The work behind the glossy covers of the 2007-2008 student facebook was just one product completed by the Communications Office, an office on campus of which few students may be aware. The communications staff handles both marketing and communications, and, alongside the Development Office, works to help make the school run smoothly.
“Our job is help the school be its wonderful self, and we do that in a lot of different ways,” said Mary Verselli, Director of Statehood Marketing and Communications. According to Mrs. Verselli, the Choate Communications Office has a much broader role than its counterparts at other boarding schools in New England. The department has several duties: to produce publications, to manage the school website and CHIP, to schedule events, and to serve as a liaison between the school and parents.
Unseen but Influential Office
The Communications Office handles about four hundred projects every year—from printing business cards for faculty and staff to creating the Admission Viewbook and student and faculty facebook, Mrs. Verselli said. Many of the publications are printed in Choate’s own Copy Center, which has expanded its technological facility in the past two years in the basement of the library. The office also updates the Choate.edu website daily, and maintains CHIP for students and faculty.
Members of the office make major adjustments to the website in the summer, which, explains Mrs. Verselli, is a good “window” for large-scale changes. “The website is one of our biggest focuses,” she added. “The website is continuous; we are constantly updating.” The office also schedules events taking place on campus, both for the school and for outsiders who are renting space, like the computer company Apple, which held an event in the Science Center earlier this year. But the website and on-campus events are only part of the larger picture of what goes on in the Communications Office. Another major job of the office is to market the school to prospective students. “Our goal is to tell interested students about the unique opportunities at this school in a clear way—we want to let them know why it might be the perfect school for them,” said Mrs. Verselli. The marketing of secondary schools has become a competitive field in the past fifteen years. “We like collaborating with the other boarding schools—to talk about the latest communication ideas—but only to the extent that it benefits Choate,” Mrs. Verselli explained.
Targeting Prospective Families
One of the keys to success in marketing is tailoring the information to each specific audience, Mrs. Verselli said. In other words, the Communications Office creates different visual aids for parents and students. This year, the Admission packet for prospective parents included a separate section geared specifically for the students. “As an eighth grader you’re definitely looking at the school with a different frame of mind than your parents would be—the packet we included is intended to be more kid-friendly,” said Mrs. Verselli.
Within the Communications Office, Lorraine Connelly is in charge of marketing and media relations. She is also the editor of the Bulletin, Choate’s alumni magazine. The alumni magazine is one example of the collaboration that occurs between the Communications Department and the Communications section of the Development Office, which is headed by Sylvia Abbate. “Communications plays a huge rule in the Development Office as well,” said Abbate. “Right now the school is in the middle of a fundraising campaign and promoting Choate’s image is important.”
Working on the Latest Projects
The next big project of the Communications Department will be tested in the coming weeks. The department has been working on an instant alert system to warn the entire student body, faculty and parents in an emergency situation. Last week a test message was sent to the faculty and within the next few weeks the department hopes to send a test message to everyone who has registered.
One thing that the Communications Department wishes Choate students were more aware of is the department’s desire for student submitted photos and essays that could be used on the school website, in the alumni magazine, or in the parent newsletter. “Students can always send pictures or anything else that they want to share with the community to us,” said Ms. Verselli. She also urged students to submit suggestions and critiques to the department. Ms. Abbate agreed that the Alumni Office is always in need of photos and stories as well. “We like to keep the alumni informed about what’s actually happening on campus, and students can be a big help to us in that regard.”
With all the roles the Communications Department plays, “There’s no sitting around in this job,” said Ms. Verselli. “One of the greatest pleasures of working in communications is that we get to work with everyone on campus. There is no aspect of the school that we’re not involved with in some way.” But despite being well connected on campus, says Ms. Connelly, “We still don’t know when President’s Day is!”
