Melissa Schultz

In an era where education is more accessible than ever, community colleges have a crucial role to play in representing and serving the communities they inhabit. This understanding is central to the work of Melissa Schultz, Chief Student Enrolment Officer at Michigan’s Schoolcraft College.

Melissa met with The Interview Co-Host Max Webber to share her insights on creating transformational learning experiences, meeting the needs of a diverse student body, and the challenges facing community colleges across the country. 

Melissa's Journey

Max: Can we start with a brief introduction to yourself and your institution?

My name is Melissa Schultz, and I’m the Chief Student Enrolment Officer at Schoolcraft College. We’re a community college located in the Metro Detroit area of Michigan, with an enrollment of around 9,000 students each semester. We serve students of all ages, from youth summer camps, to recent high school graduates to professionals looking to upskill and senior citizens seeking lifelong learning opportunities. We’re committed to serving our community, creating transformational learning experiences, and helping our students become lifelong learners. I’ve been at the college for a little over nine years, holding roles spanning from retention and student success to enrollment. 

Max: What inspired you to pursue a career in higher education?

I've been in higher education for about 20 years now. I started my unofficial career as a student employee at Central Michigan University.  Although I completed a Bachelor of Science in textile design at Michigan State University and worked in the field for two years, my heart was in education. I was an apparel designer for a couple of years, but I ultimately decided that my heart was in education. I was a first-generation college student, and I thought the work that I did with my peers as a student employee was very meaningful. So one day, I called an old mentor of mine, and he advised me to study for my master's degree. So I went to the University of Arkansas, where I had a graduate assistantship in Residential Life that permitted me to complete my master's degree in higher education administration. I spent two years there before working at the University of New Hampshire, then Western Kentucky University. Finally, I decided it was time to move back to Michigan and be closer to my family. I took a Dean of Students role at South University, a startup campus in Michigan, before I came to Schoolcraft College.

Max: What things have you been focusing on to increase enrollment and retention at the college? 

When it comes to retention, it’s important to understand that success begins by making sure students start their college education off on the right foot. Once students come through our doors, we're responsible for removing barriers so that they can reach their educational goals. We need to ask our students what kind of support they need, whether it’s related to academic support, mental health, transportation, or any other unmet basic need. We need to find out what challenges students are anticipating so we can proactively remove those obstacles. Knowing that at the point of admission is important so that we can create proactive support systems like academic summer bridge programs that aid students in closing skills gaps. From their first day, students need to know who they can go to if they need help – whether it’s a food bank or emergency funds. We are also focusing on partnering with K-12 to reach students in middle school and high school to engage them in activities with the college like career exploration or dual enrollment. We serve many students from traditionally underserved communities, who might have grown up thinking college was not an option for them, so we're showing them that it is possible to attend college and that they are indeed, college material. Creating a college-going mindset in our youth is especially important to me personally, as I know how it feels to be unsure because I was a first-generation college student myself.

Max: Despite the challenges facing the sector, your institution continues to enjoy a growing enrollment. What's been the key to your success?

As a community college, we’re facing several challenges, and as a result we are still recovering from the severe declines, but luckily seeing enrollment stabilizing with steady increases and an improvement in student retention. Across the country, community colleges experienced a decline in enrollment, and that's due to factors like population decline and higher wages in jobs not requiring college credentials. And of course, COVID, which accelerated the decline that was predicted by experts nearly a decade prior. We've recognized that the college experience needs to be individualized for students and we have to connect with students one-one one from the get-go. We value each student and want to foster a sense of belonging for all. We need to understand who they are, what they need, and what they are interested in accomplishing. Students need to know they can contact us directly to get answers to their questions. So we've really honed in on increasing our communication directly to students via text messaging, 24/7 chat bot, live chat, and a parent and supporter portal. Our goal is to get information to students when they need it most. I would say that removing financial barriers has also been key, and we've had important support from state grants to help remove that tuition barrier. We are also currently working on developing a predictive financial aid model with a service provider, EAB, to maximize the benefits of financial aid and Foundation scholarships.

Max: How do you attract students of diverse backgrounds? And once they arrive, how do you keep them engaged with the institution? 

Community colleges have a long-standing tradition of being open access. So we naturally have a gravitation of really diverse students, from all ages, economic backgrounds, religions, races, and ethnicities. Not only are we affordable and accessible, but we also have a focus on teaching and learning. We understand that there are unique barriers and challenges to serving a diverse population – for example, many of our students are already working full-time, and others are the sole financial providers of their families or the caretakers of children. Recently, we enlisted the help of the National Institute of Student Success (NISS) to help us close graduation equity gaps for our Black and African American students. As a result of working with NISS the college committed to making improvements in four different areas of college operations. We are identifying courses with high rates of D and F grades and withdrawals and creating ways to integrate academic support and holistic interventions, and we are making improvements and adjustments in our academic advising model to ensure we are making data-informed decisions and developing a proactive approach to financial aid awarding to remove financial barriers. Finally, we instituted the Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) framework to track progress and outcomes of each of these initiatives. After a lot of work, we’re seeing the gap begin to close, which is very exciting. And we will continue to focus on this work probably for the next three to five years.

Max: What’s the best piece of advice you've received over the course of your career? 

Never stop learning. Although it may sound cliche, the mantra can be applied in every scenario. The landscape of our society and of education is constantly changing. So we have to disrupt – how we work and how we lead to adapt and meet the needs of our communities. I see it as making a commitment to being a life-long learner, in all aspects of life and career to have a positive impact in the spaces we live and work.