Introducing Yourself: Narrative Essay

My name is Sergeant Michael Asher and I am a recruiter out of Greenville, South Carolina. I have one assigned high school in my area of operation (AO) which is Eastside High School. The purpose of this paper is to discuss my demographics, school programs, my recruiting and sustainment plan, and how I plan to utilize the recruiter zone in my assigned area.

Demographics

Greenville, South Carolina is ranked as one of the best cities to live in the United States. Greenville has a flourishing job market, and a great education system and is in a beautiful location tucked between the Appalachian Mountains and just hours away from the beach. My zip code specifically is not the best part of Greenville, but I do have the biggest Zip code in Greenville with lots of shopping centers, schools, and apartments. I am eager and excited to start my recruiting career and change people’s lives. Greenville’s total population is 64,061 people. My zip code’s total population is 32,496 people. Greenville’s average household income is $48,984. The average Household income in my area is $45,500. Zipcode.org stated, “The population has a much higher percentage of people with low education levels (less than high school) than normal. Despite the lower high school graduation rates, the area has some of the highest percentages of people who attended the college of any zip code.” 15,114 people or 52 percent of my population only have a High School diploma. 2,790 or 10 percent of my population have an associate’s degree. 4,948 or 17 percent of my population have a Bachelor’s degree. 1,736 or 6 percent have a master’s degree. 616 people or 2 percent have a Doctorate degree. Lastly, 13 percent of my population does not even have a High School diploma. That information shows me that there is a big gap in people going to college. If only 52 percent of my total population has a High School diploma that means that there is a need for college money, especially with the average household income only being $45,500. If someone does not want to pursue a college degree, the median income is still low enough that people would benefit from the extra money that the South Carolina Army National Guard (SCARNG) offers. Also, the fact that someone could save money going to college, utilizing our education incentives, and our Health Insurance.

Eastside is a public High School that has a total upper-class (juniors and seniors) size of 679 students. It does not have a JROTC program but does have many sports teams and athletic programs that I plan to use our warrior fit team as a School Entry Vehicle (SEV). Not only do they have an incredibly talented athletic department but they also have a great faculty and staff. This is why I believe the school has such a high success rate and is one of the top schools in the county. Eastside has a high graduation rate, with 93% of students. Greenville has a program called, no child left behind, where no matter what the kid’s situation is they help them to make sure they graduate high school. Students out of Eastside High School seem to do exceptionally well on the ACT and the ASVAB. The average ACT score at Eastside is 21. I could not find any data on the SAT but students out of Eastside are making an average range of a 37 through a 42 on the ASVAB. With a graduation rate of 93% as well as 86% of students going on to college. That is important because it shows that students are going to school which directly coincides with our education benefits. It also helps that it is a low-income area because parents would love to not pay for college out of pocket. It is a win-win situation.

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School Programs

It was a pretty easy option to choose Eastside as my school because it is my only school. Presence at my school will be my number one priority when I get home because I can focus all my energy and effort on this school. My plan is pretty simple, work my way from the top down. What does that mean? Introduce myself to the Principal, Vice-principal, and Counselors and befriend them. My thought behind this is if you have the support of the higher-ups, you can be in your school, in classes, and in front of the students as much as you want. I plan on winning them over in multiple ways, first and most importantly, not flooding them asking for permission to be in classes and setting up lunchroom displays immediately before they even know who I am. I want to take my time introducing myself properly, explaining what the South Carolina Army National Guard (SCARNG) is and how not only the students can benefit from it but the school can as well. Feeding the faculty, and desktop calendars and simply introducing myself to them is how I plan to do this. I already have my team at home setting up a school feed for next week before school starts. They are covering for me while I am here and even though I cannot be there to introduce myself, they are introducing the SCARNG and building the trust that comes along with our organization. The Recruiter who previously had Eastside is also introducing me to all the VIPs of the school and handing it off to me slowly. Once I get into the schools and the trust is developed between the staff and myself I have a great plan to get school ownership. I am going to flood the school with marketing material including customized flyers with my face on them, desktop calendars for all the teachers, Yard signs in the student parking lot, and in the perimeter around the school in every direction. Along with that I also plan to utilize our Warrior fit team and our gaming trailer. These are going to my two primary School Entry Vehicles. Eastside High has a huge athletic program and is surprisingly very good in multiple sports, winning state championships in Cross country, football, and wrestling. All of these sports I played in high school myself, and I plan on using that experience to use to help the coaches during practices, games, and the postseason. Our warrior fit team is my favorite school entry vehicle to use and the main one I plan to use to establish a presence in the school. Warrior fit allows me to get in front of the athletes, coaches, and parents and show that I am there for them. I want to be there for them, better their lives, and help them in any way I can. I generally do care about people and my sincerity, people skills, and kind-hearted nature will show once they get a chance to know me. The gaming trailer is something else I will utilize hand in hand with warrior fit. When my school teams are playing games I will bring the gaming trailer to their games to capture attention and get more leads. I have corn-hole boards, a pop-up tent, and a GSA truck that I will use to tailgate at their games. We also have a grill I could utilize to cook food for students to get them to come over and talk to me and my partners. I also will do lunchroom displays twice a week as well as classroom presentations as much as possible. Lead generation with all of these things will be done very simply, I work with a great team where we never go to events without more than two recruiters. This allows one recruiter to talk to students, and build trust and rapport while the other recruiter mans the table and captures all leads on APPLE-MDTs sent to him from the recruiter walking around talking. This will be done in all School entry vehicles and plans listed above.

