On Wednesday, June 22, 2022, the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) announced its 2022 Circle of Excellence Award winners, naming The Colorado Springs School (CSS) a bronze medalist in the “Marketing: Marketing Initiatives (Less Than 10 Staff)” category. In 2022, CASE received more than 4,500 Circle of Excellence entries from 636 institutions in nearly 30 countries. Of those, numerous panels of volunteer judges selected just 626 exemplary entries – that’s less than 14 percent – for bronze, silver, gold, or Grand Gold recognition.
The Colorado Springs School – a premier independent day school catering to over 300 students PreK through grade 12 across the Pikes Peak region – consists of a two-person marketing and communications team. Together with the school’s same-size Office of Admissions & Financial Aid, they developed a 2021-2022 marketing campaign titled “Discover The Colorado Springs School Difference.” In addition to featuring consistent branding and messaging across a variety of media – from radio to digital and print magazine ads, social media posts, in-person tabling and more – the campaign was designed to “pinpoint exactly which media source offered the most return on investment and best reached the school's target demographic with the promise of a conversion,” said CSS’s Director of Strategic Marketing & Communications Megan Winnicker. “Each ad's captivating photos and text [also] demonstrate the key programs and offerings that make CSS so ‘different,’” she said.
Winners of the 2022 CASE Circle of Excellence Awards – the top recognition program for educational advancement – were selected based on several factors, including overall quality, innovation, use of resources and impact on the institution or its external and internal communities. Additional Colorado-based award recipients this year included the following higher education institutions: Colorado College, Colorado State University, and University of Colorado Boulder. “Our CASE Circle of Excellence Awards celebrate the creative, resourceful, and innovative ways advancement professionals around the globe champion their institutions’ success,” says CASE President and CEO Sue Cunningham. “These 2022 Circle of Excellence recipients showcase how advancement empowers teaching and learning, ignites institutional progress, and helps communities thrive.”
In their remarks on the “Discover” campaign, the judging panel applauded The Colorado Springs School’s effective use of resources, including a unique URL, to better track and understand its audience. “Few schools can say that their initiative helped to double their applications year-over-year,” said the judges, “and we love to see evidence of interdisciplinary cross-collaboration between different school departments!”
To learn more about the CSS’s “Discover The Colorado Springs School Difference” campaign, please visit css.org/news/case-coe-2022. “I hope you take the opportunity to explore these award winners and become inspired,” adds Cunningham.
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About The Colorado Springs School (CSS)
The Colorado Springs School is a college-preparatory, day, and international school serving students from preschool through high school. Through superior academics and mentoring, CSS prepares students to think independently and to meet the needs of a dynamic world with leadership, ingenuity, problem-solving skills, and personal integrity. Learn more at css.org. The school is located on 28 acres at 21 Broadmoor Avenue, Colorado Springs, CO 80906.
About CASE
CASE — the Council for Advancement and Support of Education — is a global, not-for-profit membership association with a vision to advance education to transform lives and society.
We are the home for advancement professionals, inspiring, challenging, and equipping them to act effectively and with integrity to champion the success of their institutions. CASE defines the competencies and standards for the profession of advancement, leading, and championing their dissemination and application with more than 97,000 advancement professionals at 3,100 member institutions in 80 countries.
Broad and growing communities of professionals gather under the global CASE umbrella. Currently these include alumni relations, development services, communications, fundraising, government relations, and marketing. These professionals are at all stages of their career and may be working in universities, schools, colleges, cultural institutions, or other not-for-profits. CASE uses the intellectual capital and professional talents of an army of volunteers to advance its work, and our membership includes many corporate partners in the education sector.
Headquartered in Washington D.C., CASE works across all continents from its regional offices in London, Singapore, and Mexico City to achieve a seamless experience for all our stakeholders, particularly our members, volunteers, and staff.
