Newly hired Marketing Communication Specialist Amanda Jacobs plans to create a new City College Snapchat channel to help stabilize enrollment.

Jacobs grew up in Goleta and went to Dos Pueblos High School. She attended college at Santa Barbara City College and Chico State, where she majored in journalism and minored in marketing. She continued to work within marketing and public relations when she moved back to Santa Barbara to be with family.

“In this office, it seems like everyone wears many hats and we’re all working together just to communicate the story of Santa Barbara City College to the community and also to engage students as well,” Jacobs said.

Jacobs shared that her main goal is to strategize and help with communication efforts through advertising and marketing.

“We are focusing on training Amanda on the regular business of our office,” said Director of Communications Luz Reyes-Martin in a follow-up email. “Amanda will be assisting us with better leveraging our social media presence and instituting better tracking and analytics for social media and our marketing efforts.”

Reyes-Martin also said that Jacobs will be assisting with the launch of the School of Extended Learning. She will also work on projects such as expanding into multimedia communication and working with enrollment services on outreach and retention efforts.

On the Main Campus, the enrollment dropped by 2,624 students from Fall 2009 to Fall 2016.

“We don’t want to keep dropping,” Reyes-Martin said. “This is kind of a comfortable size and that has really been a college-wide discussion.”

Reyes-Martin said that besides the credited courses offered on Main Campus, the school could grow on short-term vocational and English as a second language programs.

“We feel like it’s our responsibility to make sure that students are getting the very best education and the very best skills to help them either transfer or get a job or move on to whatever may be in their educational journey,” Reyes-Martin said.

Reyes-Martin said that their main goal is to stabilize enrollment which is something Jacobs will be helping the broader team along with many other things.

“We are so thrilled to have Amanda on board.”

Jacobs first day on campus was Monday, April 10, and she shared that everyone at the school has been very welcoming.

“It’s completely different than working at a company,” Jacobs said. “Working at a college, everyone here has their arms open and is ready to embrace you. It’s been great so far.”

She states that her background with direct mail, print advertising, search engine marketing and google advertisements will help with the advertising aspect of communications.

“I definitely have a lot to bring to the table here and it’s really exciting.”