Talking to Young People: Creatively Engaging Students

Clearly, it will be important to directly engage and sustain the interest of young people in your community as part of KnowHow2GO. This can be best accomplished by providing early and regular opportunities for students to “own” the campaign and implement creative ideas that grab people's attention.

Some suggestions for engaging students on an ongoing basis include:

• Send out regular information to students in your membership with information and tips on preparing for college. Use the resources in the creative elements section of the toolkit to create exciting electronic and hard copy mailings to local students. Call the partnership support line for assistance on customizing these materials to fit your needs.

• Coordinate a youth advisory committee for the campaign. A youth advisory committee will provide continuous feedback on the types of activities and materials that will capture and hold students' attention.

• Solicit feedback from all of your partners that work directly with students. Ask for insight into campaign activities that students will respond to enthusiastically.

• Focus on developing interactive technologies, entertainment vehicles and fun educational events. Make learning the steps it takes to go to college relevant to students' lives.

Event and Activity Ideas

Below are sample ideas for events and activities designed to pique the interest of students while promoting the campaign's messages. Use these as a springboard for developing and hosting events and activities that will work in your state or community.

• Conduct a local KnowHow2GO text message campaign with the help of a local telecommunications and business sponsor. Encourage students to spread the word about the campaign by forwarding a text message. Add an appealing giveaway component to attract attention and participation.  
• Recruit a local sponsor such as a movie theatre to host a “KnowHow2GO Day” where campaign information is distributed to all patrons. Provide students from the local community with discounted movie passes or host a free screening of a popular movie for the target audience. This could also work with a local restaurant where discount coupons or free menu options could drive traffic to the restaurant distributing campaign materials.
• Sponsor a “Gospel Stomp” or “School Sunday” at a local church. Distribute campaign materials and train church leaders and other influencers to talk about preparing for college.
• Host booths at community events. Sponsor a KnowHow2GO booth at a community event (college fairs, Black History Month events, county festivals, state fairs, etc.). Contact a local radio station and encourage them to broadcast live from your booth to drive traffic to campaign information.

Sample Event: KnowHow2GO to College Weekend

Build buzz among students by working with a local college or university to sponsor KnowHow2GO to (Name of College) Weekend. To bring this program to life, students at the college would volunteer to work with 8^th through10^th graders on activities that highlight the campaign's four steps. Students will learn the steps in a fun atmosphere on an actual college campus and interact with students who can answer their questions about going to college. Potential activities include:

• STEP 1 – Be a pain – in a good way. Divide students into teams and task them with creating a donkey using various objects and materials. Require each team to create and pin ideas on the donkey about ways they can be a “pain” to adults and get help with preparing for college.
• STEP 2 – Push yourself. Design a scavenger hunt on campus using grocery carts loaned by a nearby store. Divide students into teams and provide each team with a grocery cart. Challenge students to push the cart around campus to collect clues on how to push themselves to prepare for college. The first team to complete the challenge wins a prize. 
• STEP 3 – Find the right fit. Hold a race around a maze with “mini” bikes from the college recreation center or gym. Include checkpoints in the maze that have messages about finding the right fit at a college or university. At each checkpoint, have a designated team member gather messages and relay them to their team members.
• STEP 4 – Get your hands on some money. Take a classic game like Monopoly and give it a new spin – instead of playing to get rich, students will play to get smart about identifying money for college. The university could create wall-sized Monopoly boards, featuring a series of questions and tips about planning for college and divide students into teams.

Be sure to share any creative ideas you have on engaging young people in the campaign with the staff at the campaign support line. We will be sharing best practices from around the country in e-mail communications and via the Best Practices section of the Web site.