Innovative Recruiting

The foundation of a successful athletic program is its recruiting. Hanna Gibson, in the Department of Graphic Communications, leads the Women’s Basketball Recruitment and Design Creative Inquiry project to collaborate with the basketball coaching staff in their recruiting efforts. This project is in its infancy, but the coaching staff already likes what they see. In such a competitive sports environment, it is essential to maximize recruiting efforts to assemble the best team possible.

Gibson pairs graphic communications and packaging science students together to brainstorm, design and create prototype recruitment mailers. The students have creative freedom to design the mailers and are encouraged to explore new, fun ways to engage the recipients. Grace Webster, a junior graphic communications major, and Julia Humanchuk, a junior packaging science major, worked together on a prototype. Their theme was lake life in respect to Clemson, and included pictures of Lake Hartwell, the Snow Family Outdoor Fitness and Wellness Complex and the rowing docks. “It’s so cool to think about how something I made gets delivered to the homes of girls who might be playing for our basketball team soon,” Webster said.

Gibson talks about how this project is important to bridge the gaps between academics and athletics. “Somehow, these two entities both exist on a college campus, but they’re so separate,” Gibson said. “There is such an interest in marketing and project management and packaging for athletics that’s growing, so for me it’s just a really interesting thing to see different majors working together and bridging that gap between the academics and athletics.” She hopes that one day this project will expand to other sports teams such as volleyball, softball, baseball, soccer and men’s basketball.