January 22, 2003

Making a Home for Students – Kay Leager’s Personal Touch Draws the Best and Brightest to NC State

The College of Engineering at NC State is being called on increasingly to provide technically trained professional engineers with a ride range of skills and experiences.  Increasing enrollment of gifted students who are prepared to fill this demand is one of the top goals of the College.  Kay Leager helps the College meet this challenging goal.

Becoming a new member of the College of Engineering family can be daunting. It’s a big family, and it’s easy for the youngest members to get lost. Making each new student feel welcome is Kay Leager’s job.

As director of enrollment management for the College of Engineering at NC State University, Leager identifies talented students who think they have an interest in engineering and provides them with information and opportunities to help them further refine those interests. But it’s the warmth and personal touch Leager brings to the job that make a big difference in the student experience at NC State.

“It starts when students are still in high school,” she said. “We provide them with opportunities to visit campus, whether for a summer program, information session or open house.”

	Kay Leager finds working with talented students highly rewarding.  (Photo: Sheri Thomas.)

Leager coordinates all of the College’s recruitment activities while trying to incorporate a personal touch into what can only be described as a massive organizational effort. For example, each fall, the NC State Engineering Foundation and the College of Engineering Office of Academic Affairs hold receptions for prospective students across the state. “These events provide a way for us to make our otherwise large and possibly intimidating college become more real and more personal for students,” Leager said. “Our goal is for prospective students and their parents to be not just satisfied but delighted with the kind of personal attention they receive.”

Leager came to NC State in 1983 with a master’s in counseling and psychology from Appalachian State University and a background in social work. She worked for 13 years in the university’s admissions office, where she developed contacts with high school guidance counselors around the state. That’s where she discovered she had a genuine interest in helping students make their college career choices by presenting them with an array of options.

In 1996 she accepted the position of director of recruitment for the College of Engineering, where she finds she has more of an opportunity to develop personal relationships with many students. “What I find most rewarding about the job is having the opportunity to know students over a period of time than I did in the admissions office, sometimes for as long as five or six years,” she said. “I enjoy just watching them grow up and blossom and figure out who they are and what they want to do. In many ways it’s the ultimate mothering experience!” And indeed Leager fills the role of the mother figure as she is constantly surrounded by the young students during the engineering summer programs that she leads.

Kay Leager lives in Raleigh with her husband, Andrew.  Her daughter, Austin, goes to NC State, and her son, Travis, attends Appalachian State University.  Kay enjoys step aerobics, cooking, reading (especially NC authors) and outreach ministries through her church.  She is vice president for communications for her neighborhood’s homeowner’s association.

Leager begins interacting with students the summer before their senior or even junior year in high school - many of them away from home for the very first time - as she guides them through tours and summer sessions. She also greets the high schoolers who come to meet current engineering students, alumni, faculty and staff through the recruiting receptions held in their home towns. According to Leager, “Our goal, by the time someone actually enrolls here as a freshman in engineering, is for that student to have been on campus and have had some meaningful interaction with faculty, students and folks from the Dean’s Office. We know from experience that this makes such a difference in someone’s freshman year. It certainly increases the student’s comfort level.”

Leager stays in touch with her recruits beyond their freshman year. She combs the College for upperclass students to help her run NC State’s summer camps.

—   rudd —