Janelia Graduate Recruitment Campaign
Communications strategy, content writing & storytelling, photography, and channel management for a multi-year academic recruitment campaign
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Strategy, web coordination, email, social media, print materials, conference outreach, and internal communications across a joint recruitment effort
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Unifying two distinct programs under one clear, broad message, while giving each a path to the specific information they needed
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A web builder at the institute, the student and postdoc director, the social media manager, and program stakeholders at Johns Hopkins
This graduate program is actually two programs at once: Neuroscience and Cross-Disciplinary Biology, run jointly with Johns Hopkins, each with its own department, application portal, and MOA, and each with a meaningfully different curriculum. The challenge was communicating one opportunity broadly enough to reach the right students, while making the distinction between the two programs clear enough that no one applied to the wrong one.
I worked with a web builder to develop a shared landing page, paired with a short, memorable URL, that let prospective students self-select into the program that fit them before splitting off to the program-specific details. All outward-facing messaging, from email to social to print, stayed broad and covered both opportunities, built around four themes stakeholders wanted to lead with: mentorship, collaboration, academic independence, and access to cutting-edge facilities. From there, recruitment reached students through personal email, social media, conference outreach, an internal toolkit for recruiting labs, and internal communications to build awareness across the institute.
Capturing mentorship, collaboration & joy.
After developing the campaign calendar and strategy each cycle, I captured new, branded images for use across socials, web, email campaigns, outreach toolkits, and internal awareness channels. I scheduled photo sessions with real graduate students and their mentors.
The challenge is to capture the essence of the program in a visual medium: it offers more academic freedom than a typical institute, opportunities to collaborate with shared resources, and the opportunity to conduct thesis research in a cutting-edge scientific environment.
Visuals & copy that convey academic freedom, a cross-disciplinary environment & mentorship.
For each cycle, I drafted social media cards, PowerPoint inserts, digital signage for employee awareness, and other branded materials, drafting concise copy that encapsulates the essence of the program to capture the right applicant.
Storytelling & social proof
I interviewed current graduate students and drafted graduate scholar spotlights for both web and social media. Alongside the written stories, I also took updated portraits of interviewed students for use on web and social.
Internal awareness
To build awareness for the graduate program across the institute, I developed an internal communications strategy combining email and digital signage placed throughout the building's corridors. This kept the recruitment window visible to staff and researchers as they moved through their day, reinforcing the messaging reaching prospective applicants through other channels.
Recruitment toolkits to maximize personal networks
For labs actively recruiting graduate students, I built a self-serve outreach toolkit, including PowerPoint slides, QR codes linking to the application, and social cards for labs to share on their own channels. I built the hub for it from scratch on the institute's internal intranet, giving group leaders one place to find and download everything on their own.
Email Campaigns
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Personal emails to former summer research scholars now in their senior year, encouraging them to apply directly to the program. Emails were drafted by me and sent out under the student and postdoc director's name to carry his direct relationship with these audiences.
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Personal emails to two groups positioned to refer strong candidates: program coordinators at undergraduate institutions, asked to share the opportunity with their students, and group leaders interested in recruiting, given a toolkit to promote the program through their own talks and social channels. Emails were drafted by me and sent out under the student and postdoc director's name to carry his direct relationship with these audiences.
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Direct Slack messages to post-baccalaureate staff at the institute, many of them technicians who might be considering graduate school themselves. Emails were drafted by me and sent out under the student and postdoc director's name to carry his direct relationship with these audiences.
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A branded email to our subscriber list, asking recipients to share the opportunity with their own networks and students. Email was drafted, designed, and sent out by me.
A five-track email strategy for graduate recruitment, personally drafting targeted messages for former summer scholars, program coordinators, group leaders, and internal post-baccalaureate staff, alongside a broader branded email to the institute's subscriber base.
Social Media Campaigns
I drafted social content for the graduate program across LinkedIn, X, Instagram, Threads, and BlueSky, with each post reviewed and edited by the institute's social media manager before it went out. Every campaign followed a consistent arc: an initial announcement to kick off the recruitment window, a series of posts featuring student and program profiles throughout, and a "closing soon" reminder ahead of the deadline. All photography used in these posts was my own.
Print Media & Conference Outreach
To reach prospective graduate students in person, I managed the institute's exhibit booth at SACNAS and ABRCMS in 2024, two conferences that draw large numbers of undergraduates in the biomedical sciences. I coordinated the print materials and giveaways, and set up a system for collecting attendee emails so we could follow up after the events. This built on a table I hosted at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in 2023. In 2025, I supplied flyers, QR codes for email sign-ups, and giveaways to a shared exhibit booth, while I focused on personal networking at poster sessions for more targeted recruitment.