48 ENROLLMENT
BUILDING OUR STS COMMUNITY BY LARA UNSWORTH ’95, DIRECTOR OF STRATEGIC ENROLLMENT MANAGEMENT AND COMMUNICATIONS
For more than 115-years, Strathcona-Tweedsmuir School (STS) has been a proud member of the Calgary and Foothills community − and community is at the centre of all we do. It inspires us, shapes us, and motivates us every single day − especially in the STS enrollment office. As a proud STS alumna, and mom of a STS student, I understand first-hand that choosing the right school for your children is a big decision, and when you find the right fit, it can be life changing. In Calgary we are so blessed with an abundance of fantastic school choices. That said, I truly believe there is something very special in our school’s core that sets us apart, and simply can’t be duplicated. As part of the admissions process, we believe it is very important for families interested in STS to see and feel our campus and community. We want them to see our beautiful country campus and state-of-the-art facilities, and how happy and engaged our students and faculty are. We want them to feel our trailblazing, curious, confident, community-centred spirit, and the sense of calm and optimism flowing through our space. To give people a taste of STS, we host our annual Open House, and monthly information coffee mornings. Also, after new students have enrolled, we host on-campus shadow mornings and new student orientation events, to ensure they feel connected to our community before school begins. We could not imagine being able to create a warm welcome for new families without these in-person
experiences – until now. In March 2020, when all Alberta schools closed to students, employees and visitors because of COVID-19, we had to re-evaluate everything we did in the enrollment office, and pivot – quickly! When precautions to protect communities from the spread of the pandemic were at their peak, we had many families in the midst of their admissions process, from across the globe, who hadn’t yet had tours of the school or met us in person. We also had a large group of newly enrolled students who were looking forward to welcome events and meeting their future teachers and peers. We wracked our brains to figure out how we could still give families opportunities to see and feel our campus, and to create a strong sense of community from the get-go, while keeping everyone safe and practicing social distancing. As part of our new strategy, we used Zoom to host virtual tours for applicant families, hiring a videographer to film all of our key spaces on campus and creating a playlist of videos we could show families as part of the tours. Members of our Enrollment team and a Division Principal also met the family and had conversations, and then took the family on the tour, telling the story of our school as the footage played, giving the chance to ask questions along the way. We also hosted webinar-style virtual information coffee mornings for families just starting their
Lara '95 proudly welcomed her daughter Olive '32 to the STS family as a new Kindergarten student this year.
