BridgeValley Community and Technical College serves a diverse, 10-county region in southern West Virginia, with campuses located in both Kanawha and Fayette counties—communities impacted by persistent economic challenges and high rates of food insecurity. As an access institution, BridgeValley plays a critical role in supporting working adults, low-income students, and individuals seeking career-aligned credentials.

The data reflects both the scale of the need and the depth of the opportunity:

• In 2022, 53% of new freshmen were Pell-eligible
• In 2023, 46% of the student population was classified as adult students
• Kanawha County and Fayette County report food insecurity rates of 11% and 14.6% respectively
• The unemployment rate in Charleston was 4.3% as of June 2024

This context underscored the urgency for BridgeValley to not only provide access but to do so through coordinated systems, clear processes, and a student experience that supports persistence from first inquiry to completion.

Key barriers included:

• Financial aid processes that were cumbersome and unintentionally created access barriers
• Inconsistent and manual communications across the student lifecycle, made more difficult by the absence of a CRM
• Overloaded front-line offices, particularly admissions, where staff were stretched thin managing both recruitment and intake responsibilities without dedicated capacity
• An outdated organizational structure, especially in student services, where roles were blurred and accountability was fragmented
• Marketing and outreach strategies that lacked segmentation, failing to connect with the unique goals of adult learners, returning students, and first-time enrollees

These internal constraints were intensified by external pressures: regional unemployment, food insecurity, and increased competition for prospective students. The college’s leadership recognized the need for aligned, coordinated systems and a clearer strategy for institutional engagement and growth.

Swim partnered with BridgeValley to conduct a comprehensive Environmental Analysis that combined operational review, stakeholder input, and student experience mapping. This process was anchored in our belief that transformation must be both human-centered and institutionally scalable.

We began by deploying our Secret Student Experience, a qualitative tool designed to assess the institution through the lens of its learners. This was followed by structured interviews, process audits, and direct engagement with both executive leadership and front-line staff. From this, we identified three core opportunity areas:

Based on our findings, Swim delivered a coordinated set of solutions designed to align structure, improve the student experience, and strengthen institutional strategy:

• Process Redesign and Enrollment Structure: We partnered with internal teams to streamline enrollment workflows, map the student experience, and identify communication breakdowns. Swim also delivered a revised organizational chart to clarify roles, reduce redundancy, and center the student across functions.

• Automated Communications: We developed and implemented multi-channel communications flows, email and text, to deliver timely, relevant, and personalized information. Messages were aligned to student type and stage, using automation to replace manual follow-up and ensure consistency.
• Orientation Strategy Overhaul: Swim led a full redesign of new student orientation by reassigning ownership to the Director of Student Engagement and establishing a cross-functional planning model. We expanded in-person options while retaining online access, refreshed the curriculum with engaging and interactive modules, and launched tailored orientation tracks for returning and transfer students.
• Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) Support: We provided consulting and planning support to help BridgeValley prioritize high-impact enrollment initiatives and design a more sustainable, long-term SEM model. This included guidance on ownership, pacing, and cross-functional integration.
• Marketing and Messaging Optimization: Swim delivered insights and tactical recommendations to strengthen messaging across platforms, positioning BridgeValley as affordable, flexible, and responsive to regional workforce needs. We also identified opportunities for storytelling and value proposition refinement to speak directly to adult learners.

BridgeValley is now positioned to support students with greater clarity, consistency, and confidence. Internal teams have a shared understanding of roles, communications are automated and sequenced, and students experience fewer barriers from application to registration.

The BridgeValley team in collaboration with Swim defined several goals that were reached ahead of schedule due to the solutions implemented by Swim:

BridgeValley has laid a strong foundation for long-term strategic enrollment growth. The systems, structures, and frameworks established through this work are enabling the college to respond more proactively to demographic, economic, and competitive shifts.

At Swim, we believe in equipping institutions to own and operationalize change beyond our engagement. That means embedding governance structures, building institutional capacity, and supporting the cultural mindset required for sustained progress.

“Swim offered a lot of valuable advice. Some of it was related to personnel, some of it was related to the technology, really helping my senior leaders to figure out what is was that we needed to do, to be effective at what we were trying to do.”

“It was so helpful for us to have some outside perspective and the expertise around a process that we hadn’t considered before, and hadn’t done in our environment”

“Our partnership with Swim has been especially impactful because it has been an ongoing engagement. I feel like Swim is really invested in my college’s success, and that makes a huge difference because my team members understand that they could call Swim again in the future if we had something else that came up. It’s a known group of people now, so there is a lot more comfort on campus and a sense that this is a group that is really committed to our success”