Corps - Recruiting Students

Recruiting students for participation in STARS can be a challenge.  To begin, first identify your target audience and determine the eligibility criteria, participation requirements, and the stipends (if any) that work best in your environment.  The following steps include examples from current Corps.

1. Identify target audience (typically includes one or more of the criteria below): 

• Undergraduate students
• Graduate students
• Juniors and seniors only
• GPA requirement
• Computing majors only
• All majors

IMPORTANT NOTE: NSF funds can only be used to support students who are US Citizens or Permanent Residents.  Please keep this in mind when recruiting students for your STARS Leadership Corps. You are permitted to include international students in the program, but you must fund their participant stipends and travel to Celebration from another source.  We CANNOT use STARS Computing Corps funding for stipends or travel for students who are not US Citizens or Permanent Residents.  Please monitor this carefully when selecting students. 

2. Determine participation levels (eligibility, responsibilities, compensation), for example:

• Corps Member or Volunteer – participates in outreach
• Corps Team Leader – leads group of students in a Team project
• Officer of Student Organization

3. Recruit students – examples of methods used by other STARS:

• Students register based on the course restrictions, if the Corps is integrated into a class
• Application and interview process for Corps participants
• Nomination or referral process for Corps participants (from faculty, peer, self nominations)
• Broadcast emails to undergraduates and graduate student lists
• Student presentations to Intro classes, student clubs
• Recruitment events or poster sessions – Set up booth at Welcome week, Student org expo, recruiting table in lobby of Computing Classroom Building,
• Students invite their friends and classmates to participate in STARS
• Flyers posted on campus
• Plasma Screen in Department
• Pre screening application packet (cover letter, application, FAQ, recommendation form, references)
• Personal invitation to apply from Academic Liaison
• Website, social media, word of mouth, on-campus presence via STARS events