Destiny Modeste had never heard of Paul Quinn College when she attended an informational meeting about the Texas institution at her high school, in Brooklyn, N.Y.
“I went for the free pizza,” said Ms. Modeste, who had already graduated from City Polytechnic High School and was planning to attend a college close to home to finish her associate degree.
Then she met Paul Quinn’s president, Michael J. Sorrell, and was intrigued by his advice to the students: Dream big. When she met individually with Mr. Sorrell afterward, she was excited about the prospect of getting a scholarship to pursue a bachelor’s degree at the small historically black college south of Dallas.
“He changed my mind,” Ms. Modeste said.
Mr. Sorrell even sat down with Ms. Modeste’s parents, who were at first skeptical about sending their daughter all the way to Texas to attend a college they had never before considered.
That kind of personal approach is not unusual for Mr. Sorrell, who meets nearly all serious prospective students and their parents, using a recruiting style that seems a cross between the movie character Jerry Maguire and the Major League Baseball manager Billy Beane.
Like Mr. Beane, the general manager of the Oakland A’s and the main character in the book Moneyball, Mr. Sorrell is not looking for the typical recruit—a student whom another small college might find appealing. Instead, Mr. Sorrell wants students who have been overlooked, students with academic potential, grit, and maybe a bit of a chip on their shoulder.
‘The Good and the Bad’
The approach requires finding the right high schools and persuading counselors there to steer the right students toward the college. In particular, Mr. Sorrell said, he has focused on places like the Cristo Rey high schools, which prepare urban, underrepresented youths for college.
Several other students have also gone to Paul Quinn from City Polytechnic, Ms. Modeste said.
Like Jerry Maguire, a fictional sports agent, Mr. Sorrell often goes into living rooms to sell his college to students and, just as important, to their parents or guardians.
Garlina Meggett, Ms. Modeste’s mother, said she wasn’t crazy about letting her daughter go to college so far from their home. And she wasn’t impressed with the campus after visiting it, she said.
But each time, Mr. Sorrell’s admonitions convinced her, Ms. Meggett said. “I have a lot of respect for President Sorrell,” she said. “He is honest, no-holds-barred. He will tell you the good and the bad.”
That approach would never work at most colleges. It takes too much time and effort, especially if your institution is fielding thousands or tens of thousands of applications every year.
But Paul Quinn doesn’t operate like an ordinary small college; it can’t afford to. The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools revoked Paul Quinn’s accreditation in 2008. Although the college was able to find another accreditor, its enrollment dropped to about 150 students, and for a while it was on the brink of going out of business.
“We can’t use the approach that Harvard uses,” Mr. Sorrell said.
Enrollment has slowly rebounded to nearly 300 now—largely, Mr. Sorrell said, because of the personal approach he has taken to recruiting students.
Despite the need for more students, Mr. Sorrell said, the college still has to be careful about whom it enrolls. “We’re not a school for everybody that needs a chance,” he said.
That’s why it’s important to meet the parent or guardian, he said. Because at some point, the person at home is going to get a call from the student or the college to deal with a problem. Mr. Sorrell wants to be sure that students respect and listen to the advice of their elders, he said.
Ms. Modeste said she talks to her mother every day and really needed her support during the first semester, when she was homesick and still adjusting to living 1,500 miles from home.
“My mom told me to think about what I want my future to be like,” Ms. Modeste said. “I know if I’m back home, I’m not going to have the same opportunities.”
Correction (9/30/2014, 2:48 p.m.): This article originally misstated President Sorrell’s middle initial. It is J., not A. The article has been updated to reflect this correction.
