At a university, momentum can be hard to see. Programs change over the course of many years. Culture shifts by degrees. Great changes can occur but can sometimes go unnoticed.

Today, if Memorial has a clearer sense of how it welcomes students, how it supports them and how it presents itself to the world, it is in no small part because Shona Perry-Maidment helped shape that direction, over the course of years, from the inside out.

Ms. Perry-Maidment first came to Memorial as a student herself. She earned a bachelor of arts and a bachelor of education in 1989 and received her master’s degree in education in 1992.

As a staff member, she started her time at Memorial with residence services and then worked with the Faculty of Education.

In 1996, Memorial created the Office of Student Recruitment and Promotion. Ms. Perry-Maidment became a recruitment officer that same year. And in 2009, she was appointed director of the Office of Student Recruitment.

She started working in the field of recruitment at a time when student expectations were changing and competition among post-secondary institutions was intensifying. Memorial needed to be more nimble, more student-centred and more strategic in how it communicated its story. She stepped into that evolving landscape and became a force in guiding the university through it.

Much of her work has taken place behind the scenes, but its effects are everywhere as she helped rethink how Memorial engages with prospective students.

 

Shona Perry-Maidment on a recruitment visit to Zimbabwe in 2014. Photo from the Gazette.

 

Under her leadership, recruitment tours became more intentional, outreach to schools more responsive and the university’s message more coherent across provinces, countries and platforms.

The digital transformation of Memorial’s communications – which today seems inevitable – was not inevitable at all. It required foresight and determination, qualities she brought to every project.

Website redesigns and new digital recruitment helped advance our university closer to the expectations of a new generation. They made it easier for students to find information, to apply and to imagine themselves at Memorial. They also helped the university understand what students needed long before they ever stepped foot on campus.

Her work also extended beyond Memorial’s borders. She has been an active voice in national recruitment and marketing networks, contributing to conversations about how Canadian universities can adapt to changing student pathways, the rise of digital engagement and the growing importance of student experience as a differentiator.

Through these efforts, she brought new ideas back to Memorial and ensured the university remained connected to broader trends across the country.

In 2006, she was awarded Memorial’s President’s Award for Exemplary Service. That award, among the university’s highest staff honours, recognized her years of dedication and her ability to turn ideas into connections.

Through all her work, she was guided by the core belief that students should feel seen and supported as they prepare to make one of the most important decisions in their lives.

It’s true that change can sometimes be imperceptible. But in reality, student recruitment at Memorial has advanced by leaps and bounds. It’s visible in rising engagement numbers, more sophisticated communications systems and a stronger institutional identity. And those changes live inside a culture that supports its students from the very first encounter.

In every role she held, Ms. Perry-Maidment made change happen, and with purpose, clarity and understanding, she strengthened Memorial’s ability to welcome the world.