As reported in The Record last week, this 2024 first-year class is the biggest since 2017, with 201 new students. While it may seem on the surface that Goshen College is still the same place, something had to cause this uptick in enrollment. 

The admissions office sits in the back corner of the Leaf Raker. Nearly all students pass by it every day while getting food, and it’s easy to identify, with large windows surrounding the suite. If students traveled inside, they’d find the reason for the increase. 

Heather Zile, the director of admissions at GC, said “We want students near and far to know the Goshen College name and the commitment that we are making to quality education and experience.” 

But how does a small school in northern Indiana achieve this goal? Zile said it’s all about “engaging prospective students and families while highlighting Goshen College’s values and opportunities.” 

This answer may sound like corporate talk, or like a good mission statement to put on a website, but Zile boiled it down to one key word: “relationships.”

She says it’s her team’s job to share the institution with a personal touch and good experiences, while being accommodating and understanding the uniqueness that each family brings to the table. There’s a lot of collaboration in the job, and Zile’s role is to see the big picture, and recognize when a pivot in strategy needs to happen.

Zile is also in charge of building the best team she can to make this happen. “I’ve had many things to focus on,” she said. “But none greater than working to build a qualified and energetic team to give the students the highest quality experience.”  

Because GC is classified as a Hispanic Serving Institution, the college received additional grants and funding, which allowed Zile and the admissions office to increase the diversity of their staff and hire new people. 

“All of these roles promote quality and consistency in our messaging and relationships,” Zile said. Offering a diverse group of staff helps the admissions office build these real and lasting relationships with prospective students, which encourages them to come for a visit, which her team has found “prospective students are more likely to choose Goshen College if they come for a visit.”

One of these new employees is Lizeth Ochoa, an admissions counselor for traditional undergraduate programs. She was hired in July after working at Bethel University. But Ochoa doesn’t just focus on undergraduate programs, she also works with several local high schools, including Bethany Christian, Jimtown, Fairfield, Northridge and Northwood High School. 

Ochoa often visits Goshen, Concord and Elkhart High School, which are what she calls, “the three big ones.” Ochoa will go with her colleague, Marisol Cardona Hernandez, who works with Hispanic and Latino students, speaking only in Spanish. Ochoa is also bilingual and speaks Spanish, but she focuses her time with non-Hispanic and Latino students at these schools. 

“We’re actually gonna be going on a lot of visits to those three schools,” Ochoa said.

But the office has to be constantly changing, seeing what strategies stick and which ones don’t. “They tried new tactics,” she said, “And I think trying those new things came out really successful for enrollment and admission for this past year for fall 2024.”

Ochoa also highlighted the importance of the admissions office in being a guiding presence for these young students with their whole futures ahead of them. “It takes me back to when I was in high school,” she said. “That’s really difficult, to try to figure out what you wanna do, who do you wanna be.” 

A big part of her job is being a reassuring voice for these students, she said. “Having those conversations with the students and saying ‘hey you probably don’t have to know right now.’” 

Ochoa also helps students identify and apply for scholarships, to make college more financially affordable. “It’s just empowering them and letting them know that college is an option,” she said. “It seems really hard financially, mentally, academically challenging, but I feel like we have great resources here.”  

The admissions team is extremely happy with how this last year went, and are already planning and are excited about the future. “We’ve been talking about some incoming strategies for this upcoming class, and we are anticipating a bigger class than last year.”