Q&A: Susan Englese, Marketing Vermont colleges to the world

Vermont Business Magazine, Aug 01, 2005

Susan Englese is the executive director of the Vermont Higher Education Council. Working out of her home, she helps all of Vermont's colleges to market their schools to out-of-state students. She lives in Essex Junction with her husband, who has worked in the insurance business with the National Life company for over 20 years. Englese has been with VHEC for 17 years.

She has a bachelor's degree in English and library science. Her mother was born in Vermont, and raised here, but met her military career husband when be was stationed at Fort Ethan Allen, and Englese said she was raised in other parts of the country. While living in Denver, CO. her husband was offered a job with National Life in Vermont, prompting them to move here.

Englese says she loves gardening, reading, spending time outdoors at her home, scrapbooking and doing volunteer work at her local library.

Robert Smith interviewed Englese in Rutland.

VBM: I'd first like you to explain what your organization does and then how you became involved with it.

Englese: We're an organization to help colleges share resources and

ideas by joining together, because some of the schools are very small in Vermont. We can do more in terms of promoting the state of Vermont by working together. For example, we do some joint out-ofstate recruiting where we really try to get students interested in Vermont, and then find the school they want.

The organization started back in 1943. The governor, William Wills, set up what he called the Vermont Postwar Planning Council. They wanted to make sure that Vermont was ready at the end of World War II for Vermonters coming back from the military. One of the committees was an education committee. He'd called college leaders together. They met, discussed some things and decided that it would be really beneficial for them to work on all these issues together. The following February, February 29, 1944, they got together and met at the Montpelier Tavern, which is now Capitol Plaza, and founded the organization. We are 60 years old. Last year we had our annual meeting at the Capitol Plaza to celebrate our 60th anniversary.

In the beginning it was largely social. They met a couple of times a year and talked over different things. Gradually, it has evolved. We have a number of committees now. One of our presidents, 10 years ago, said that everything we do can be listed in three categories: improve, promote and protect. So whenever we're doing something, we check to see if it follows in one of these categories.

I became interested in the organization when I worked at both an independent and a public college here in Vermont. We'd been out in Arizona for a while where I worked at a college, and then moved back. The association was advertising for someone, and I applied. I had also worked in Denver, CO where I ran a statewide association for librarians. Since I'd done that and because I had worked with both a public and private college, they hired me, and I'm now in my 17th year.

VBM: Now VHEC isn't a state organization, is it? It's private?

Englese: Right. It's a private organization.

VBM: So how is it funded?

Englese: Dues.

VBM: So all the colleges pay dues and out of that comes your salary, and so on?

Englese: Right. Expenses, travel.

VBM: How many employees are there besides yourself?

Englese: Just me, and I'm not full time. I work 30 hours a week. We have some independent contractors who, at an hourly rate, do the web site and help me with some office mailings and publications. But we have amazing volunteers. The presidents serve as chairs of committees. People from the college's serve on committees. The work of the organization would be absolutely impossible without so many volunteers from all of the colleges. Because they believe in what this is and that together, they can be better than if they worked at it separately.

We're the only state, according to the American Council on Education, that has the one organization that all of the colleges belong to. All of the colleges in Vermont belong to VHEC.

VBM: You may not have a typical week, but what typically do you do in the course of the week?

Englese: Oh boy. It would depend on the time of the year. During the academic year, there are probably more things going on and the committees are more active, whereas in the summer it's a little bit less active. I get calls from the committees, I get calls from the public asking me where they can find information about a college. I might be doing something with the State Department on Marketing. Or we do a lot of things on certification of new out-of-state schools that apply here as well. I couldn't say that there's a typical week. That's why I've liked the job so much. Every week, it's different. Every year, there's a different president of the Association. So every year has sort of a different flavor.

VBM: So you have a web site and publications that you put out?

Englese: We actually have two web sites. We have an organizational web site, and then there's a group that is actually one of our committees, called the Consortium of Vermont Colleges, that's made up of all the admissions directors, and they have a web site where they do a lot of joint promotion and out-of-state recruiting of traditional age students. They also have a bus tour for out-of-state guidance counselors every year. That's where we bring in about 40 guidance counselors from schools around the country and they spend a week visiting colleges in Vermont. The consor tium also does this publication, which is called a viewbook, and it has a full page for each school. this is mailed out to about 4000 guidance counselors each fall. We use it also to promote the bus tour.