Episode
Ep. 90 - Haley Platt: Breaking the Information Barrier: How First-Gen Students Navigate College
- Podcast
- The Signal
- Published
- Jun 5, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 1836
- Processing state
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Summary
What happens when a recent college graduate who grew up with smartphones, social media, and the chaos of modern college applications becomes a chief marketing officer? You get a perspective that most higher ed leaders desperately need but rarely hear. In this episode, host Jeff Dillon welcomes Haley Platt, Chief Marketing Officer at Síembra Mobile—a company building technology to connect first-generation students and families with post-secondary pathways. At just 23 years old, Haley made the leap from intern to CMO, bringing a Gen Z lens to marketing, student engagement, and the gap between K-12 and higher ed. Haley pulls no punches about what's broken in traditional college outreach. She describes the "stack of postcards" problem—students receiving thousands of generic mailers that feel disingenuous and overwhelming—and explains why targeted, early, meaningful engagement is the only way forward. She shares how Síembra‘s self-monitoring intervention model helps students track academic progress, explore multiple pathways (including community college and CTE), and receive direct admissions offers before their senior year. From the financial barriers of FAFSA to the mental health toll of the job market, from the importance of social-emotional learning to the power of virtual enrollment communities, Haley offers a fresh, urgent, and deeply practical take on what institutions need to change—and why listening to students is the most under leveraged strategy in higher ed today. Key Takeaways The "Stack of Postcards" Problem Is Real—and It's Failing Students: Students receive thousands of generic college mailers and emails, most of which feel disingenuous and overwhelming. Traditional mass outreach treats students like numbers, not individuals. Targeted, personalized messages…