We actually do tons of volunteering. I myself, I mentor new immigrants. Our CEO also does that. My boss does that. Everyone that we have here? They're doing some sort of volunteering, whether it's a sports team, whether it's a non-for-profit organization, Human Society Food Bank. We are always out there. 30 00:07:39.660 --> 00:07:51.350 Raisa Afrida: And, Charlene, I do want to tell you that the mission statement is not just a statement. We actually follow it through with our work, because if someone doesn't have money to get education. 31 00:07:51.480 --> 00:07:57.839 Raisa Afrida: They can come to our college, and they can pay up to 100% of their tuition through volunteering. 32 00:07:57.990 --> 00:07:59.100 Raisa Afrida: They can volunteer 33 00:07:59.100 --> 00:08:15.810 Raisa Afrida: any like Food Bank in Toronto. We have students in Ontario with students all around the country. They can go to any register non for profit. For each hour of their work we give them $25 tuition credit, not the minimum wage, $25 tuition credit. 34 00:08:15.810 --> 00:08:30.540 Raisa Afrida: So we have so many students who have paid absolutely $0, and they got educated, and they're out there in the community as a healthcare worker and different fields, and they got their education, a college diploma. 35 00:08:30.540 --> 00:08:33.200 Sharlyn, Content Strong: That's amazing. I have never heard of that model. 36 00:08:33.200 --> 00:08:35.419 Raisa Afrida: I know you were the only college. 37 00:08:35.429 --> 00:08:49.219 Sharlyn, Content Strong: Yeah, I've never heard of that. That is really well, you know what I feel like that speaks very much so to the value. And and even just building a brand for this college, and you know, connecting it to the you know your mission, but of course, to your broader community. 38 00:08:49.389 --> 00:09:05.089 Sharlyn, Content Strong: thinking that or keeping that in mind. I'm thinking about some of the major shifts. You know you're seeing in, you know, career and vocational education space, you know. How are those shifts? Kind of shaping, how you reach, and how you, and how you support prospective learners. 39 00:09:05.800 --> 00:09:26.959 Raisa Afrida: What we are seeing lately after post pandemic, I would say that people actually were very scared about online learning, and they fell in love with it. So a lot of people found the perfect balance between work life, you know family life and going back to school. 40 00:09:26.960 --> 00:09:48.139 Raisa Afrida: all doing it full time, but from the ease of their home. So we do see most of our students asking for distance learning, and the ones that is, you know, it's like you have to be in person definitely, those programs are in person, for example, sonography, for example, massage therapy. 41 00:09:48.170 --> 00:10:13.189 Raisa Afrida: It's very hands on and technical. So these things. I can see that we're seeing a great balance between work, life and school life. People are not struggling too much to do their education. They don't have to sacrifice their career to go back to school. It's like there's no stop, or there's no coma in your life. You're just full blown going on, and you know you can balance both. 42 00:10:13.190 --> 00:10:20.650 Raisa Afrida: That's 1 big shift. I can see a couple of other things that I would say, because, as a director of marketing and admissions. 43 00:10:20.650 --> 00:10:44.909 Raisa Afrida: We are using a lot of new technologies. For example, our Crm system is we are using campus login. It's very famous, actually, with great exposure. That's the company that we are working with. They have amazing Crm tools, you know, if we have appointments that they're getting like reminders, they're getting. 44 00:10:44.910 --> 00:10:45.360 Sharlyn, Content Strong: Don't have. 45 00:10:45.360 --> 00:11:08.009 Raisa Afrida: Feedbacks. We can record our sessions, our conversation. We do lots of documentation signature, and so many things. These are all done online and very smoothly. I do see a big change also in our marketing strategies, because marketing was very time consuming, creating all the contents and stuff. We are still doing those things. 46 00:11:08.010 --> 00:11:34.470 Raisa Afrida: but we have gone from, you know, when I started there was like 2 to 3 students per month. Now we are moving towards the number is 100 to 150 students a month. We're starting. And when we do that we do lots of student engagement, we do lots of contents. We do lots of replying to text and messages that's coming through social media. And we're all doing those things with using lots of AI tools. 47 00:11:34.490 --> 00:11:54.219 Raisa Afrida: But I do want to say that our contents are 100%. You will see that genuine faces. You will see our faces out there, but because we have tools that helps us edit our content, create some scripts, you know, come up with subtitles and so many other things like editing the photos. 