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The Citadel Sponsor Program pairs out-of-state freshman cadets with local host families, providing a safe "home environment" for cadets without local ties. This program allows cadets to practice their social development skills and interact with new people in a new environment. It also promotes the importance of giving back to their local communities.
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Department of Cadet Activities Revised 8/18/2011
Citadel Sponsor Program • Cadet Activities pair out-of-state freshman cadets with local hosts families • Effort to provide a safe “home environment” for cadets with no local ties • Gives our cadets the opportunity to practice their social development skills and interact with new people in a new environment • Gets the community involved with The Citadel in promoting principled leaders by teaching our cadets the importance of giving back to their local communities
Citadel Sponsor Program • Out of State Freshman are mailed a form home in early June detailing their wishes • Form includes: • Gender • Religious preference (optional) • Ethnic background (optional) • Major, Career goals • Allergies • Favorite Foods • Hobbies • Interests • All freshmen are given a class on • conduct and decorum with their • host families
Citadel Sponsor Program • Sponsor cards are updated and mailed out in early May • Each form includes a letter outlining general guidelines and tips • Form includes similar information as the Knobs form to ease pairing
Citadel Sponsor Program • Update the requests for sponsors during the summer • We pair incoming cadets with sponsors based on requests, hobbies, home states or home companies, religious requests. • We pair at least two cadets with each sponsor family • After the pairing is complete we mail each sponsor a card with the name of their cadet and contact information • We ask that each sponsor contact the cadet’s family to let them know they are their child’s sponsor and they are also asked to contact their cadets • We send each cadet the name of their sponsor and their contact information
Citadel Sponsor Program • We receive requests throughout the year for sponsors and we sponsor families with similar interests and preferences are then contacted for their assistance in filling these requests • CHALLENGES: • We always have more requests than sponsors available • This results in many qualifying cadets without sponsors • We pair cadets who are farthest from home with qualifying sponsors to be as fair as possible. • Foreign cadets • West coast, Mid-West and Northern cadets are usually first paired unless there is a special request
Citadel Sponsor Program • We search out potential sponsor candidates from various sources • Local churches • Alumni • Previous sponsors • Faculty and Staff
Citadel Sponsor Program • What is left to do: • Developing a new marketing plan to search out new sponsors • Are we reaching all of our prospective families which would like to participate? • Are we using all the media outlets available to us like Facebook, local newspapers, etc. • Create a short survey for sponsor families to help us identify problem areas and build upon our successes • Survey our cadets to see if the program is meeting their needs and where we can improve
Citadel Sponsor Program • Our sponsor program is successful for most of those cadets we are able to pair with families • We need to do more in getting the word out in our community to better meet the needs of more of our out-of-state students • THE CITADEL AND OUR LOCAL COMMUNTIY WORKING TOGETHER TO DEVELOPPRINCIPLED LEADERS
Citadel Sponsor Program • QUESTIONS?