Reaching Freshmen 

One of the most important components of reaching freshmen is securing their name and contact information. Here are ways we do so at our BCM.  

How to Secure Names and Contact Information of Freshman 

1. Names from local and state churches. 

(1) State events
(2) Local Association Camps
(3) Attending at BCM events such as our Senior Night
(4) Letters/Emails to all SBC pastors, church secretaries and youth ministers of our state. Our State Convention office sends an email to every pastor,   every church secretary and every youth minister in the state requesting the name, contact information and college choice of the High School Seniors of the church. 

2. Orientations of Your College/University

These are all of critical importance for a church or campus based collegiate ministry. We have a table at each LSU orientation for new students. 

3. Christian High Schools in your State

There are 4,118 Christian High Schools in the US. I would suggest contacting those in your state in February to request the contact information and college choice of their graduating high school seniors. In Louisiana, we network out the names through our state BCM Directors. (Click here for Christian High School Senior email resource.) 

4. Christian High School Co-ops

There are 1,586 Christian High School Co-ops in the US. We contact them in February to request the name, contact information and college choice of their graduating High School Seniors. 

5. FCAs in your State

We contact the State FCA Director to secure area and local contacts for this. 

6. National Summer Conferences

(1) Fuge
(2) Student Life 

7. Instagram Class of 28

We follow all of them that will be attending LSU. If they follow us back we send them a message asking them if they would like to receive a Welcome Bag from our BCM. It will include a BCM shirt and stickers. See U of A info and U of South Carolina info below. We got the idea from them. 

8. Other Freshmen

In all contact to other Freshmen we ask for names and cell numbers of their friends. 

9. Parents Survey

We send a letter to “The Parents of” every freshmen whose names we secure. We ask the parent to partner with us to help their son or daughter get involved in our ministry. We include a Parent Survey they can fill out about their son or daughter. 

10. Information Table

In front of the LSU Union during the Welcome Week and the first week of classes. (Click here for a sample of our BCM Ministry Information flyer.) 

How the BCM at LSU Connects with the Freshmen 

1. Through e-Newsletters (mail chimp) (Click for url link.)
2. Through Texts – Personal and Group (Clearstream) 
3. Telephone 
4. Inviting High School Seniors to be involved in the BCM during their senior year in High School. 
5. High School Senior Night at a worship service in April. 
6. Class of 28 Group Me.  
7. Tiger Saturdays – We sponsor three of them. They begin at 12 noon and last until  dark. They include share groups, games, food, an upperclassmen panel, kayaking,  fishing, and swimming. (Click here to see our Tiger Saturday flyer.)
8. Welcome Week Events – Waffle Night, Trivia Night, Cookout, Glow Night, Game Night, Survival  
9. Follow Up System – For freshmen that attend a BCM ministry 
10. Freshmen Bible Study Groups 
11. Formation of a Freshmen Praise Band each year.  
12. Formation of a Freshmen Leadership Team. 
13. Participation in our State Fall Collegiate Conference. 
14. Participation in our Mexico Mission Trip. 
15. Discipleship Partners 
16. Promotion of Church Involvement – Our local church based ministers that help  sponsor our BCM ministries are invited to the Tiger Saturdays and all of our Welcome Week events. Our goal is that a student is involved in the BCM and a local church. All freshmen are assigned to a local church member to be prayed for during the upcoming school year. (Click here for the Prayer Partner Ministry flyer.) 

Steve Masters 
Email: [email protected] 
Phone: 225-964-0830

How Other BCM’s Reach Freshmen 

Here is info from several other BCM’s, BSU’s, BSM’s with information of how they reach freshmen. Thanks to the BCM, BSU, and BSM staff that provided this information.  

Reaching Freshmen 
Tarleton BSM 

Youth Groups 

• Call Youth Pastors around your state each year. Gather graduating senior information for any college or university. Forward those to the appropriate BSM/BCM. Contact the ones attending Tarleton. 
• We have also began hosting open houses, missions training, and student panels to different youth groups. They have been successful. 

Social Media 

• Follow #tarleton2028 and the page “Tarleton Class of 2028” 
• Go follow every freshman on that hashtag and page. 
• Everyone who follows us will receive a message funneling them towards an online connection card. 