48 00:11:54.220 --> 00:12:06.080 Raisa Afrida: Those things. We are using the top notch AI tools. Some of them are called like icon. We are using chat, gpt deepseek. Those kind of things are there as our everyday tool. 49 00:12:06.520 --> 00:12:15.140 Raisa Afrida: There are also things that I see a shift in students looking for genuine storytelling. 50 00:12:15.290 --> 00:12:15.690 Sharlyn, Content Strong: Right. 51 00:12:15.690 --> 00:12:20.649 Raisa Afrida: I have worked with huge colleges where most of the contents were 52 00:12:20.770 --> 00:12:25.629 Raisa Afrida: photos, or, you know, boring paragraphs and blogs and articles. 53 00:12:25.680 --> 00:12:51.999 Raisa Afrida: I'm seeing that. No, these days people get attracted to seeing real students. How is the day in life of a sonographer? Something like that? Right? People love to see what we do at work. We are having surprise parties. We are doing all those events. You know, we are doing Holy Festival, Christmas, Halloween, those kind of things, and the students love to see that. 54 00:12:52.030 --> 00:13:15.980 Raisa Afrida: What type of college is this? Who are these people? Who is the founder of this college? And once we show this genuine authentic content. People absolutely love it. And we get so much engagement. Actually, currently, in Calgary, we are one of the topmost institution, education, institution with the highest amount of engagement on Linkedin. 55 00:13:16.120 --> 00:13:32.009 Raisa Afrida: our growth in follower for social media skyrocketing we have a content that went viral and have more than 100,000 views. And after that there are so many contents we're making. That's very relatable that people are sharing it. 56 00:13:32.010 --> 00:13:48.429 Raisa Afrida: And again, we're going viral. So it's in a very positive way that I never could think that I would work for a college, and we would have so much fun at work. So these are some positive shifts. I see there are some negative things. 57 00:13:49.900 --> 00:13:50.580 Sharlyn, Content Strong: Right. 58 00:14:01.050 --> 00:14:06.160 Sharlyn, Content Strong: So you were just about to jump into some of the negative shifts that you're seeing as well. 59 00:14:06.410 --> 00:14:27.420 Raisa Afrida: Well, you know as much as I love my work here, and I'm every day waking up with excitement to go to work, which is very rare. Again, before the podcast I told you that Mcg. College has been the best employer I had in my life. So you know, that's a big deal, but I noticed 60 00:14:27.420 --> 00:14:41.809 Raisa Afrida: there is a misconception right now in the industry that private career colleges do not offer really good education or to go to public. I do not agree with that. 61 00:14:41.810 --> 00:14:54.839 Raisa Afrida: because not everyone can do 9 to 5 classes in person and sometimes public institution have limited seats. And these type of things when. 62 00:14:54.840 --> 00:15:18.570 Raisa Afrida: as a new immigrant, when I came to Canada, you know, I also had this conception that oh, if I want to get educated, I must enroll myself in the University, and I did, which costed me a lot of money, whereas I saw some of my coworkers who went to private institution and got their education done within one or 2 years, was working, making a lot of money 63 00:15:18.570 --> 00:15:43.230 Raisa Afrida: while I was still, you know, doing my undergrad, and it took me almost close to 8 years to finish my undergrad, because I was working full time, and then I went back to school to get my master's done again at a university plus. It's very expensive. Not everyone can go to public institution when it comes to universities. If you look at colleges, there are amazing people out there 64 00:15:43.400 --> 00:16:03.149 Raisa Afrida: in different public institution. But as I taught at a public institution here in Calgary, I could see that the amount of commitment you need to do like you need to be there in person most of the time. The classes are between 9 to 5, so it's hard to have a full time, job and have classes every day. 65 00:16:03.470 --> 00:16:13.389 Raisa Afrida: I saw that thousands of people, their lives got changed through this private education. One of them is my own mom. 66 00:16:13.470 --> 00:16:29.129 Raisa Afrida: you know, when I was working at a different college in my previous role, I actually told my mom that, Hey, I get to see people who are in their fifties and sixties. They're going back to school at this age and finding a new career. 