Karen A. Pellegrino joined the St. Joe’s community on June 11 as vice president of enrollment management. The New England native, who previously worked at Fairfield University alongside President Mark C. Reed, Ed.D., sat down with The Hawk to discuss growing and diversifying future enrollment at St. Joe’s.
What does your role as vice president for enrollment management entail?
Enrollment management here at Saint Joseph’s University encompasses a few different areas, so it is undergraduate admission, financial aid, enrollment systems and analytics and institutional research. Those are the areas that report up through me. I think the ones that people are probably most familiar with are undergraduate admissions and financial aid. Obviously those are the ones that impact our undergraduates the most directly.
In what ways will you look to increase the number of applications to St. Joe’s in the coming years?
We are looking to increase diversity of our applicant pool and of our student body. We look at diversity in a very comprehensive way. It is not just racial and ethnic diversity although we are really proud of the fact that this year the students of color make up 20 percent of this class, which is the largest number we have had in a number of years.
But we are also looking at diversity of all kinds: religious diversity, socioeconomic diversity, diversity of experiences. We really want to create a student body that mirrors the world that our students are going to go into after they graduate. It’s challenging work. It’s really exciting work too.
You led an institution-wide diversity committee at Fairfield. What was that experience was like? What have you learned about diversity as a white woman?
The president’s diversity committee was organized because we were an institution that really was struggling with attracting students of color, students of different backgrounds.
As a white woman, I actually felt really privileged that I was able to be in that position. It gave me an opportunity to hear from colleagues, to hear from students, to recognize just how critical and important these issues are. I feel like it helped me be more empathetic. And while I couldn’t put myself in their shoes, it gave me a lot of valuable insight and I think when I was then on the road recruiting students, it helped me to be a better listener, to understand how different some of our students’ experiences were, both the background that they were coming from and what they were experiencing on our own campus.
How was it that Dr. Reed was able to recruit you from Fairfield? Did you work closely together while you were both there?
Dr. Reed and I did work together when we were at Fairfield. We had established a very good working relationship. I think that Dr. Reed has an understanding of enrollment management that a lot of presidents lack. I have obviously been following what he has been doing here over the last three years and I have been really impressed with what he has set out, where he wants to take this institution. It was really an exciting opportunity for me to have the chance to be a part of that.
What do you bring to the St. Joe’s community?
I bring a real deep admiration for and commitment to Jesuit values. My entire academic and professional background has been in Jesuit education. While each Jesuit school in the United States certainly has its own character and has its own distinct vision and voice, there are some links between all of us. I believe so strongly in that.
My college experience was a transformative one. When I went to school, I didn’t exactly know what I was getting into going to a Jesuit institution, but it really has framed who I have become both personally and professionally. I think that is one of the things that I bring. Even though I am new to Philadelphia, I am new to St. Joseph’s, I understand the core mission of this institution and not only do I understand it, I believe in it very strongly.