Outreach During School 

• Move freshmen in 
• Post up at Walmart during move-in weekend 
• Do information tables somewhere everyday the first two weeks of school
• Door to door invites and “trash pickup” 

This is not an exhaustive list but it is a good starting point. We are not allowed to table at orientations, but we will be around campus in unofficial ways. 

Megan Trotter 
Tarleton BSM 
Phone: 903-239-9003 
[email protected] 

University of Arkansas BCM 
Freshmen Strategies 

Before Welcome Week

We aim to get as many freshmen contacts as possible before the new school year starts. We do this through:

1. A High School Senior Night in the Spring.
2. Contacting Churches and well attended Christian camps in the summer
3. Involvement at every incoming freshmen orientation session during the summer. We send every one of these contacts a small gift in the mail during the summer and begin texting them invitations to our welcome week events. 

During Welcome Week

We try to host the best events on campus to connect with students: Corn Hole tournaments,  Lawn Parties, University of Arkansas Football Stadium Tour. We start our weekly programming during Welcome Week so that students can get into the  routine of coming weekly from the start. 

After Welcome Week

We follow-up one-on-one with everyone whose contact information we have via text, personal meet-ups, and small group hangouts. We run a weekly “FreshLife” program for the first month of  the fall aimed to help freshmen meet new friends and connect to BCM and local churches. 

Ryan Scantling 
BCM Campus Minister of University of Arkansas 
Phone: 479-264-5405
Email: HogBCM.com 

Freshman Experience at OU 

Fresh10 | Recruiting & Gaining Contacts. 

• For 10 days after moving we have inclusive and fun events where we meet and get contacts for as many new people as possible. 
• Recruiting ministry goal of 2000 contacts before September  
  • Examples of Fresh10 events: 10pm-1am pancake & live music event that usually sees 600-700, Line dancing, Volleyball tournament, and karaoke/game night 
  • We have a coffee shop and give away around 2000 free drinks to freshmen each fall. They give us names and fill out our survey, and then we follow up with event information  and personal requests to have gospel appointments and visits. 
  • We table a lot and get around 300-500 names within the first 2 weeks of school. We often give away items via raffle in exchange for names. 
  • We call churches in Oklahoma and ask for contact info for incoming students. 

Freshman Challenge | Relationship Form and Contacts Find Belonging. 

• The tagline for the night and the challenge is “Find purpose and a place to belong”.
• Freshman Challenge is a large meeting/small group for freshmen. We recruit for this event, but then divide students into small groups based on housing. 
• Every group has 3-4 upperclassmen small-group leaders who form a missional team called a CORE team. 
• Freshman Challenge Night Components: 
  • The evening usually has competitive games that accumulate in a house system style point system (competition is fierce). 
  • Usually a leader or staff will present a 10-12 minute Ted Talk on a subject like “prayer,” then we divide up into student leader-led groups to discuss the topic. 
  • The event goes from 8-9:30 with snacks at the end. Groups typically get done around the same time and a party vibe ensues. 
  • CORE team leaders are responsible for follow-up with group attendees throughout the week. 
  • We try to recruit as many freshmen as possible to have a discipleship relationship as fast as possible (this relationship could be a discipleship group or 1-to-1). 

Freshman CORE Leadership | Moving from Connected to Contributors. 

• We started many years ago having a leadership meeting for new students (mostly freshmen). 
• The style of the night is classroom and accountability-group focused. The meeting lasts one hour and usually has a discipleship & leadership topic/teaching, scripture memory for the week and weekly review of a portion of the book “Fuel & the Flame” which they are required to read to be in this leadership cohort. 
• 1 of the C.O.R.E. questions are asked each week in smaller groups:
  • How has CONNECTING with God been this week? 
  • How have you OBEYED God’s word this week?
  • Who have you been able to RETELL God’s story with this week? 
• Contribution starts with students attending serving at our large group and/or hosting an evangelistic bible study in their dorm (led by upperclassman leaders or staff). 
  • Hosting a bible study is a big push for us and a big ask 

Retreat Early 

We have a retreat in September that is very important to get freshmen at. 