67 00:16:29.130 --> 00:16:53.270 Raisa Afrida: And she was saying, like, You know what? That's amazing, and she got herself into the same college, and she was in the Dean's list, and she finished her business diploma with honors. Yeah, I was so proud to see my mom walk on the stage. Normally it's the other way around. I literally had happy tears when I saw her walking, and every year I again I cry with happy tears 68 00:16:53.270 --> 00:17:07.480 Raisa Afrida: when I see thousands of you know adult learners becoming care workers, becoming nurses, becoming like, you know, the the labor force is made of them. So 69 00:17:07.480 --> 00:17:27.050 Raisa Afrida: I really want to tell people that, hey, you know what? Give it a try. Go to the associations like Nacc, National association of career colleges. They have a list of all the great career colleges where you can go to learn trades or anything. 70 00:17:33.320 --> 00:17:58.270 Sharlyn, Content Strong: So thank you. I'm glad you're still here with us. We had a little bit of technical difficulties, but we're working around it, and that's what we do. I want to touch on a few things that you said as you were talking earlier. And one of the things was this idea of, you know, getting around the kind of the reputational shift right? Really trying to nail down who your audience is, knowing who they are, but getting their minds to really shift to the idea that you know this is a viable option for their future. 71 00:17:58.270 --> 00:18:05.939 Sharlyn, Content Strong: And what does that look like in terms of like from a marketing perspective. What what does that mean, and how you roll out some of the activities or some of the outputs that you do. 72 00:18:07.350 --> 00:18:13.820 Raisa Afrida: Well, I think the 1st thing that we do is we. We must do a good work 73 00:18:13.820 --> 00:18:40.109 Raisa Afrida: for our students and help them find their future career by providing a quality education. And if we do, that word of mouth is magic. Our 30 to 40% student comes from referral. And I've never seen that happen in any other institution. I've worked when students enroll here. They are so happy that they tell their friends and family about their school. 74 00:18:40.110 --> 00:18:54.030 Raisa Afrida: And that's how we grow. That's number one. Number 2 is putting the word out there. That's what I'm really working hard on. I always collaborate with lots of community partners. Who are they? These are 75 00:18:54.030 --> 00:19:18.910 Raisa Afrida: non-for-profit organization, who are at the front line helping people with either when they're a newcomer in the country how to find jobs to go to school, or where can I find some clothes that I want to wear in for an interview? There's so many non-for-profit organization that are doing a great work. We work closely together with them, we collaborate with them. 76 00:19:18.910 --> 00:19:42.580 Raisa Afrida: listen to them that what people are asking for and we try to build our program in a way that actually helps these adult learners about what they're looking for. We also listen to the government whenever the government is telling us like, Hey, right now, we need more tradespeople. We need more healthcare workers. Then we create a program 77 00:19:42.580 --> 00:20:07.489 Raisa Afrida: that meets the government. Need. We also do another thing, that is, we try to collaborate with other private colleges so that we create a positive name. Because when, if you're fighting with each other like you're not united, and you're not strong. But when you're working together in a harmony, you know your voice is louder and you're out there right? 78 00:20:07.490 --> 00:20:30.569 Raisa Afrida: So I am really trying hard to make that happen. And I have a great team. So it's not just I. It's we who work on it. And the last thing that I would say that it has helped a lot, which is our social media. We are big on social media. We're always posting, educating our our. You know, learners about 79 00:20:30.570 --> 00:20:51.659 Raisa Afrida: all the resources that they have. We are educating them, that what to be aware of, because there are some bad apples out there who may exploit the learners right? So we educate them about, hey, look for the program price on website. Look at the admissions requirement. 80 00:20:51.660 --> 00:21:13.989 Raisa Afrida: check out the reviews are these real reviews? Look at their Google, go in person and see who are they? What's the story behind? Ask lots of questions. So we educate our learners, so that wherever they go, whether it's our college or anywhere else, they are, you know, equipped with all those information to make an informed decision. 81 00:21:14.240 --> 00:21:22.909 Sharlyn, Content Strong: Right, I think that's that's such a great answer. And once again, so many little things that you said I want to quickly pick up on. So I you know I want to ask you. 82 00:21:22.910 --> 00:21:47.839 Sharlyn, Content Strong: You know what's really been landing well, in your marketing and your outreach lately, but you mentioned a few things you talked about social media. You talked about this idea of partnering with some of your other neighboring or other institutions around and building almost like a coalition, let's say, to kind of work together and move together. I wonder if there's anything else that comes to mind that's been working really well for you and your marketing and your outreach lately, and then I also wonder if there's anything that's been kind of an unexpected challenge 83 00:21:47.840 --> 00:21:51.380 Sharlyn, Content Strong: in terms of you know what you've been doing in your strategy. 