By Autumn Walden, Editor, AACRAO Connect, Content Strategy Manager, AACRAO
In this #SEM2026 preview, you’ll hear from presenters leading sessions on military credit, human-centered design, peer power, and automation—topics that connect directly to the new AACRAO Competency Set.
If you’re joining us in Baltimore for the 36th Annual AACRAO Conference for Strategic Enrollment Management, make sure you’ve reviewed the agenda and speakers, and please don’t miss out on the opportunity to add a workshop.
Military Credit for Prior Learning
“Meeting the needs of adult and military learners requires intentionality, agile processes, and shared commitment across campus leadership,” said Jenifer Kautzman, Associate Director, Communications and Engagement, Learning Evaluations, American Council on Education.
“Across the country, higher education leaders face a shared imperative: growing and sustaining enrollment while clearly demonstrating institutional value and fulfilling core missions. At the same time, more than 40 million adult and military-connected learners have earned some college credit but stepped away before completing a degree,” added Kautzman.
To help institution leaders solve these challenges, the American Council on Education is hosting a dedicated session at the upcoming AACRAO SEM Conference: “Leveraging Military Credit for Prior Learning to Inform Enrollment Management.“
Credit for prior learning can help bridge that gap and bring adult and military learners to your campus. Translating the promise of military CPL into day-to-day practice for institutions can often feel daunting. Institutional policies vary; transfer credit evaluations can bottleneck with cumbersome workflows, and prospective learners frequently face ambiguity about how their military training translates toward degree completion.
What insights do you hope attendees gain?
- Strategic Alignment: Actionable suggestions for integrating military CPL directly into your institution’s broader SEM goals.
- Streamlined Operations: Practical tips for cross-departmental collaboration between admissions, the registrar’s office, and academic departments.
- Actionable Next Steps: Proven strategies to communicate transfer credit opportunities early to prospective adult and military students, boosting yield and retention.
“Discover how ACE is using national data and student voices to help enrollment managers turn military credit for prior learning into institutional momentum,” encouraged Kautzman. Connect with ACE and fellow innovators at SEM 2026 to explore how valuing military experience through CPL can revitalize your enrollment pipelines and better serve those who have served.
Peer Power
In the session “Students as Strategic Partners: Leveraging Peer Power for Enrollment and Retention,” student workers and enrollment professionals of Delaware County Community College will co-facilitate discussions on leveraging peer-to-peer engagement to enhance student success.
“I chose this topic because I believe we sometimes underestimate the strategic role students can play in enrollment management. As our student populations become increasingly diverse—with traditional and adult learners balancing work, family, and other responsibilities—the role of the student ambassador is evolving. What hasn’t changed is the power of authentic peer connection. Students often have a level of credibility and relatability that institutions simply cannot replicate through traditional recruitment and communication efforts.” said Gina Macklin, M.A., SEM-EP, Vice President, Recruitment & Enrollment Management, Delaware County Community College. “I’m also excited about the opportunity to share this conversation at the AACRAO SEM Conference because SEM is ultimately about thinking beyond individual tactics and seeing the connections across the student lifecycle. For me, that means asking not only what we are doing for students but also what we can accomplish with students as partners.”
What insights do you hope attendees gain?
“One of the key insights I hope attendees take away is that student workers can be more than greeters, tour guides, or recruitment support. When intentionally integrated into the enrollment management ecosystem, they can become strategic partners in recruitment, retention, and completion. They bring the student perspective into our work, help build trust, and can often identify barriers or opportunities that institutional processes overlook,” added Macklin.
Human-Centered Design
The breakout session, “Designing for Student Success: How a Year-Plus of Human-Centered Design Operationalized Vision 2030’s Student Barriers Strategy,” offers a four-person panel on Forsyth Tech’s Strategic Holistic Enrollment Management commitment, over 18 months of human-centered design work, to meet students where they are and remove barriers.
“Forsyth Technical Community College’s Vision 2030 plan commits us to removing the barriers that keep students from finishing what they start, and more than a year of human-centered design work showed us that many of those barriers are invisible from inside any single office. We chose this topic because designing alongside students, faculty and staff is how we turned that commitment into specific changes in the way students experience the college,” shared Devin Purgason, Associate Vice President for Student Experience, Marketing and Outreach, Forsyth Technical Community College.
“Our human-centered design work gave us the opportunity to listen differently and understand how our processes and decisions are experienced by the people we serve. For us, designing with students is not simply a strategy; it is a responsibility. If the work is about them, their voices and experiences must help shape the work. This approach has helped us move beyond assumptions and institutional perspectives toward solutions grounded in what students actually need to connect, persist, and succeed,” added Masonne M. Sawyer, Vice President, Student Success & Holistic Support, Forsyth Technical Community College.
What insights do you hope attendees gain?
“My work centers on governance and strategic innovation, on how institutions move stated priorities into lived practice. SHEM is a case study in that movement: an enrollment strategy designed through human-centered work and held accountable through the same governance structures that guide the rest of our institution. I hope attendees leave with a clearer sense of how governance and design can work in service of one another, not simply an outcome to admire,” said Sara J. Singleton, Ed.D., Associate Vice President, Governance & Strategic Innovation, Forsyth Technical Community College.
“We don’t recruit students and then retain them. We design belonging from the very first moment. And that changes everything,” explained Kirsten Seamster, Director of Strategic Enrollment & Student Retention, Forsyth Technical Community College.
Automation
In the breakout session, “From Chaos to Automation: Transforming Transfer Credit Evaluation Through Process Innovation,” learn how the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, transformed transfer credit evaluation from a manual, months-long process into a streamlined, technology-enabled workflow. This session highlights the journey from disconnected systems and undocumented business practices to automated articulation rules and modern transcript processing.
“When I started as University Registrar, it was abundantly clear that the transfer credit articulation process was broken. What was also apparent is that I knew very little about the processing of transfer credit. So, with the help of my colleagues, we embarked to figure it out,” said Patrick Sullivan, Ph.D., Assistant Provost and University Registrar, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
What insights do you hope attendees gain?
For the past eight years, we have changed a process that took several months on average for articulation of credit to just a few days. Now that we feel we are close to “state of the art”, we are ready to share what we learned and hopefully help others who may be struggling with this same process.
Attendees will gain practical strategies for building partnerships, managing change, improving efficiency, and creating scalable transfer credit operations that improve efficiency, consistency, and service for students submitting transfer credit requests.
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