In this episode of the Higher Education, Higher Purpose podcast hosts Phil Cook and Heidi Sturm speak with Willem de Ruijter, Vice President of Enrollment Management and Marketing at Geneva College. Willem shares his unique journey and how attending a Christian college offers an environment for personal and spiritual formation during a pivotal time in young adults' lives. Willem reflects on his cross-cultural experiences growing up between the Netherlands and Canada, which inform his approach to enrollment management and the importance of diverse perspectives in education. 

Listen as Phil, Heidi, and Willem discuss the vital role that community and professional development play in enhancing the mission of Christian institutions and serving students.

What You Will Learn:

(00:00) Welcome to the Podcast

(00:10) Introduction of Guests

(00:27) Willem's Background and Journey

(03:39) Cultural Insights in Enrollment Management

(05:20) Success Stories from Geneva College

(15:14) The Value of Christian Higher Education

(19:08) Future Insights

Resources:

Visit our website: https://www.naccap.org

Email us: Office@naccap.org

Visit The NACCAP Annual Conference: https://naccapconference.org

Welcome to the Higher Ed Higher Purpose podcast, a podcast designed for NatCaP members, prospective students, and their families.

Hello, everyone.

Welcome to another edition of the Higher Education Higher Purpose podcast.

My name is Phil Cook and it's my privilege to serve as the president of NatCap.

And I'm Heidi Sturm and I am the director of marketing and communications here at Natcaptain.

We've been hopeful you've been joining us for these series of podcasts we've been doing as we feature and put the spotlight on Natcap board members.

We are thrilled to be joined by Willem de Rider.

Willem, how are you today?

I'm doing all right.

Yourself?

Excellent.

We're doing very, very well.

And Willem's coming to us from western Pennsylvania, where he serves as the vice president of enrollment management and marketing at Geneva College.

Prior to Willem's time at Geneva, he spent over a decade at Redeemer University, which is in Canada, and he served in various enrollment roles there.

He attended four different CCCU Naccap institutions in three countries.

We got to talk about that, Willem.

And is currently pursuing his Edd at Bethel University in Minnesota.

Williams, married to Catherine.

They have three children, ages nine, seven, and five.

And as I mentioned, they live just outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in Beaver.

Outside of christian higher education, you'll find Willem planting dahlias, working around the house, spending time with the kids, or browsing architecture.

Willem, once again, thanks for being with us and talking with us today.

It's always good to talk higher ed, specifically christian higher ed.

And you're our people.

Willam is our people.

And as we've mentioned in previous versions and previous episodes, we've enjoyed getting to know more about our board members.

And so, Willem, I'm just eager to hear a little bit about your journey, about attending the four different schools in different countries.

Tell our listeners, who may not know you at all, about your educational experience and the schools that you attended.

Yeah, great question.

I don't think anybody who's 16 or 17 years old thinks about ending up in enrollment management in christian higher ed.

It's not in the top ten career choices.

And somehow here I am.

So I grew up in the Netherlands and lived in the Netherlands, but had family in Canada.

So I grew up in between two countries.

And my plan was to move to Canada to attend Redeemer University, but I took one year and studied in the Netherlands at the Krisslicke Hocheschol.

Ada did a first year of a communication degree in the Netherlands.

You got to say that again.

That sounded cool.

Got to tell us again.

Where did you study?

Krisslika Hochschul Ada.

There we go.

I'm going to have to Google that just to see how to spell it.

Yeah, exactly.

Well, I can provide the spelling.

It's quite easy.

But.

So I did a year there prior to moving to Canada, completed my bachelor's degree at Redeemer University, worked there for just over a decade in enrollment management.

While I was there, I completed my master's in higher education at Geneva.

And that's how I got connected with the Geneva community.

And about three years ago, my family and I moved to western Pennsylvania and started this role here at Geneva.

And we're certainly glad that you've done that, and not just because you're our boss, but because of the good work that you're doing there.

In my neck of the woods where I grew up in western Pennsylvania, Willem, there are too many people that we've talked to have that kind of a unique perspective.

Growing up in two different countries, ending up in the US, working in enrollment management.

How much does that cross cultural experience, how much does it inform your work, your life?

I mean, it's got to be a part of your every day and every work that you do, how much does that cross cultural experience inform what you do?

I think that's a great question to ask the people that I work with.

For me, it's how I operate.

But in conversations with peers and colleagues, I think one of the greatest benefits to having been in multiple different places is that you encounter people doing great things in different ways.

And it starts with a base assumption that there's more than one way to do something great.

And so that is a fruitful place to start, I think.

And when you come up to a problem, when you come up to a challenge, it's not a one shot or it doesn't work.

There's kind of this baseline of, hey, how would different places and different communities do it?

Early on, I worked with international students in admissions.

And I mean, that's the story, right?