84 00:21:52.823 --> 00:21:57.420 Raisa Afrida: What's working? A lot of things are working, thanks to God. 85 00:21:57.420 --> 00:21:58.710 Sharlyn, Content Strong: What you want to hear. That's good. 86 00:21:58.710 --> 00:22:27.730 Raisa Afrida: We are doing really well, so much so that we have 3 locations right now, one in Calgary, one in Red Deer and one in Cold Lake. These are all in Alberta, but we are also looking into opening in Edmonton. We have been getting so much, I would say, like demand in Saskatchewan. So our next targets are to open new campuses outside Alberta. 87 00:22:27.900 --> 00:22:40.500 Raisa Afrida: What else is working is, I would say, genuine storytelling. We are very much out there. We're in career fairs. We are in different community engagement things. 88 00:22:40.500 --> 00:23:05.029 Raisa Afrida: And when we are showcasing not only ourselves, but the people who are there, why, they're doing this kind of things. It's really attracting people's attention. And they're asking questions like, Hey, I really loved. When you guys did like black history month event, can you please tell me if there is a company where I can work at, or something like that? So we get genuine engagement 89 00:23:05.030 --> 00:23:28.979 Raisa Afrida: from our contents, and it's through storytelling, and we also give a lot of spotlight to our students who shares their own stories. And that's been the biggest thing that it's storytelling like people no longer believe in stock images. And just, you know, AI generated stuff. They want to hear from the people who have used our. 90 00:23:28.980 --> 00:23:55.269 Raisa Afrida: you know, service got our products and stuff, and then they want to make their decision. The challenges that I would say is right now, and with all due respect I know that there's a big shift of like, you know, weeding out the bad apples out of the industry, and also making sure that the funds are properly utilized. 91 00:23:55.270 --> 00:24:25.220 Raisa Afrida: So we have a cap right now from our Alberta student aid that a certain amount of students can get the government funding. So that has been a little bit challenging. But you know what if there is a will, there is a way. So we are currently working with triple funding option, which is 3rd party lenders. We have not for profit organization like windmill, that helps newcomers get 92 00:24:25.220 --> 00:24:50.139 Raisa Afrida: funds for school. We also have payment plans, and the best thing is the volunteering like, hey? If you don't have money, go volunteer, give back to the community, and we will give you education. So it's been working like a blessing so far, but those are the only small challenges. So far everything has been really good, like the industry is booming. I think people realize that 93 00:24:50.140 --> 00:25:00.970 Raisa Afrida: education can empower them, and I myself have gone through a lot in my life. But all the time education helped me and gave me inspiration to move forward. 94 00:25:01.510 --> 00:25:14.920 Sharlyn, Content Strong: That's excellent. You know I had never. I actually didn't put that together before, and I haven't heard that challenge recently. The idea that the legislative challenge of certain policies being put in place by, you know the surrounding governments for good reason, but at the same. 95 00:25:14.920 --> 00:25:15.349 Raisa Afrida: Time I get. 96 00:25:15.350 --> 00:25:38.449 Sharlyn, Content Strong: See how that would be a challenge for an institution trying to propel themselves and trying to grow. I wonder, you know, thinking about that I'm thinking about in general, you know what kind of student or marketing metrics, or even in this case, enrollment metrics? Are you really watching the most closely right now. And how do you kind of define success beyond just looking at the basic numbers. 97 00:25:39.518 --> 00:25:42.870 Raisa Afrida: I would say. We look at 98 00:25:43.060 --> 00:26:01.410 Raisa Afrida: how many students are enrolling. That's for sure. We have a very good conversion rate compared to other institutions that I've worked with so far. This is the highest that I see, and we look at also graduation rate and employment rate. 99 00:26:01.410 --> 00:26:01.730 Raisa Afrida: right? 100 00:26:01.730 --> 00:26:30.820 Raisa Afrida: A government mandate that we have to keep it above 70%. And I'm so happy to let you know that our program graduation rate is close to 100%, some program. We're still working on it. It is around 80%. But so far it's been good. Those are the number of metrics that I look at graduation rate employment rate. Another thing is time to get employment. We try to reduce that as soon as, like the student graduates. 