Members of the admission team at The Pennington School (NJ) understand this parental anxiety, and they had been tossing around ideas to help quell it. At first they considered doing a newsletter on different general topics, but it just never came together.
Then last summer, Billy Hawkey, assistant director of admission and financial aid, was talking to some graduate school colleagues about podcasts, and it hit him: Why not put out a series of non-Pennington-centric podcasts that could help families through the independent school application process? “Everyone is already inundated with email and news blasts, and the popularity of podcasts is at an all-time high,” he says.
Billy Hawkey (left), assistant director of admission and financial aid, and Sharon
Jarboe, director of admission and financial aid, in a recent recording session at
Pennington. Photo by Kimberly Palmucci
The first podcast focused on the top five reasons for families to consider independent schools and aired in October 2017. Pennington’s headmaster, Hawkey’s dad, William S. Hawkey, who has more than 30 years of independent school experience, was the guest speaker.
Leading up to the school’s March 10 application deadline, Hawkey produced five podcasts, one about every three weeks. Other topics included the application timeline, student-centered learning, character development, and financial aid 101. The five episodes have garnered about 1,000 listens total, with the most popular episodes being the top reasons to consider an independent school (285 listens) and student-centered learning (275 listens).
Before the first podcast, Pennington emailed families in its database whose status was either inquiry or applicant for the 2018–2019 school year about the series, along with instructions on how to subscribe through iTunes. Each podcast topic was also advertised on the school’s Twitter and Facebook accounts before it aired.
Hawkey emphasizes that the podcast series, called “Admission Insight,” is meant to be helpful to families considering any independent school, not just Pennington. In fact, a guest speaker on the student-centered learning episode was from Lawrenceville School (NJ).
“We want to include voices from other independent schools to provide a richer understanding for families about independent schools and what we do,” Hawkey says. “We would love to have more folks from the outside come in because it’s so valuable to hear different perspectives and experiences.”
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