Summer Outreach to Incoming Freshmen

 Different ministries do different things in outreach to incoming freshmen.  Here is a sampling of some on their why, how, and maybe why not.

Adam Venters at the University of South Carolina says, "Research shows that state schools are seeing a growth in residential students coming to campus.  We need to leverage every resource we can towards outreach efforts.  Individual fraternities and sororities will spend close to $50K each on first week of school activities.  Ministries need to pray harder, dream bigger, plan more expectantly, train student leaders more specifically, and communicate to our networks.

There is no silver bullet to doing outreach.  Instead of thinking what are homers and just doing those, I got this analogy from the book, “Good to Great” by Jim Collins.  We need to think hedge hog!  Hedge hogs when under attack will bunch up together and create a rough spiky fortress.   How can we have a myriad of things that are happening that help us to outreach to large classes of freshmen.  What INCREMENTAL things can I do over a series of months to pursue students with the hope of Christ?"

Steve Masters at LSU says, "One of the ways we reach out to freshmen is by sending their parents a letter. Plus, we do personal phone calls, texts, emails, and e-newsletters. In the Parents Letter, we ask them to partner with us helping their son or daughter get involved in our BCM.  We include a blank Parents Survey that they can fill out and email or mail back to us.  We will get about 50 back over the next few weeks.  Some of the responses are from parents whose son or daughter has dropped out of church. You can sense their great concern.  The survey gives opportunity to list things they have done in church and asks for prayer requests.  Plus, there is a place for them to list the names and contact information of other freshmen.  There is also a place for parents to volunteer to help with certain activities. We have recently formed a GroupMe for our new freshmen and so far, 41 have joined it and 25 have posted something about themselves on it and some with pictures.

Ryan Scantling at the University of Arkansas says, We get contact info on students throughout the summer via orientations, camps, and social media.  We text all of those students and send them a small gift in the mail (BCM stickers, bracelets, and a handwritten card from an upperclassman).  Years later, many students say this is the reason they made the decision to visit our ministry for the first time.

As I have indicated in the past, we learned that the students that came to the first two Freshmen Orientation/Registrations tended to be the more gung ho leader types.  We would send each of them an application to apply for Freshmen Leadership Team.

If you cannot afford to do something for all the names you have, do a gift or a special invitation to those whose names were given to you by area churches, certain Orientations, those that are furthest from home, etc, etc.  Is there some way, you can target some of those whose contact info you have and approach them differently?

What do you do and why? Do you do a brochure, flyer, personal notes, phone calls?  Do you offer a free gift? 

Arliss' book, Tips for College Freshmen:  124 Tips for Fun, Faith & Good Grades, is available at Amazon.com/dp/B09QFB9DJ9 and A College Student's Guide to Spiritual Maturity is at Amazon.com/dp/B0CXTCTNB1.