Stakeholder #2

Last week for my PR publications class, we were assigned to create a direct mailer for OU prospective student services to go to a stakeholder of our own choice. I chose students in southeastern Oklahoma, the region of Oklahoma with the fewest amount of students at OU. Because I grew up there as well, I understand the the common concerns and needs of high school students in that area about coming to a larger university. I also have worked with a student group here on campus during the past two years that seeks to help students from this region specifically to feel comfortable about making the transition between Small-town Oklahoma and the university.

This week, we are supposed to create another direct mailer that should go to someone who has influence on the first stakeholder. I chose to target high school counselors who assist students with applying to college. These people are usually the facilitators of information about all things college in these students’ lives.

In my experience, my high school counselor was not always the best about communicating all the opportunities to me. The purpose of this direct mailer would be to make sure that counselors are seeing this information on a physical piece of paper and hoping that they will read the information and act upon it.

For some students, their high school counselor can be their only source of information about how to apply for college, how to apply for scholarships, etc. Many people in this area do not have parents that have been through the process before so they do not really know what to do either. It is important that the counselors are well-informed, passing the information onto students, and encouraging them to apply.