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CASE STUDY

First-gen highschool graduates in Atlanta apply to college prep

Georgia, United States

 
 
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The Social Enterprise

How do you ensure that first generation students are prepared to succeed in college? Leap Year offers a yearlong college readiness and community service program to ensure that low-income first-generation high school graduates in Atlanta, Georgia are prepared, academically and emotionally, to succeed in and graduate from college.

 
 
 
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The Challenge

Leap Year is designed to help high school students who are “on-track” for college but need support to ensure graduation. For the past few years, Leap Year enrollment has been low and comprised of applicants that do not fit their target demographic. The organization needed to figure out how to develop a pipeline of qualified applicants for their program offerings.

 
 
 
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The Research

Appleseed conducted research through a data and literature review, interviews with Leap Year stakeholders, and phone interviews with students. Specifically, we talked to the following student segments: current high school seniors; Leap Year Fellows; past applicants; and students who were eligible to apply, but decided against it.

 

We learned:

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Taking Action

Appleseed created a list of strategic recommendations to guide Leap Year’s new marketing approach. We recommended updating organizational branding and messaging to appeal more to high school students’ motivators, and to clarify the program’s offerings to other stakeholders. We provided content strategy and creative brief templates to guide Leap Year in creating consistent communications across all channels, aligned to clear goals. We suggested activating peer-to-peer word of mouth from friends, alumni fellows, and college student ambassadors as part of Leap Year’s recruitment efforts.