SHANE KAMMERER | BCM 
University of Oklahoma | 1203 Elm Ave. Norman, OK | 73072 
Phone: (940) 368.8581  
www.oubcm.com 

Mississippi State University BSU 
BASIC Training 

Schedule:

2 days before classes begin; recently this has been held on Monday & Tuesday and classes begin on Wednesday 

Theme:

Student team selects theme; sessions, schedule, and helps interview Family Group Leaders 

Format:

4 large group worship sessions are led by a speaker and a band. Other activities involve family group activities, games, panel discussion, meals, late night option, and local church introduction (family groups rotate in the BSU building to meet and hear about local church opportunities for students). 

Timeline:

• Spring Semester – Family Group Leader applications and interviews. Each family group has a male and female leader. There are 17 Freshmen groups and 6 Transfer groups; therefore, 46 leaders are needed. 
• Summer – recruitment at all of the summer orientations, seeking to inform and enlist as many newly enrolled students as possible. We also are able to obtain a list of Baptist preference students. From this master list, we send multiple mailings, email, texts, and a phone call. Students register for the event online. There is a $30 fee that is charged that includes a t-shirt, program cost and all meals. 
• BASIC Training – students are placed in groups according to their entering as a freshman or a transfer student. These leaders are tasked to lead 8-12 students in small group and large group activities. These range from games, small group Bible studies, and large group activities. 
• After BASIC Training – These groups are asked to meet weekly for the fall semester and most choose to also meet the spring semester. They go through a book of the Bible that is selected for them.

Challenges:

1. Packed calendar – Campus events stacked before the start of school (Greek recruitment, New Maroon Camp, Band Camp, other start up events, etc). The university calendar could drastically alter or cause this event to cancelled. 
2. Getting names of new students Each school has different policies about providing new student info to faith based groups. Groups need to expand their reach of getting names (churches with graduating seniors, Super Summer, camps, community college transfers, etc). 

Micheal Ball 
MSU BSU Director 
Cell: 662-312-8655 
Email: [email protected] 

University of South Carolina BCM 
Freshmen Strategies 

1. High School Senior Night in the Spring before fall.

Huge win for students already connected to our ministry to invite people they know. We recognized that you only really need to have 5%-10% of the room be high school seniors to have a successful night. There is many positive things that come from our current students starting to think about recruiting people they know and if they are invited but don’t come it starts the conversation.  

2. Orientation at the university in the summer.

This is a no brainer. We get tons of contacts from this in the summer.  

3. Open House.

This is a USC specific thing but they do a guide for local businesses for students to check out while they are in on the two days orientation. Our BCM Center is one of the featured buildings to check out. USC runs 20+ orientation during the summer. Some we only get a few that come and check out the open house. However, sometimes there are ten to fifteen students that come by.  

4. Welcome Bags.

We promote this really heavy and use it as a promotional tool but any student we connect with during the late spring to summer process we give them a bag that has: Flyer, Wrist Bands, T Shirt, and a handwritten card. We will deliver these bags in the late summer after we have collected contact information from students. The ones in SC we will deliver them and the ones of people in different places we will mail them. We will not mail the shirt but we will put a voucher for a free shirt that they can get when they get to campus. 

5. Coffee/Food Meet ups.

Outside of Columbia, the two largest counties in SC that feed into USC are in Greenville, SC and Charleston, SC. We have set dates that we will go to those  areas and meet up with students that we have contacts on. We do this later in the summer. Our state convention works to secure contact information from camps throughout the summer. Usually, we connect with local ministers in the area that help with the recruiting efforts. We will usually pick another area or two that is manageable to do a meet up at as well, depending on where contacts are coming from through the summer from welcome bag sign ups.

6. Statewide organization at campus and with youth ministries to secure contacts.

Our state convention puts in a lot of effort to connect with youth pastors and help the process of transition.  As well as some awesome churches and youth pastors that will make individual calls to BCM’s across the state to get their students plugged in. 

7. Alumni prayer walking and contacts.

USC has many alumni in the local area. MANY of them serve in their churches and are strong relational contacts for us. We do a prayer walking night and emphasis in prayer to help them recruit and connect students to the BCM that they know personally. 

