School Summit Workshops Finalized: Focus on Admissions and Student Well-Being

2019-03-21 Mariah Thomson

Cambridge Network is excited to share our finalized list of workshops and announce our first keynote speaker, Dr. Jennifer Greif Green, for our 2019 Annual Cambridge Network School Summit. Thank you to our partners for providing such great feedback and offering their thoughts for workshop topics. This year, our summit will focus on two important themes: market trends impacting international admissions and ensuring student well-being. We hope you and your team can attend!

2-Day Agenda

Wednesday, June 19

Thursday, June 20

  • 8:00 am – 4:30 pm EST: Full day of workshops, breakout sessions and case study reviews.
  • 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm EST: Cocktail hour at the Hilton Garden.
  • 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm EST: Dinner at the Hilton Garden.

Friday, June 21

  • 8:00 am – 1:00 pm EST: Half day of workshops, ending with a “to-go” lunch for those with early flights or considering a vacation to Cape Cod or the White Mountains!

For more details and to register, click here. We hope to see you in Boston this June!

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Key Note Speech – Dr. Jennifer Greif Green

School-based Approaches to Ensuring Student Competencies & Well-Being

With mounting evidence that our students are managing greater stress, anxiety, and mental health challenges, we all seek solutions to improve student wellness in our schools. Let’s evaluate the concept of generating shared sets of data to better prepare and tool schools to support students in their time of need. Learn from research-based findings that broaden the definition of student success from Boston University Professor Jennifer Greif Green and a case study from an independent school exploring how student wellness can be improved within a rigorous school setting.

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Breaking Down Price Transparency: Its Effect on your Admissions Strategy

Much is said about financial sustainability in a world where the cost of private education is rising significantly faster than family incomes while international trade disputes continue. Furthermore, schools are amid a technology-driven, industry-wide transformation where innovation is the key to surviving and thriving. However, costs must be contained. Let’s deep dive into how admissions teams can create and identify sustainable financial models allowing for strategic program investments and experimentation.

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From Concept to Application, Corporate America Reimagining School Marketing Strategies

Does your school have a marketing team? Marketing budget?

Most secondary private schools have begun to reimagine marketing as we reach one of the toughest times in international admissions. Embark on this journey that applies principles from corporate America to redesign marketing practices in the independent school world. Learn which lessons transfer well and which do not, with a specific focus on identifying a unique value proposition, crafting an optimal advertising and communication strategy, redefining the role and structure of marketing and communications within the admissions function. Discover why your school needs to shake up its marketing strategy and what inbound tools like site personalization, email automation, and constituent video testimonials can show measurable results.

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Understanding Social Right Movements at an International Scale

As the pace of change accelerates in today’s VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous) world, how are school leaders adapting and responding so that international students feel welcomed? While schools like to plan in five-year cycles, they often lack the skill to interpret signals, trends, habits, and technologies. Explore and discuss the “signals” of our exponentially changing world, learning best practicing on fostering open dialogue around inclusivity.

“The future doesn’t simply arrive fully formed overnight, it emerges step by step.”—Amy Webb, The Signals Are Talking

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A Practical Guide to Creating an Outstanding Parent Experience

In today’s experience economy, parents are increasingly asserting their role as customers. Their experience with a school builds parent satisfaction and fuels positive word of mouth that drives recruitment and retention results. Schools that focus on the parent experience will realize marketing success and holistic school success. Examine specific and practical initiatives schools have successfully taken to create an outstanding parent experience as well as suggestions for programs and approaches to consider. Take this opportunity to exchange ideas and examples of initiatives you have taken at your school.

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The Why and How of Student Integration: Cultivating an Inclusive Community

In response to issues surrounding student integration and the rise of the social-emotional problems in adolescents, this interactive workshop introduces you to research and practice to aid you in being an advocate of well-being in your community. In leading comprehensive change in schools, we have developed valuable insights into the significant differences between school cultures that are change-ready versus those that are change-capable. Leave with a new strategic understanding of culture and its role, a gap analysis process for assessing culture, and benchmarking tools for continuing strategic culture development back at your school.

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College Admissions Panel, The Complexity of Agency vs. School Support

A panel of college admissions experts will discuss the challenges that international students face when applying and matriculating to college in the U.S. The panel will focus on how to best prepare international students for the college admission process and will delve into the intricacies of students choosing agency over your school’s support. We will also discuss international student program best practices at the collegiate level, many of which can be easily adapted to the secondary education level.

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Key Note Break Out Session with Dr. Green – Optimizing your Toolbelt: Student Social-Emotional Well-Being

A rising number of students are seeking mental health services for a variety of issues—attention deficit, eating disorders, depression, addiction, and more. As such, schools, faculty, and administrators must approach student mental health issues in a legally compliant and medically supported way that benefits the individual student physically, emotionally, and academically—and also aids the general school community. Share examples of programs and practices that emphasize and prioritize authenticity and creativity within the school culture and classrooms.

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President’s Round Table

Join other head of school and leadership teams for steps on aligning your three-to-five-year plan alongside Cambridge Network. Share your strategies and forecasts on the domestic market, and Cambridge leadership will share theirs for the international market. In this highly interactive workshop, Cambridge leadership will share the Kaizen mindset and approach to continuous improvement of strategic planning in such a sensitive and volatile market.

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Optimizing Enrollment Channels through First Impressions

Learn how to design a data-driven projection and budgeting model that combines the resources of our enrollment services collaboratively and strategically. Enrollment projections correlate directly with financial aid budgeting and can serve as a tool to achieve desired enrollment by grade level as well as reach other mission and financial-driven goals. Review the mechanics behind the work as well as the philosophy behind this combined approach.

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Cultural Competency: How to Start Courageous Conversations and Drive Change

Explore the planning and implementation of voluntary lunch-and-learn sessions at your school. Practice your skills around discussing concepts such as implicit bias, privilege, and microaggressions. Gain a deeper understanding of what works in facilitating these tough-to-have conversations and where challenges might arise. Discover various approaches and discuss how to create actionable steps from these simple lunch-and-learn conversations. Hear about obstacles to progress and share your stories about what culture means to you and your school community.

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Transforming your Learning Space to Capitalize Student Integration

As educators think about essential skills for future success, they realize that skills in reading, writing, and arithmetic should be coupled with contemporary skills such as collaboration, creativity, and problem-solving. Have you found it challenging to find the time and resources to provide faculty with the professional development they want surrounding that of international students? If so, this interactive session will showcase interactive protocols and frameworks to bring teams of change and collaboration together.

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The Perfect Partnership: A Joint Leadership Framework for Admissions Offices and Heads of Schools

Strategic planning can quickly become a predictable exercise or an overblown process that confuses rather than clarifies. Learn how to create a strategic planning process that engages all stakeholders, builds leadership capacity, and outlines a clear vision and plan. Share guiding principles for an engaging community-wide process, along with specifics that make it work. Through large- and small-group discussions, gain an understanding and develop the leadership framework that ensures that your institution will maximize the benefits from a “perfect partnership” between admissions and the head of school.