Starting New Teams

[Anne Shade]

I am one of the leaders of the Georgia Tech group starting teams in the Atlanta area. We were able to recruit one team last year and are now adding an additional team for this year. Our recruitment effort was also very difficult. We tried letters, emails, and phone calls to area principals and received no answer. We then tried to contact the head of the science department in several schools and received much better responses. This is how we were able to recruit the schools we are working with now. This was only part of the battle for us to then try to convince these teachers that this program is great and that their students grades will not suffer. I think the best way to convince teachers of the benefits of this program is to bring them to competitions and let them see it first hand. It was also difficult for us to get support from the university. Contacting the right individuals at these institutions is not always easy. Our team has a lot of recruitment materials that we have created over the last two years. If you would like some help contacting universities and colleges, it may help to show them a group that has succeeded. Just let me know and I can help you out. Good luck and I hope my ramblings helped somehow.