Students coming from all over the world to our institutions who bring with them their wealth of experience from those places.

That's why our schools want those students at their schools, because they just bring this slightly different perspective that's really good for our communities.

Well, you have actually, you've done great work at Geneve the last couple of years and what we were talking to our guests and talking to you.

But your work at Geneva and this year in particular has been quite successful.

Willem.

It's something to celebrate and to encourage with your team, talk a little bit about the good work that's being done in Geneva, the success you've had this year, how you've been able to be successful in a very difficult market.

Yeah, that's a good question.

I'll go back a few years ago.

Nobody steps into a vp of enrollment position because of job security or will be an easy job, nine to five, and then you can just, you know, do other things.

But as I arrived at Geneva, one of the things that I was quite convinced of is that the core product of what Geneva was offering was really, really good.

And I can work with a core product that's really, really good.

Often in enrollment and in marketing, we have to work for the product that's given to us.

And if that product is not right, it's a really hard task in front of you.

The product was really good.

So we've just spent the last three years just going at it.

We rebranded, we launched several different initiatives and enrollment is a long lead time industry.

You can't change this coming falls class by work 910 months out.

It takes time.

And so we hit our third year now that working as a team with the right people in the right seats, to use that analogy.

So we're quite, quite pleased with that.

Well, congratulations.

And for those that are joining us right now, we're talking to Willem de Rider, the vice president for enrollment at marketing at Geneva College and the chair of the NatCaP board of directors.

And Willam, congratulations on that successful, successful result that you've had this year in your bio.

As we started reading architecture and a green thumb, I've got to ask about those two things.

So are you really, you plant a little bit.

Do you do some green thumb work?

Absolutely.

So your parents shape you, right.

And you don't really recognize that till later in life.

So my mom was always in the garden.

My dad was practically an architect in the work that he did.

And so as I've grown older, I've just become more appreciative of those things.

Also, gardens are much more responsive than enrollment funnels.

Like when I dig a hole, something happens and that is good.

And I like that.

Yeah, it's the perfect antidote.

It's a perfect kind of restorative practice to sit in meetings for 8 hours or looking at data and excel sheets for 10 hours.

It's hands in the dirt shaping.

And I mean it's that genesis call, right, to fill the earth, to subdue it, to plant gardens that we read in Jeremiah, and so it's a good practice for me.

Well, I said, heidi, I've got another question there.

So are you full garden, willem, or do people in your neighborhood know to come and get some vegetables from the deriders?

Is that how it works?

Is that kind of level of operation?

It's not predominantly.

It's flowers, actually.

It's flowers and beautiful plants.

But we are those crazy people that pulled up half the front yard, took out the grass, and just planted different flower beds and shrubs and perennials.

And we're known as the greenhouse with the weird front yard.

And I'm okay with that.

Well, we need to make a trip there to check it out.

I'm sure it's beautiful.

Yeah.

I'm embarrassed to say that I had moms on my, on my step and they were dead within a week.

So I clearly don't have that green thumb.

But you learn.

Well, I'm trying to think back, Willem, to when I first met you.

I think maybe one of my first emails to you had to do with the virtual conference several years ago when we had to pivot from having our in person conference.

And you were one of our, you led one of our sessions that year.

So I remember that.

How many years have you been working in admissions and when did you first get introduced to NatCAP?

I'll answer your question.

That virtual conference, one we all want to forget.

My session title was when lightning strikes, what to do when the unexpected happens.

But my first real connection to NACAP was about a year into working in enrollment at Redeem University.

It was at the point Loma conference.

Yeah, that was kind of my introduction to what MacApp was doing.

And despite leadership changes and stepping into different roles myself, and I've been able to attend every conference.

I'm very fortunate since then, and I think it was about three, four years later that this idea of enrollment management and knockapp and the purpose and the mission, it started to click.

And it actually started to click for me in a year that was really difficult, that the work is important.

Even if you are 15% off of your goals or 5% off of your goals, you are not defined by the inputs and outputs, and that our mission as institutions is important, whether we've got 25 students in the classroom or 400, the mission remains important.

So that.

But it took a couple years for really that to get into my psyche and kind of my being.

You're listening to the higher ed.

Higher purpose podcast.

So when did you decide that you're going to make a career of enrollment?

It's a gradual process.

I was promised a job as an admissions counselor upon graduation, and the person that promised wasn't directly fulfilled, let's put it that way.

And so I had to wait for a year and a bit.

And as I ended up in admissions quite early on, I already started pursuing my master's in higher education.

I just knew that higher education space was really interesting to me.

And at that point I was pretty open ended about where I would end up.

Would I end up on the student development side or wherever?

But the more I worked in higher ed, the opportunities I had on campus to be part of kind of committees from across campus.

Enrollment touches all of higher ed.

I love that.

Right.