Recruiting and Sustainment Plan

Having a plan and objectives are what keeps us on task with the mission that we have to make. Having quarterly objectives will help me keep on track as well. I will discuss my plan in accordance with NGR 601-1. During my first quarter, my primary market will be my seniors. They are planning their lives ahead and might not know what SCARNG has to offer. My secondary market will be my high school graduates. They might have gotten to the point where they need financial help or learned that college just is not for them. My tertiary market will be prior service soldiers in the individual ready reserve, these soldiers have already served and might want to continue service. For my second quarter, my primary focus will be my high school juniors. They are now available to serve and are eligible for the split training option. All my effort in high school is going to help me across all my quarters and make a mission. My secondary market is going to be the college where I work at. I have already integrated myself into the staff and built their trust. Especially working in the financial office definitely is a plus. My tertiary market is going to be my prior service again. While they are in the IRR they might have found out they wish to serve again. For quarter three I am going to target my high school seniors again. They are coming up on the summer and might have not made plans yet or came to a realization of how expensive college is going to be. For my secondary market, I am going to continue to target my juniors. My tertiary market again is going to be my prior service members. For my fourth and final quarter, I am going to connect with prior service again. My secondary market is going to be my high school seniors, reconnecting with them as the summer is on offering them a part-time job over the summer and the school year is going to be a big benefit. My tertiary market is going to be my high school graduates. Reconnecting with them, especially the ones who decided to not go to college. Along with my recruiting plan, I will also elaborate on my plan for sustainment plan for maintaining my contacts year-round. I never throw away leads because as leads get older if they were too young at one point they then meet the eligibility requirements. I also maintain what I call “the semester contact plan” which is where you contact leads when semesters end because situations arise and things come up where they might need the SCARNG when they thought they did not before. For example, someone could have thought they were going to get a bunch of scholarships for school and they might have had a bad semester and lost their scholarships. When I reach out to them and tell them how I can help them pay for school they would be more open to having a conversation with me. Along with that, maintaining contact with my COIs, VIPs and the faculty of my schools year-round will help me when utilizing this plan. Having an open line of communication with my school is going to be what I do best. Keeping a constant engagement with my schools year-round will be a major asset when recruiting and working to make a mission, even in the summers because It shows that I care year-round and not just during the school year and just about the students. I am there for the faculty and staff as well.

Recruiter Zone

The organization is one of the main factors a recruiter needs to implement into his daily life and routine. The great thing about the recruiter zone and school zone is they do all the organization for you. Recruiter Zone (RZ) and school zone (SZ) are both extremely important for a multitude of reasons and both systems complement each other. If used properly they can be a force multiplier for my recruiting efforts. SZ allows me to keep track of events, Centers of influence (COIs), Very important people (VIPs) school faculty, and enlistments that have been made throughout the school year and allow me to keep track of events and all the data that was made throughout the event. RZ is the system in which you track the leads from the School zone, you cannot use one of these systems without the other. RZ also allows me to keep track of my analytical data like my contact-to-contract ratio. When utilizing RZ, it gives you an honest explanation of your funnel, and where your funnel drops off, which can show you areas you need to improve on, and how many people you need to talk to get an enlistment. That is important because it gives you a general idea of the amount of effort, planning, and contacts that need to be made. I plan on utilizing RZ and SZ by inputting data as I receive it. I know that sounds simple but it is really going to be that simple for me. Staying organized and inputting the information as I receive it will help mitigate later problems along with finding the numbers that I need to meet to get an enlistment.

Conclusion

In summary, we covered my demographics, school programs, my recruiting and sustainment plan, and how I plan to utilize the recruiter zone in my assigned area. I strongly believe that “failure to plan is planning to fail.” Without a plan or guideline in place, you do not have a path to follow in recruiting. Having a plan gives you a realistic expectation of what to expect, and how you plan to make the mission and keeps you organized. That is why it is so important to have a yearly recruiting plan.

References

1. (n.d.). Zip Codes and Zip Code Maps. Retrieved from https://www.zipcode.org/
2. (n.d.). A quote by Benjamin Franklin. Retrieved from https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/460142-if-you-fail-to-plan-you-are-planning-to-fail
3. (2019). Army National Guard Strength Maintenance Program. Arlington, VA: Department of Defense National Guard Bureau.