8. Social media.

We make a strong push on social media to connect with students by following accounts connected to freshman. When they follow us, we will reach out, share info about the ministry, and ask them if they would like a welcome bag. 

9. Move-in help.

We will help with move in days at the university. 

10. New student focused events.

The first week we are planning multiple events that new students can connect with and utilize multiple churches at each of those events to host, connect  and promote Sunday morning opportunities that they can connect with corporate worship. 

11. Foundations.

During the three weeks of each semester, we offer a spiritual discipline and leadership time for new students to connect with each other and dig into the basic disciplines that will help them create God honor rhythms for college. We call the hour and half time “Foundations”. 

Adam Venters
BCM Director at The University of South Carolina
Phone: 425-202-6512
Email: [email protected] 

Sam Houston State 
Freshman Outreach 

During the Summer

• Attend and table at all freshman orientations 
• Gathering contacts all summer and following up with a personal text from our student leaders to invite them to our Welcome Week events in the Fall Semester. 

Freshman Move In

• Have a team of students help move freshmen in and invite them to Welcome Week events. 
• Table and hand out popsicles and water to new students and families moving in Bearkat kick off (freshman move in a week early to learn about campus and SH traditions) 
• Table and hand out popsicles during the day while advertising for Welcome Week
• Plan Barbecue at the B and Game nights 

Welcome Week

• Have events starting from Friday night before school starts (for returning BSM students) casting vision for connection to new students 
• Text all summer freshman contacts we received during Orientation 
• Having events every night for the first week Saturday to Saturday (ultimate game night, water kickball, volleyball, Barbecue, Campus scavenger hunt, Sing-o etc.)
• The goal is having our leadership team connect personally with every freshman that attends to invite to coffee or lunch for follow up. 
• Advertise our small groups (Freshman to Senior) 

Second Week of School

• Follow up, Follow up, Follow up
• Goal is to get our upperclassman to approach incoming students that have connected for Dship groups. 
• Start our weekly outreaches to the campus (Henna, Stickers/Soularium, Coffee, Spiritual Surveys) 
• Advertise our Servant team opportunities to new students who want to connect and serve in our weekly outreaches. 

We strive to connect our upperclassmen to our underclassmen as much as possible whether that be through gospel appointments, small groups or discipleship. 

Chris Smith 
Director, BSM at Sam Houston State University 
Phone: 915-238-8511 
Email: [email protected] 

Oklahoma State University 
Freshmen Outreach 

New Student Orientations 

We partner with the school to work new student orientations on behalf of all faith based orgs and as a result are given all contact info of students that show interest in faith groups. This usually gives us a few hundred names to follow up with over the summer.  

Summer Camps 

We go to two different youth camps over the summer and meet with incoming students to OSU. We bring along current students who give them some insight on how BCM has helped them grow in their faith and connect to local churches. We also bring along info cards, stickers, and a free t-shirt so the students know we really care about them and want them to connect with our ministry when they mover to Stillwater in the fall.  

Welcome Week 

This is where we focus our main efforts in meeting freshmen. New students start moving in the Wednesday before classes start so we host an event on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of that week specifically designed to meet and engage with as many new freshmen as we can. We host a pizza party on Wednesday by the freshmen dorms and have students fill out a super simple form on our website to get the free pizza. Then we follow up the next day with everyone that filled out the form and checked the box that they wanted to stop by with a free gift. Thursday we host a worship night and give away free t-shirts to all who come and fill out the simple form. We follow up the next day as well with everyone that checked the box while getting a shirt. Friday we host a glow-in-the-dark ultimate Frisbee night to try to reach some of the more athletically inclined students. They play in a tourney, we have side games going on, and competitions for giveaways that help us gather info. Again, we follow up the next day with everyone who gave us permission to. In addition, on Saturday we host a sand volleyball and free snow-cone event where we give out free snow cones in Eskimo Joe’s cups (if you are from Oklahoma that makes sense, ha ha) that have the BCM logo on them.  

Then we take all that contact info and invite them to our freshmen Bible study that starts the next week.  

This has worked to be effective in reaching new freshmen. We have been having well over 100 freshmen each week to our freshmen Bible study over the last several years.  

Paul Lewis 
OSU BCM, Director 
Phone: 918-261-4863 
Email: [email protected]