101 00:26:30.860 --> 00:26:37.649 Raisa Afrida: we don't say goodbye to them because we want to handhold them, and we want to be their lifelong learning partner. 102 00:26:37.650 --> 00:26:38.110 Sharlyn, Content Strong: Right. 103 00:26:38.110 --> 00:26:56.199 Raisa Afrida: Trying to find them jobs. And we're looking at, how long does it take? Normally, it's taking between 3 to 6 months. So it's not that bad, but we want to reduce it even more. There is also another number of metrics that I look at, which is our referral rates. 104 00:26:56.290 --> 00:27:24.739 Raisa Afrida: People normally, don't think about that. But we notice that we get referral when we do a good work. So the higher our referral gets, that means we're doing a better work. So whenever my referral rate goes down, I'm like, Hmm! What are we not doing right? That, you know people are not happy and referring us. So those numbers are very important. As I say, 30 to 40% of our students are through referrals 105 00:27:24.750 --> 00:27:38.919 Raisa Afrida: that never happened in any other institution I've worked at. But I'm so proud that this is a good thing that's happening at Mcg College. Now, there is one more thing that we look at. It is our student 106 00:27:39.200 --> 00:28:02.409 Raisa Afrida: satisfaction rate. We do surveys at the end of our programs during our programs. So we look at that and we try to ask lots of questions about the instructor, the material, the college itself, and their experience, and it resonates, not through our internal survey, but also something external, which is Google. Review 107 00:28:02.410 --> 00:28:25.160 Raisa Afrida: right now. We are at 4.8 for our campus, which is really good. Our most of the reviews are very positive, and they talk about how they feel. Most of the things here is that they feel like a family. And I absolutely love that. I worked at very large organizations, 1 billion dollar colleges. 108 00:28:25.280 --> 00:28:27.280 Raisa Afrida: But what happens? There is 109 00:28:27.740 --> 00:28:57.679 Raisa Afrida: sometimes you become a number, not a person right? People don't know your name. People don't know your face here. It's very opposite. Whenever I get there is a phone call coming in at the front. I could hear the who the person is, and I would be like, oh, I know this student. I know her story. What's going on so it really feels like a family when people enroll here, and one last thing that I always look at is our growth. 110 00:28:58.110 --> 00:29:05.849 Raisa Afrida: I always say that you know what there is at least 10 to 20% growth per year. That's my expectation. And. 111 00:29:05.850 --> 00:29:06.520 Sharlyn, Content Strong: Enrollment. 112 00:29:06.690 --> 00:29:29.410 Raisa Afrida: In terms of enrollment and student population. But we have been doing way better than that. So we are doubling down. It is sometimes close to like 80 to 100% of growth. We're seeing year by year. So that's amazing. But we do keep in mind that we want to make sure we're inclusive. 113 00:29:29.410 --> 00:29:46.099 Raisa Afrida: very inclusive when it comes to not only our employees, but student population. And I would love to tell you, Charlene, why I wanted to invite you to our grad event, because you know what we have a person. The person is 82 years old, and. 114 00:29:46.100 --> 00:29:46.790 Sharlyn, Content Strong: Oh, my goodness! 115 00:29:46.790 --> 00:30:15.760 Raisa Afrida: Our student. Yes, so we have students from all around the country, from different age race gender, and we're so proud of them we always make sure that we're reaching out to everyone from the indigenous reserves to someone brand new newcomer to refugees. We have international students, and we have students from all around the provinces. So yep, that's all. 116 00:30:15.760 --> 00:30:39.350 Sharlyn, Content Strong: And I'm sure finding stories like, that's such a that's such a positive, really impactful story that I think will do a lot of the storytelling for you right is being able to capture that 80 year old. Wonderful story and share it in the right places, and finding exactly what you said, really identifying your different target audiences and being able to tell all of those different stories authentically, I think, is probably already working for you. Really. Well. 117 00:30:39.350 --> 00:30:47.129 Raisa Afrida: And I do want to tell you that as part of our making communities great mission anyone who is above 65, 118 00:30:47.280 --> 00:30:50.049 Raisa Afrida: they get free education from us. 119 00:30:50.050 --> 00:30:51.009 Sharlyn, Content Strong: Oh, my goodness! 