About
Welcome
I deeply care about how families and staff experience school.
That’s what led me to the work I do today – spending my days with schools, helping leaders, marketing and admissions teams bring clarity and calm to the enrolment journey.
I started out splitting my time between school marketing and a management role in a creative agency that served non-profits and education.
In schools, I saw up close the pressure of enrolments. The weight on parents to choose the right school and the effort staff put in behind-the-scenes.
Over time, one gap stood out in particular: the gap between what schools believed they were delivering and what families were actually experiencing.
Every school needs a connected enrolment journey – shaped by the stories they tell, the people who deliver it, and the systems that hold it all together.
The enrolment journey is a living ecosystem. Often, it only takes a few focused changes to create an experience that feels coherent, connected and trustworthy.
- When you clarify your story, you build staff confidence.
- When you redesign your website, you remove friction from admissions.
- When you design a moment with experience in mind, you directly improve what families feel.
Bolsta Education wants to re-imagine the way children, families and staff experience school.
A big part of this work is helping principals, business managers and boards see the journey as a shared responsibility. When that happens, marketing and admissions can stop patching gaps and start doing their best work. Bolsta is committed to:
- Putting people at the centre of the design process
- Building capability, not dependency
- Creating solutions that are distinctly yours, not templates pasted over your story
- Being honest about what is working, what is not, and what that means for your next step
Discovering the power of meaningful experiences
I trained in experience strategy to help schools move beyond process and design the full experience.
That meant learning how story, behaviour and outcomes work together, and how to design for all three.
I’ve seen what happens when schools do this work:
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Staff pull in the same direction, because they share language and a clear map.
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Enrolments grow (over 70% in the case of one of our schools)
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Moments in the enrolment journey are ‘care at scale’ – not transactional
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School history is honoured and made present through intentional storytelling.
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Staff feel seen, because someone made space to listen.
Frequently Asked Questions
Bolsta was founded by Jacob Shultz, a specialist in experience strategy for schools. His background spans both school marketing and creative leadership. These days, his focus is on improving the lived experience of schools.
Bolsta exists to close the gap between what schools intend families to experience and what they actually do. Too often, schools believe they’re delivering clarity and care, but families encounter confusion or inconsistency. Bolsta helps schools bridge that gap.
Experience strategy is about designing every part of your enrolment journey with the human in mind. That includes your messaging, your systems, and the small moments that shape how families feel. It’s where behaviour, story and operations meet.
We work with schools who are ready to move beyond surface fixes and align their enrolment journey with the experience they want families to have. Most are seeking clarity, consistency, and a more human approach to enrolment. We serve schools all around the world.
Schools tell us they see clearer alignment between teams, smoother enrolment processes, and a noticeable shift in how families engage. When your story, systems and people work together, the experience feels more authentic and trust grows.
We typically work with principals, business managers, marketing, communication and admissions teams. Our approach brings these roles together with shared language and aligned priorities, so the whole team can deliver a consistent experience.
We don’t start with a website. We start with the ecosystem. Your website, brand and messaging are only effective when they’re aligned with what families experience. We help ensure any creative work is grounded in real stories and supported by clear systems.
We begin with the Enrolment Journey Audit. It’s a diagnostic that helps your school see the journey as it actually works, not just how it’s intended to work. It identifies friction, patterns and opportunities, and sets the foundation for every next step.
