Thank you so much for checking out the Office of Future Engineers' (OFE) first official digital annual report! This has been an incredible year of growth, change, fun, and hard work. This year I am celebrating my 15th anniversary at Purdue - where does the time go! It seems like just yesterday I was in the ENAD Building (it is now torn down) as a member of the Freshman Engineering Program team with the charge to meet with any high school student that wandered in with an interest in engineering. It has been a great ride as we have developed into our own department and become very strategic to meet the needs of the university.

To learn more about our growth and recruitment strategies, please read an article about OFE that was done in the summer of 2015 for the Dean’s alumni magazine. https://engineering.purdue.edu/EngineeringImpact/2015_1/grooming-success

I am extremely fortunate to represent such a dynamic, forward thinking college with amazing people that are passionate about students’ success. I always say “it takes a village” to recruit students and I want to personally thank my dedicated colleagues across the college and university who help make this campus a place where students want to be.

We will continue in OFE to strive to develop innovative Purdue-esque programs and marketing materials to help personalize admitted students’ experiences and support them in finding the right college fit. Stay tuned for the next round of excitement in 2016 and please contact me with any questions or comments concerning our office.

Boiler Up!

David Bowker
Director, Office of Future Engineers
dbowker@purdue.edu

The Office of Future Engineers (OFE) celebrated a brand new website in January of 2015. This responsive website provides all of our stakeholders – prospective students, current students, and alums – with an optimal experience that is both interactive and engaging without having to scroll and pan as you move from device to device. This initiative streamlines how you get your information from OFE and engage with both the program and Purdue, exponentially increasing traffic to all online communication platforms.

OFE was one of the first programs in Purdue’s College of Engineering to go live with a responsive website meeting the demands presented by the demographic we serve:

• 97% of high school seniors and 89% of parents/families are going directly to college websites for information
• Of those same students, 70% of them have regular access to a mobile device, and 80% of those devices are a smartphone or tablet

Source: (2014 E-Expectations Report)

OFE has one of the most highly trafficked websites in the College of Engineering. The statistics below provides high level insight into data to support that statement. As any digital project requires, we continue to roll out improvements so our users can easily find the information they seek.

This past year we have also taken our activity on social media to a new level. We have increased our number of followers significantly for Twitter, Facebook (multiple groups) and Instagram. In addition, we have added a new platform so we can increase student videos on our website. Blogging is also alive and well, with a record 286 views on one day of a new post by Dean Jamieson. Our goal is to continue to increase numbers on all platforms, to remain active and proactive, and to provide relevant information to engage future students.

Social Media

• Twitter: 1,780 Followers
• Instagram: 572 Followers
• OFE Facebook Page: 612 Likes

 

In an effort to meet the growing interest in Purdue Engineering, personalize the prospective student experience, and maintain a cost-effective and fully staffed unit, the Office of Future Engineers (OFE) turned to the biggest and best resource on Purdue’s campus - current Purdue students!

During the last year, OFE greatly expanded the number of student staff and interns working for our office. Student staff on the Operations (Ops) side answers emails and phone calls, meets with drop-in visitors, leads our daily Engineering Information Session presentations, assists in coordinating event logistics, and helps to run the OFE Welcome Center. They also serve as tour guides, co-presenters, and panelists, and all of our student staff in Ops are current Engineering students.

On the Communications side of OFE, our student interns help in nearly every aspect of maintaining extensive and engaging communication and marketing efforts. These students come from a variety of different majors on campus, bringing with them unique and highly valued skill sets to assist in web development, print and digital marketing pieces, social media campaigns and creating content for our blog.

By utilizing current students, it provides prospective students with someone to better relate to since they only recently went through the college selection process themselves. It allows our office to provide the most current information about Purdue Engineering since our students are living life as a Boilermaker every day, while giving them the opportunity to build valuable professional skills to add to their resume. Our students are passionate about bringing us unique and fresh perspectives that allow us to find newer and better ways of doing things.

Because our student staff are on the “front lines,” working directly with prospective students and their families, as well as alumni, and faculty members, professionalism is critical to ensure everyone has positive experiences and projects can stay on track. To that end, OFE has implemented activities to nurture our students into leaders by providing them with skills that will assist them in being successful in OFE, co-ops, internships, research, and their future careers.

Our student development efforts start with training. All student staff go through detailed training sessions every semester to ensure that they are well-informed on how to deal with a variety of situations and questions. These training sessions outline our expectations of them while also providing them with opportunities to give us feedback on their experiences in the office.

Our most recent student development effort has been implementing “Habitudes” by Growing Leaders, which uses a big picture and story to convey messages about challenging topics, to get key messages across and help our students grow both personally and professionally. We have regular Habitudes meetings outside of normal working hours to give our students the opportunity to see everyone, including OFE leaders, in a much more casual and open environment.

These training efforts have been well received by our students and have also helped to open the lines of communication between the students and OFE administrative staff. Student staff members have even stepped up and taken on the coordination and leadership of these sessions.

In OFE, we tell families that, “At Purdue, if we only educate your students we have failed them. Our job is to prepare them academically and professionally to be successful in their future careers.” In order for us to be able to say this, we must first be willing to do this. OFE is dedicated to outreach, recruitment, and alumni connections, plus engaging and preparing students to be successful in all three areas and beyond.