120 00:30:51.010 --> 00:31:18.109 Raisa Afrida: 100% free. So if you know of someone who wants to just learn something new, whether they work in the field or not whether they're doing to, you know, like I have massage therapist who wants to heal their partner or someone, or they just want to do this because they found pain, relief through that, and we never discourage anyone like age is just a number to us literally. 121 00:31:18.110 --> 00:31:46.739 Sharlyn, Content Strong: Right, and it really speaks to the idea that of you know how enriching learning and education can be. I'm cognizant of your time, because I've taken a lot of your time already. But my last question it's a question I ask. Everybody, is the magic wand question. If you had a magic wand in your hand right now, and you could wave it. You can wave that wand, and you can solve. You know, one major barrier in your work, whether it's an outreach, whether it's an enrollment, whether it's in, you know, internal alignment, whatever it is, what would that thing be? And why. 122 00:31:49.160 --> 00:31:55.979 Raisa Afrida: That's a very good question. You know what I actually asked this question in doing the interview, when we hire new people. 123 00:31:56.290 --> 00:31:57.929 Sharlyn, Content Strong: Do you good? Love it? 124 00:31:57.930 --> 00:32:02.790 Raisa Afrida: Interesting. We have this in common. Well. 125 00:32:03.040 --> 00:32:31.429 Raisa Afrida: what I see it's because, like, I am a person of color, I'm a female, and I see a lot of women have a lot of hesitance to get into school, because they are. Either, you know, they have to listen to their husband, or they have to take care of the kids. They are not the key, you know. I would say many of the times that they're not the person who has the control of their own life. 126 00:32:31.430 --> 00:32:32.030 Sharlyn, Content Strong: Right. 127 00:32:32.030 --> 00:32:56.669 Raisa Afrida: And they always have to listen to someone else and have to put someone else as a priority. So if I had a magic wand today I would remove that, you know, like lack of confidence, or the barriers for women education, and I would empower every single woman with education. So I would do that, and I think I am still doing it 128 00:32:56.670 --> 00:33:21.639 Raisa Afrida: with my invisible wand anytime. I see you know someone coming in at our door, especially if that person is an immigrant woman, or someone who is of my mom's age, I always make sure that my team has the time to listen to their story their barriers, and always look out for the ways to educate them and help them to with every single step. 129 00:33:21.640 --> 00:33:26.870 Sharlyn, Content Strong: So, yeah, that's my answer. That's a great answer, all of 130 00:33:28.130 --> 00:33:52.360 Sharlyn, Content Strong: throughout all of your answers. I think I really got that theme of, you know, community empowerment and community involvement and community engagement. And I think that speaks to who it is you're trying to reach out to. But it speaks to the mission that your institution is trying to move forward or to do every single day. Is there anything else that's on your mind that you want to share before we wrap up anything else that I didn't ask you or I didn't touch on. 131 00:33:53.550 --> 00:34:12.559 Raisa Afrida: No, I don't think so. I just wish everyone all the best. And I want to tell everyone that you know. What if my mom and dad can go back to school at the age of in their fifties, and one of them became an engineer. One of them is working in a business, admin Field. 132 00:34:12.750 --> 00:34:25.120 Raisa Afrida: You can do that, too, like everyone can change their life through education. So I just want to inspire everyone that give it a try, go back to school, start something new, or just upgrade your skill. 133 00:34:25.120 --> 00:34:34.740 Sharlyn, Content Strong: That's excellent. That's excellent. Well, Raisa, thank you so much for sharing your time and your experience and your perspective with us today. It's been such a thoughtful and generous conversation 134 00:34:34.739 --> 00:34:59.699 Sharlyn, Content Strong: to anybody who watches this, or who listens to this. I hope this episode sparks some own ideas about your own creativity, your own experiences, some challenges. You may be working through this idea of really utilizing some of the tools that we have available to us, but remaining authentic in this space that we're in, I think, was a very big thing that you touched on as well. If you're a communications or marketing leader in higher. Ed, and you want to continue to contribute to this conversation. 135 00:34:59.700 --> 00:35:12.120 Sharlyn, Content Strong: Love to hear from you. Let me know, because we know these conversations aren't just talk. They really are ideally the start of a shared roadmap for the future of our field. So let's get to work. Thank you so much again, Raisa. 136 00:35:12.370 --> 00:35:14.350 Raisa Afrida: Thank you so much, Charlene.