The Forester Five was created by the Gates Center in the spring of 2013 to embody the Lake Forest College co-curricular experience, but there’s still a question of whether or not students know of its existence.
“The history behind the Forester Five began when the College was developing a co-curricular development plan that was being designed around a core set of values,” said Assistant Dean of Students and Director of the Gates Center William Dlugokienski.
“Once the plan was made, The Forester Five was created almost as the marketing piece of that plan. The five statements we now use were distilled from the goals and learning outcomes that were a part of the plan. We wanted to make it fun and easy, and they encompass all that the plan has to offer,” Dlugokienski said.
According to Dlugokienski, there was a light initial rollout of the Forester Five in Spring 2013, but they were not heavily used until they were introduced in the fall of 2013 at New Student Orientation. A year later, in November 2014, a focus group of students evaluated the Forester Five.
“The results of the focus group showed us that students know that the Forester Five exist,” Dlugokienski said. “While not everyone could name every single one of the five, when asked to define what each meant almost all were able to do so…In our next wave of marketing, it’s going to be more of helping students recognize the words.”
One way the College is increasing awareness of the Forester Five is by letting prospective students know the Forester Five exist when explaining what a Lake Forest College experience will ultimately give them. Audrey Schuetz ‘18 found this marketing tool to be effective when she chose to attend Lake Forest College but did acknowledge that she didn’t truly understand their meaning until arriving.
“Prior to committing to Lake Forest, I had received numerous amounts of mail emphasizing what the campus has to offer— with the Forester Five included.” “The packaging caught my eye with the extensive colors and pictures, but I hadn’t acknowledged the Forester Five’s significance until living on campus.” Dlugokienski said that from introducing the Forester Five to prospective students, they then developed a plan to begin integrating it in all aspects of Foresters’ lives once they’re on campus and in ways that students will recognize upfront and through subliminal messaging.
“There are two sides to implementing the Forester Five in students’ lives,” Dlugokienski said. “The first is the outward marketing piece that students see with the images, colors, etc. Then, there is the behind-the-scenes aspect of it that offices are doing to make sure we’re delivering the Forester Five to students. We’re thinking about our programming and planning it around the Forester Five. What we’re doing is more intentional thanks to the Forester Five.”
The hope of Dlugokienski and other administrators is that through this intentional programming the Forester Five will become more than just description words and more of a true explanation of a Lake Forest College experience. Schuetz believes this vision is beginning to come to life. “The Forester Five represents all this campus has to offer and what the student body is doing while participating,” Schuetz said.
“When the entire school’s at the homecoming football game, we’re engaging with the community and embracing diversity. When we go to the Math Resource Center to receive tutoring on our assignments, we’re thinking with purpose. And finally, when we’re in the Career Advancement Center working on our resumes, we’re leading the way and achieving our goals.”
“Lake Forest offers copious amounts of guidance, assistance, and experiences for the student body to take advantage of. So right now, the students may not realize it, but the Forester Five plays a very important role in everyone’s time here at Lake Forest College.”
