During July of 2015 Jordan Poznick replaced Levi Kline as Principia’s Director of Recruitment, and is now in charge of the recruitment offices for both the College and the Upper School. This turnover also marks some changes in Principia’s recruitment process under Poznick’s guidance.
When asked how he feels about filling Kline’s shoes, Poznick said, “I think I’ll be contributing in a different way. I don’t think I will necessarily be filling those shoes because my job’s going to be a little bit different.” He explained that he will be “working more with the ACs [Admissions Counselors] and training them. Hopefully my role won’t be as much specifically recruiting, but […] to make it so that the ACs do a lot of that.”
Poznick is confident that his experience will help him in his job. “I’ve had [close to 20] years of management experience and I’ve also had sales experience. From a recruiting standpoint specifically, no, I haven’t had experience. But in a way, recruiting is sales—you’re selling Principia.” As Poznick will be directing and managing the ACs, his experience seems tailored to his new role.
As a new director of recruitment, Poznick will be able to bring fresh and original ideas to the table. “I think we can certainly do a better job of finding the Christian Scientists out there. One of the areas that has been neglected is an effort to find those Christian Scientists that still are out there without their names in the system, [who are] off the radar. So I think finding those Christian Scientists is something new,” said Poznick.
“I think analyzing the data is another [possible change],” added Poznick. “[We need to find] how we can be the most efficient when we’re out there recruiting. For example, if you go to Houston, what church are you going to visit in Houston? Well, if we can use our resources more and find out where the kids are before we go to Houston, then we can be a little bit more efficient when out in the field.”
Poznick believes visiting weekends are crucial in encouraging students to come to Principia. “Visiting weekends are huge,” he said, “and getting potential students on campus and allowing them to see themselves at Principia [is important].” According to Poznick, this is because “There are a lot of misconceptions about Principia. [Some wonder] ‘Does everybody carry a Bible and Science and Health around?’ [They think] ‘It’s really far away,’ [or] ‘There’s nothing to do.’ But when we get them on campus then they can make the educated decisions because they’re seeing it for themselves.”
Poznick highlighted the importance of physical visits to the campus in terms of recruitment numbers. “We need to get [students] on campus because that gets Principia about a 60 percent close rate, meaning if you come for a visit the chances of you coming to Principia are about 60 percent. Now, I wish that number was 90 percent, but at the end of the day college is your own unique decision. It’s where God is leading you to go. So when someone doesn’t choose Principia we don’t feel like it’s a bad thing. It’s a wonderful thing—it’s them being led to do what’s right for them. So we just want to be able to be in the conversations. We want to get rid of misconceptions [about Principia], see it for themselves, and then make a decision.
Poznick actively uses Christian Science in his everyday job. “Every day we need to reaffirm in our own thought not to look at the material picture, just like a healing,” he said. “We must take our view away from the problem of dwindling Christian Scientists and re-center it God-ward. [We need to] understand that when we start our day, we’re being led by God. [We are led] to talk to the right people, to say the right things, and to go where we need to go. The job has been a terrific experience for applying Christian Science.”
