UM Rochester welcomes its largest freshman class

ROCHESTER – From the time she was 6, Gloria Nyarkoah knew she'd pursue a job in health care. Her curiosity was sparked when she observed the kindness and work ethic of the nurses while visiting children in the hospital with her grandmother in Ghana.

Now, as the Maple Grove resident begins her first semester of college at the University of Minnesota Rochester, she's one step closer to her goal of becoming a pediatric nurse or pediatrician.

This fall, she's one of more than 200 students taking the plunge at the small health-care-focused university who know they have a strong, personal interest in health care — and who make up the college's largest-ever incoming freshman class. Though the decade-old school is just short of its goal of adding about 250 students each year, this year marks the first major surge after years of inconsistent enrollment.

"We know ourselves even better than we did at the beginning," said interim Chancellor Lori Carrell, noting that the data collected from the past five years of graduates painted a pretty good picture of what type of student does well at UMR.

That student is resilient and has a strong interest in health early on — often the result of a personal struggle, or that of a close family member.

For Nyarkoah, that is in Ghana, where her family has ties. Someday, she hopes she'll be able to provide care for children there.

"I know it might not be easy to understand their symptoms or what they're going through because they can't really speak for themselves, but I love kids and working with them is just amazing," she said.

But that wasn't something that the college just stumbled upon. After freshman enrollment peaked in 2013 at 197, the college has struggled with enrollment drops. It began tracking and interviewing graduates to figure out what type of person does well at the college, and then, to communicate that to potential students.

"I think that our messaging got clearer," Carrell said. "Our communication about who we are and what kind of characteristics of students would be the best fit, we were able to talk about that more clearly as we had more data and evidence."

And that's helped, and changed, how the college recruits students.

"Our representatives, our counselors in admissions, are setting up more coffee chats than they are standing behind booths and kind of seeing who wanders by," Carrell said.

It's that personal connection during the recruitment process that is important because it gives students an idea of the close relationships they'll eventually have with the faculty, she said.

That mirrors national trends that show women disproportionately make up the health care workforce. About 78 percent of the health care and social services workforce is made up of women, according to 2016 findings from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

"It's fascinating and it's getting national attention," Carrell said. "It's not just a local phenomenon here at UMR."

But what's interesting for Carrell is how that proportion shifts when it comes to women in leadership positions.

"The majority/minority, by gender, flips when we look at leaders and managers in the health care industry — totally flips," she said. "So even though women comprise a majority of the workforce, they comprise a minority of the leadership roles."

Still, she considers it an opportunity to help educate what hopefully will become a generation of female leaders in the health care field.

With this year's growth in the student body, the college is bracing for similar incoming classes in the next few years.

This year, there was enough space for all the freshmen who wanted to live on campus. But that may not be the case in the next few years unless UMR can strike a deal to offer student housing somewhere else.

"So far, it's never been an issue," said Will Harmon, UMR's residential life director. "It's going to be an issue as we continue to attract better and more and more students — which is a great problem to have. We love that problem."

Student housing — the upscale 318 Commons — is a selling point for many and is located downtown, just blocks from campus.

For Gabriel Cruz, 18, who would like to be a family physician, making the move from Texas for college was a big one. But he knew he'd be doing health care, so when it came down to making the decision, part of the reason he picked UMR was the living situation.

Generally, the college's goal is to have on-campus housing available for 95 percent of first-year students; about 80 percent will be living on campus. Whatever is left is opened up to returning students.

But in the next two years, Harmon said, the college will need more options, preferably within a two-mile radius of campus.