Announcing the 2019 Summit Award Winners

The Summit Awards recognize the incredible Trailblazers in the Salesforce.org higher education community, and yesterday we announced the winners at the 2019 Salesforce.org Higher Ed Summit! This is the third year we have recognized trailblazers in the Higher Education community with hundreds of community member votes contributing to the winners.

Drum roll, please…Join us in congratulating the 2019 Summit Award Winners!

Excellence in Student Success: Cal State East Bay, Compass – Campus Wide CRM Team

The Excellence in Student Success Award recognizes a college or university that is using Salesforce to blaze new trails to student success.

Cal State East Bay boasts one of the most diverse campuses in the country. To support those students, the university launched the Compass program: a campus-wide CRM effort that seeks to address factors that influence student success. This project is focused on delivering timely, relevant, data-driven information as well as, importantly, intervening actions to students when and as they need it.

The Compass program recognizes that good communication and, more importantly, superb experiences, helps students establish a sense of culture and attachment to Cal State East Bay. And that can lead to improved reputation among alumni, and potentially a longer-term relationship after their time on campus.

Excellence in Operational Efficiency: Santa Fe College, Admissions & International

The Excellence in Operational Efficiency Award recognizes a college or university that is using Salesforce to streamline processes and maximize adoption in one or more areas of the campus.

Santa Fe College is opening doors for international students, powered by some clever use of Salesforce functionality. A digital-first approach in student engagement has dramatically changed how the college helps international students navigate the enrollment process, and overcome barriers that used to seem insurmountable.

The International Student Services group, with support from the college’s Salesforce team, has leveraged out-of-the-box Salesforce functionality to develop a dynamic, digital roadmap for international students on their way into the country and the college. Through this approach, Santa Fe College’s small but mighty team of three employees can effectively serve
the hundreds of international students already on campus, and scale to meet the needs of thousands more who are being actively recruited.

The Dave Perry Overall Excellence in Innovation: Rutgers University, Division of Continuing Studies

The Excellence in Innovation Award recognizes a college or university that is using Salesforce to fuel innovation in recruiting, student success, advancement, marketing, community and/or engagement.

The Division of Continuing Studies (DoCS) at Rutgers University recognizes “no great things are created suddenly” a quote by Epictetus encapsulating their Salesforce experience. A CRM implementation for Continuing Education (CE) is quite different from your standard
deployment. Learning from a decade of Salesforce experience and pain points, DoCS recently embarked on an initiative creating standards across credit-based degree granting programs, non-credit programs and services by re-deploying its platform leveraging the Education Data Architecture (EDA).

DoCS also takes an inventive approach to staffing by utilizing the student workforce to support the two full-time DIG members. Student workers are trained via Trailhead and apply these new skills to solve real world problems, paving the way for a bright future. Rutgers Division of Continuing Studies leverages EDA to effectively enhance a student’s lifelong learning journey spanning youth programs through adult education for individuals over 50 years of age.

Community Champion: Joanna Iturbe, University of Colorado at Boulder, Leeds School of Business

This is the first year that we have given the “Community Champion” Award. This award is given to an individual in the Salesforce.org community who consistently demonstrates thought leadership, innovation in support of transparency and inclusive collaboration, and an unparalleled dedication to community improvement.

Joanna is an incredibly passionate, energetic, and engaging person within the higher education community. She has been a member of the Higher Education Advisory council since 2015, where she currently serves as the Vice Chair. She is also the Leader of the Salesforce Denver User Group, a member of the Girlforce Leadership Team, and a role model for Career Girls.

Joanna is a Salesforce MVP and a leader in the Power of Us Hub, where she actively participates in helping higher education customers understand and utilize the Salesforce.org Education Cloud platform.

Another huge congratulations to our 2019 Summit Award Winners!

We are so honored to recognize these institutions for the incredible work they’re doing. Their innovative approach to leveraging Salesforce technology is having a tremendous impact in the lives of students across every stage of the life cycle. Thank you to all of the nominees and finalists. We look forward to recognizing even more Trailblazers next year!

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