Looking up at the SSTAR Lab

Student Success Through Applied Research (SSTAR) Lab partners the School of Education and DEM to apply academic research to practical issues.  This series will turn the telescope in the direction of the SSTAR Lab to see how their research is helping us improve college access and enrollment management. Professor Nick Hillman is the director of the SSTAR Lab.  Nick traces the foundation of the SSTAR Lab to four chance encounters with enrollment managers.  As a freshman at Indiana University Nick met Shirley Boardman from the financial aid office at a jobs fair which led to a six-year work study job in financial aid.  Later as a McNair Scholar, Nick met Don Hossler, the IU Vice Chancellor for Enrollment Services, who got Nick interested in higher education research.  After arriving at UW–Madison in 2013, Nick and Steve Hahn met when the Badger Herald interviewed them about merit scholarships.  Steve then asked Nick to chair the search committee that hired Derek Kindle.  Nick was excited to partner with Derek to form the SSTAR lab. According to Nick: I really value the work of enrollment management professionals.  Academic research is often two or three steps removed from practice. So the lab is designed to bring research and practice together and, by doing this, we think we can better support current and future Badgers. It’s a win-win. And it takes a lot of collaboration and creativity to make it all possible! Watch in the coming months for more stories on the fascinating ways that Nick and the STARR Lab team are applying scholarly research to the practical issues of college access and enrollment management.