WeAdmit! 2022 Year Wrap-up with Janice Crampton

Reunited and it feels so good. Janice is back to reflect on the past year of conversations she's had and lessons she's learned as AISAP's Executive Director and CEO. Listen to learn what excites her most about the year ahead! 

Transcript

00;00;00;10 - 00;00;12;13

Janice Crampton

This is WeAdmit! by AISAP, the podcast where we share true stories from admission and enrollment professionals. I'm your host, Janice Crampton, Executive Director and CEO.

00;00;14;18 - 00;00;45;09

Janice Crampton

Well, hello, everyone, to this what I'm going to call a special episode of the WeAdmit! podcast. This is really our wrap up of 2022. I can't even believe that we're talking about a wrap up of 2022. That phrase “Time flies” I know is so overused, but man, does it resonate as I think about the fact that I am sitting here in AISAP’s main office looking at a calendar date

00;00;45;10 - 00;01;31;01

Janice Crampton

that reminds me, I have to get used to writing down 2023 when I'm just starting to get used to writing 2022. It's been a year, but when has it not been a year? And I say that quite honestly, in an optimistic way, although you might as a listener be thinking, “Oh, she's sort of circling the drain.” But I really say it in an optimistic way because I believe to my core, from the seat that I sit in as AISAP's Executive Director, that the whispers that we are hearing are not just whispers, but they are screams and shouts and screams and shouts of delight and recommitment to our profession and recommitment to each other.

00;01;31;25 - 00;02;04;08

Janice Crampton

I had the good fortune several weeks ago of facilitating a meeting with the Greater Charleston Area Admission Professionals and the focus of our conversation, while the tenants were admissions events, community outreach opportunities for us to make a difference in those sort of retention efforts, topics that quite honestly you could Google at any time and find yourself hearing the one, two, three, four or five things you could do.

00;02;04;29 - 00;02;35;24

Janice Crampton

But we took the approach of examining it through the word belonging. Belonging. And the more that I think about what AISAP does almost without even knowledge and understanding that we're doing it, is we promote and advocate belonging. You know, when you are an association that is about one thing and that is educating, elevating, empowering and engaging admission and enrollment management professionals,

00;02;36;18 - 00;03;03;12

Janice Crampton

there's this opportunity for us to think about how we can create a community that is so spread out because again, we're global and we're world. But how can we create a community that is so far reaching, but is one touch, one person at a time? And I think what AISAP has really discovered and again, when I use the word AISAP, it really is,

00;03;03;12 - 00;03;45;19

Janice Crampton

I'm saying “You.” What AISAP - You - have done is realized that it is not about the transactional. It's not about how many webinars or podcasts you've listened to or what meeting you went to or what template you downloaded. But it's about the transformational. If you're wondering about whether transformational has an impact on belonging, has an impact on where we are as a community of colleagues, take a few minutes and listen to the different testimonials that were crafted and created by you

00;03;45;19 - 00;04;27;04

Janice Crampton

all at the last Annual Institute we had. You know, you're not hearing about the fabulous Excel spreadsheet. I mean, we've got those, but what you're hearing about is that the relationships that have been developed are incredibly powerful. And quite honestly, they get us through when maybe the yield wasn't as high or it was too high and you had no beds for those wonderful children that you've offered admission to, or when the budget in financial aid wasn't as robust or as impactful as you knew or wanted it to be. That belonging part of all that we do at AISAP,

00;04;27;04 - 00;05;05;13

Janice Crampton

and again, all that YOU do in the work that you do day in and day out provides, in the spirit of the holidays and the many gifts that we will give each other and we will receive, the ties that bind us all together. As we think about some of the conversations that have happened in our many conversations this past year, I think back on those conversations such as “Living Aloha with Erwin Wong.” You know, here's a gentleman who has worked in this profession for double digit years.