If a college is doing enrollment well, it's touching academics, it's touching student development, it's touching our fundraising and alumni engagement.

It's touching all these different things.

And I mean, the variety of this job is fantastic.

And so as I got more opportunities along the way, I like that.

And so here I am.

Well, it's great to have you a part of Naccap, part of our Naccap board.

What do you feel are NatcaP member benefits?

What would you tell someone who is thinking about becoming a Natcap member?

Why should they become a member?

Yeah.

Tonight in about two and a half hours, we have our fly in drive in starting here.

That was a part of knackapp that early on I was not aware of.

Sure, there's high school members, but I was squarely in the admission space.

But as I've been part of knack up for a longer time, certainly since my time on the board, regardless of whether you're on the higher education side or the high school side, at its best, NaCAP equips its members to do their work more faithfully and more fruitfully, and they go hand in hand.

I think that community of people who are asking good questions of each other, who in formal programs or conferences are learning together and getting better at it, actually serves our institutions and our students, results in us serving our institutions and our students better.

And I can list all the features and benefits of NAC at this program, that program, ABC, whatever.

Yes.

But I think that's the overarching theme that if you're plugging into the guidance counselor certification or through flying, driving or through a conference, you're gonna find a place that, if you're engaging with it honestly, will have to make you get better at your job.

And that serves our students.

This is precisely what we do and why we do what we do every day, Willem, and thank you for sharing that.

Willem.

I mentioned, I grew up in western Pennsylvania.

I knew of Geneva College as a small boy.

And the Geneva college that I've seen in multiple times of visiting on your campus now is really doing well.

When I think of an enrollment leader and an institution and their fit man, it seems like you really fit hand to glove in terms of the way that Geneva thinks and thinks critically and thinks Christian.

I wonder, how do you make the case to families when they visit Geneva about why a christian college or christian university experience is worth the cost, the sacrifice, and in particular, even the Geneva Anglo.

But even more broadly, why is it worth it to invest?

And why should students attend christian colleges and universities?

I think good christian colleges are one of the few places in our culture that offer more than simple job preparation or simple skills training.

We, through the work that God does at our places and the Holy Spirit does at our places, are in the business of formation.

If a family is considering, hey, we want our son or a daughter to go to college.

We want them to be an engineer.

We want them to be a teacher.

We want them to.

Perhaps the motivation is to play in a baseball team or to run track, whatever it might be.

It's four years, typically of a student's life.

What other opportunity in adulthood, because we do got to recognize it's in adulthood.

This is not kindergarten.

Do you get to shape somebody for four years?

What kind of environment do you want for your son or your daughter?

What kind of environment do you want as a student, students to be shaped in and by who do you want to be shaped?

And that's not just, I say to our families when they're visiting, if you just come in here for a piece of paper, sure, you can get that.

We'll give that to you, but you gotta aim higher.

That's not enough.

And if that's all we do, come talk to me, because we've got a bit of an issue.

And so that's, I think, what christian higher education does.

What a unique opportunity.

Where do you get to sit someone to say, yeah, I'll spend four years with you.

It's pretty unique.

It is.

And again, we really think, of course, we believe in all of our members that are doing it and doing it well, but clearly, you and Geneva are doing that.

Well, Willem, you and I last year had the chance to go to a Pittsburgh Steeler football game together.

It was rainy and the Steelers lost.

But we've taken the plunge and we're going to try it again this year.

I know you've talked about the flowers and architecture, but what do you enjoy that's fun?

What do people, even, maybe some of your colleagues that are out there like Willem de rider does?

What do you enjoy?

What is relaxing if you're not working?

How do you spend a great day in your life that you enjoy?

Yeah, I think I've kind of covered what I do on my weekends at home and things like that.

My happy place is walking around a city for hours at a time, preferably before people are up.

We had a privilege.

I've still family across the world, obviously.

So last time we traveled to Holland, we made a stop in London on the way and jet lag.

just seeing the city wake up, grabbing the coffee here and actually coffee there and just, just seeing, and that's where that architecture comes in.

And then I nap in the afternoon and ideally go to a sporting event of some sort in the evening.

And I've been to short track.

I've been to soccer matches, I've been to football matches, you name it.

I can get pretty excited about most events, so, including a few weeks from now when the Steelers will take on the Ravens.

And despite Lamar Jackson, hopefully show them.

Who'S boss, I'm anxious about it.

Although the Steelers off to a good start.

A Renaissance man, a man who has many interests and at the core of that interest, though.

But we are most glad that you're committed to christian education at Geneva in this stage of your life and in the future.

But also with Natcap, thank you for being with us today and sharing your insights and for us getting to know you a little bit better.

Thanks, Willem.

Yeah, absolutely.

My privilege.

Thanks so much.

Be sure to join us next time for the higher ed, higher purpose podcast.