Building and programming robots, dance therapy, and dissecting sheep brains are just a few of the many immersive learning activities middle schoolers take part in each summer through the Full STEAM Ahead program. "This camp provides students with insight into just how fun learning can be," says Program Director Amy Miller, a Colorado Springs native and long-time English Teacher for The Colorado Springs School (CSS).
Full STEAM Ahead – led by dedicated CSS faculty, like Miller, along with high school student mentors – promotes experiential and project-based learning, the same fundamental principles applied by The Colorado Springs School for nearly 60 years. Participants in the complimentary program include Peak Education Middle School Scholars representing school districts across the Pikes Peak region, who spend two weeks exploring technology, the arts, and science on The Colorado Springs School’s 28-acre campus and throughout their local community.
According to one rising seventh-grade participant, the program sparked within her a zest for knowledge and independent thinking. "I learned so many things about my brain and how it controls all of my senses," she said. "Learning all of that made me want to look into more on my own.”
Founded in 2012, the Full STEAM Ahead program is made possible by a generous donation from the Carl George Bjorkman Foundation and the Edson Foundation, in conjunction with The Colorado Springs School and Peak Education, and includes free lunch, snacks, and transportation. For those 45 scholars selected to participate in the Full STEAM Ahead program in 2021, in particular, the opportunity could not have come at a better time.
“After a year of online learning and inconsistent schedules [due to COVID-19], Full STEAM Ahead was a refreshing reintroduction into how learning should be,” said Chief Executive Officer for Peak Education Carlos Jimenez. “Hands-on educational opportunities combined with a nurturing and caring community helped to re-energize our student’s love for learning, and provided them with great momentum for the new school year [ahead].”
Despite coming together from a number of different schools, the middle schoolers “bonded almost instantaneously and made the most of every moment, whether building robots and writing fantasy stories or bouldering and learning to cook healthy on a budget," said CSS faculty member Caren Goldberg. Students would later celebrate their newfound friendships and academic accomplishments, such as designing a prototype trash compactor, with a pizza party and open house for families on the last day of camp.
Students also benefited from thematic field trips and experiences made possible in partnership with the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Museum, Borealis Fat Bikes, the Space Foundation Discovery Center, Pure Bouldering Gym, Pikes Peak Makerspace, and more. Other businesses, including Josh & John's Ice Cream, ventured to The Colorado Springs School campus itself to assist with hands-on activities and demonstrations such as ice cream-making. Overall, the 2021 program provided a chance for local businesses and organizations to reconnect with the greater community, once again, after facing more than a year of pandemic-related restrictions and limitations.
"One student told me his school is very low income and he rarely gets to go on field trips; that this was the first one he had been on in years,” recalls Carissa L., a CSS junior and Full STEAM Ahead mentor. “He was really excited, and it meant a lot to be a part of that.”
Through a partnership with area middle and high schools, Peak Education closes educational opportunity gaps for youth representing low-income backgrounds. The majority of Full STEAM Ahead participants are Peak Education Scholars entering into the 7th, 8th or 9th grade at partner schools, including Harrison District 2, District 11, and Manitou Springs Schools. Scholars, identified by their teachers and counselors in 6th and 7th grade as having high potential for academic and postsecondary success, also receive educational enrichment, mentoring, college counseling, and scholarship preparation services through Peak Education. Learn more about the Full STEAM Ahead program at css.org/fsa or Peak Education at peakedu.org.
The 2022 Full STEAM Ahead season kicks off to students on Monday, July 11, and will take place Monday through Friday until July 22.
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About The Colorado Springs School (CSS)
The Colorado Springs School is a college-preparatory, day, and international school serving students from preschool through high school. Through superior academics and mentoring, CSS prepares students to think independently and to meet the needs of a dynamic world with leadership, ingenuity, problem-solving skills, and personal integrity. Learn more at css.org. The school is located on 28 acres at 21 Broadmoor Avenue, Colorado Springs, CO 80906.