00;05;05;29 - 00;05;34;01

Janice Crampton

And yet, as he still thinks about the work that he does, he argues that nothing replaces the importance of relationship building and connecting with students and families on a human level. As we think about how many times we focus on a pivot table and an export import download persona Erwin Wong reminds us that nothing replaces the importance of a relationship.

00;05;35;20 - 00;06;06;09

Janice Crampton

I'm also reflecting upon the conversation that I had with Bill Diskin, who again was AISAP's 2019 Vision and Values Award winner. And as he thinks about his work from being a poet laureate to athletic director and finally an admission and financial aid to director at Cannon, it's the journey that has led him to his success today in the work that he does for his community at Cannon.

00;06;06;22 - 00;06;47;27

Janice Crampton

It is not about living in isolation and doing just what his school can do and being highly competitive. It's about what you're learning from each other as professionals and practitioners, and it's about what he also sees as the opportunity to give to others. Again, as I reflect on a year that was, I'm reminded of the wonderful conversation that I had with Natasha Estey, who in fact has written a whitepaper for us, has been a high contributor to educational content for AISAP.

00;06;47;27 - 00;07;09;19

Janice Crampton

And yet when I had her as a guest on the WeAdmit! podcast, I asked her right at the very beginning, “So tell me, how you identify as a professional?” And the reason I asked her that is because her background and experience came from the parent side, and then she did communication and marketing and so on and so on.

00;07;09;19 - 00;07;42;27

Janice Crampton

And what was interesting and really quite surprising is she said, “I identify as a thinker with an artist's soul.” A thinker with an artist's soul. And aren't we all a little bit artist in this science and art of our profession? Are we not all people who kind of value those creative juices and the individualization that we can make at our school in that scientific process called enrollment management?

00;07;43;19 - 00;08;17;08

Janice Crampton

I have had the pleasure to sit in the seat that I sit in and listen to so many of you, and very rarely is it the question about commitment to the profession predicated on your ability to make a difference. The question that sometimes comes forward is the longevity question because of an elasticity issue. So what do I mean by that?

00;08;18;28 - 00;08;42;19

Janice Crampton

Someone said to me in a very different conversation and platform, that whole rubber band elasticity scenario, you know, you get stretched and then you have to go back and you get stretched again and you have to go back. I think for many of us in this profession, we've been stretched and we've been stretched and then we've been asked to even stretch further.

00;08;43;10 - 00;09;09;15

Janice Crampton

But when have we been allowed to go back? When we've been allowed to have that time and that moment to pause and reflect, to take a deep breath, to remind ourselves of why we first fell in love with this profession and why we, in fact, do this year over year over year. I think the thing that keeps us coming back year over year over year is belonging.

00;09;10;20 - 00;09;48;03

Janice Crampton

So the gift that we give each other in this season of giving is belonging. I hope for all of you, not only on a professional level, but a personal level, that you know that you are part of a huge picture of success that is, in fact, not only changing your institution and its impact, but you're changing lives. There's a lot of things that we do that have sort of influence on control that we can control.

00;09;48;03 - 00;10;16;04

Janice Crampton

But there's even more that we cannot control. And oftentimes, in the spirit of the things we cannot control, we find ourselves working from a place of fear. I never want any of you to work from a place of fear. And so I also offer to you, in the spirit of belonging, the invitation to pick up the phone, to send an email.

00;10;16;04 - 00;11;03;23

Janice Crampton

Heck, text me! And let's work on what is in fact not giving you that strong sort of structure or pylon, if that isn't even the right word here, so that you're working from a place of confidence in not only the duties and tasks to do what you need to do, but the science to then work your craft. What's the most important lesson that I feel admission professionals had to learn this year is I think is quite honestly, is vulnerability and vulnerability in, dare I say, kind of a public way.

00;11;04;24 - 00;11;52;17

Janice Crampton

Say more, Janice. Okay, I will. You know, I think many of us look at data and information and benchmarking and the wonderful professional, Aimee Gruber, who for many years worked at the Enrollment Management Association, formerly known as SSAT. She also was with TAB. She's from the profession. She would use the phrase vanity metrics. And as we think about this idea of being vulnerable and we think about this concept of community and belonging, data has given us an opportunity to look and compare each other to each other.

00;11;53;09 - 00;12;26;00

Janice Crampton

But I do believe that a conversation with colleagues, which is led by Debbie Murphy, the wonderful Debbie Murphy, by that matter, gives us an opportunity to have conversations with each other and say, “You know what, I know what you mean.” Or in a very noncompetitive capacity in cohort groups and other forums to say, “I need some help.” You know, our regional groups again, I mentioned the Greater Charleston Group.

00;12;26;00 - 00;12;57;24

Janice Crampton

We have groups in Jacksonville, Florida, in Miami, heck, all around the world. Right? The wonderful international schools that we work with. And that opportunity to set the stage, or dare I say, in the spirit of the holidays, set the table for people to come and sort of take off that veneer and say, if we're all going for the same thing and that is making a dent in the universe, then each of our institutions has an obligation to identify what their individual value add is.

00;12;58;07 - 00;13;35;14

Janice Crampton

So we shouldn't be competing with each other. And so to be vulnerable isn't to open yourself up for criticism. It's to say, “I'm only going to be my best self if I share with those who know the world that I live in and they can help lift me up.” Oh, dare I say elevate each other. I think what excites me most about the industry right now is that the message of AISAP is being heard loud and clear.

00;13;35;28 - 00;14;10;03

Janice Crampton

Education is the answer. To educate ourselves as a practice and as a profession is going to be the answer in efforts to solve the problems that are in front of us. We have the opportunity as not only an educational professional group, but as a group of educational professionals who seek to be educated to, in fact, make sure that the reason that we're at the table is not because by title you have to be there.

00;14;10;18 - 00;14;35;15

Janice Crampton

But in fact, the absence of you at that table would be missed. And the reason it would be missed is because you are the most educated, you are the most well-informed, you are the one who, in fact, has the ability to look at those professional competencies that are highlighted in AISAP’s learning and development framework, coupled with the standards and skills.

00;14;35;29 - 00;15;09;02

Janice Crampton

Quite honestly, that's a recipe for success. So what has AISAP’s motto been for the past year? Well, quite honestly, it's been to be that place where you can belong. AISAP's motto for this past year has been, “Reunited and it feels so good.” But as we think about 2023 and you'll hear me say it over and over and over again, for those that know me well, that's a mainstay, a little repetitive talking here.

00;15;09;24 - 00;15;42;06

Janice Crampton

It's belonging. You belong, you belong. I've never been more proud of an association that I've had a an opportunity to have impact on. But quite honestly, I'm just the the person that sets the table for you all to dine. So I hope that in the spirit of this wrap up for the year, you look at your year and reflect on not the things that you didn't necessarily achieve, but the things that you truly did achieve.

00;15;42;25 - 00;16;14;20

Janice Crampton

And then set some intentions, not goals, set some intentions for the next year and know that AISAP is here to help you achieve the resolution of those intentions. I have the honor of serving in this capacity every single day, and one of the things that I know for sure is that the servant leadership idea of all that we do is incredibly important to me.

00;16;15;16 - 00;17;00;03

Janice Crampton

So please let us know what we can do to help. Ask AISAP, because as that acronym stands for Association of Independent School Admission and Enrollment Professionals, it also has a play on words. ASAP, meaning we're here right away when you need us. I wish you all a safe and healthy and happy, belonging holiday season and know that while our offices may turn off the lights and send an out-of-office reply, we're going to be back and we're going to be back in the saddle come 2023.

00;17;01;29 - 00;17;16;04

Janice Crampton

We hope you enjoyed this episode of WeAdmit! To learn more about the Association of Independent School Admission Professionals and how you can take advantage of membership benefits. Visit AISAP.org That's AISAP.org