Enrolment Ecosystem™
A way of seeing your enrolment journey across three connected layers: Experience, Journey and Infrastructure.
Explore the Enrolment EcosystemTell the stories your school is living. Experience more of the stories you tell.
We help schools in Australia and around the world build the kind of school experience that inspires, motivates and connects.
What would a family say about your school, if you weren’t in the room?
I love schools. They’re wonderful (if not messy) places where meaning gets made one story, one experience, one day at a time.
That’s why the stories we tell about schools matter. A good story works like a lantern: enough light for a family to find the school that feels like home. But stories are only as honest as the reality they answer to. I’m all about storytelling and experience design, working together.
For over a decade I’ve been lucky to work alongside schools in Australia and around the world: principals, marketing and admissions teams, staff and families. I’ve learned to listen first. Together we find the stories you’re already living and tell them with care. Then we design the experience so more of them happen, day in, day out.
Experience Strategy Certification
In 2024 I completed Stone Mantel’s Experience Strategy Certification, led by Dave Norton. I wanted to help schools look beyond process and design the whole experience: how story, behaviour and outcomes work together.
Jacob Shultz Founder and director
Meet our team
Jacob Shultz
Founder and director
Jacob has spent over a decade partnering with schools locally and globally to surface their stories, design their experiences, and build creative and communication strategies that create cohesion across the entire school lifecycle. He leads strategy, facilitation, creative direction and project delivery.
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Simon Wagg
Former Head of Middle School and executive leader at Trinity Christian School, Canberra, with over a decade in school executive leadership.
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Mykyta Vasyliev
Advancement professional with 10 years in communications, marketing, social media, events and organisational management.
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Studio partners
How we think.
These frameworks have been built and refined over a decade of working with schools. Your team, and your project, benefit from all of this thinking.
Experience Builder™
A design-thinking framework for understanding and redesigning experiences across nine dimensions.
Co-developed with [YELLOW CAR].
Visit experiencebuilder.co
School Character Framework™
Spot your school in one of seven characters, and get a head start on messaging that resonates.
Enquire
Family Journey Framework™
How a family moves from onlooker to guest to family, and what your school can do at each step.
Take the health checkWhat your school can count on.
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Architect, not decorator
We listen before we design. The best school stories are already being lived; we surface them and give them shape.
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Compass, not manual
We build your team’s capability, with principles and guardrails you can extend and adapt long after the project ends.
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Lantern, not spotlight
A family’s journey with your school starts well before they enquire and continues well after they enrol. We design for that whole arc.
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Mirror, not megaphone
We help you hear yourself clearly, and we’re honest about what’s working, what isn’t, and where the real wins lie.
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Inheritance, not initiative
We design for the people to come, so the next leader inherits your story rather than starting again.
What it’s like to work together.
“He’s thoughtful, articulate, and most importantly, not selling you a template. He has the capacity to go toe-to-toe with you on strategic thinking and big picture projects.”
David Gray Belmont Christian College Director of Mission and Community “Jacob laid the foundation of the Enrolment Journey — we could see how Marketing, Communication and Enrolment fit together into an integrated system.”
Allie Smith MidCoast Christian College Communications Manager “Jacob worked some magic in his respectful approach to our team and running a workshop that had us all pulling in the same direction.”
“There has been a dramatic shift in the way we approach both our teams’ work and tours in general.”
Nick Lawrence Torrens Valley Christian School Head of Marketing and Enrolments “The shift from ‘marketing’ to ‘experience’ was a real turning point for our team. Focusing on the journey has made our communication feel much more authentic.”
Katy Devers Kairos Community College Marketing, Communications and Community Engagement Manager “The work has helped me to look at the organisation as a whole and to take a step back from the day to day.”
Trusted by schools across Australia and Europe
Questions we’re often asked.
What does Bolsta actually do?
We help schools with their story, brand, website and enrolment journey. We start by listening to your students, parents and staff, and finding the stories your community is already living. Then we tell those stories well, and help design the experiences that make more of them happen, from the website and the tour to a new family’s first weeks. When we finish, the work stays with your team as principles they can keep using.
How are you different from a marketing agency?
An agency tends to start from a brief, apply an idea from the top, and hand you a finished product. We start from your school. The story and brand come out of what your community already lives, drawn from conversations with your students, parents and staff, and we hand the work back as a practice your team keeps using.
What kinds of schools do you work with?
We work with all types and sizes of schools. What our best partners have in common is a posture: they care about their community, and they want the relationship with their families, current and prospective, to keep improving.
Do you work with schools outside Australia?
Yes. Most of the schools we work with are in Australia, and we also partner with schools around the world, working remotely and visiting when the work needs it.
How do you work with our team and board?
Alongside them. We carry the strategic and creative weight of the project and work closely with the people who’ll own the outcome, building their capability as we go. Where we can, we also ask for a direct line to your wider team and board, so every layer of your school feels invested in the work and we can advocate for the right outcomes alongside you. The principles and frameworks stay with your team, so they can keep extending the work after we finish.
What happens to the work when leadership changes?
We design for the people to come. A school’s story shouldn’t end when the person who commissioned it moves on, so we build it into your team, your systems and your community rather than into one person. The next leader inherits something to build on, rather than starting again.
We’ve already done strategic work. Can you work from that?
Yes. A strategy can leave a school holding a clear direction, with no plan yet for how a family will engage with it. We regularly take strategic work and build it into your website, your tours, your communications and your enrolment journey.
Where do we start?
Start with a conversation. If you’d like a head start, the six questions on our homepage suggest a first step for your situation. Some schools begin with a single workshop; others start with the Enrolment Ecosystem Audit to get a clear picture first. Either way, we’d rather understand your school before you commit to anything significant.
How do you price your work?
The right scope depends on your unique situation. We have accessible offers like workshops starting from around $3,000 AUD, through to larger multi-stage investments, and we’re always happy to talk them through on a call. We won’t string you along; it just helps to understand a little context first.
What results do schools see?
Enrolments that grow steadily. Families who can genuinely engage with your school’s story, vision and brand rather than skim past it. Teams who come out clearer and more confident, with less admin strain, better alignment across marketing, communications and enrolment, and the language and visual systems to keep it all consistent. And often the one people mention most: room to imagine again, to lift out of the day-to-day and picture futures for the school they hadn’t let themselves picture before.
What is experience strategy for schools?
Experience strategy is the practice of designing every part of a family’s journey with the human in mind, from the messaging they read to the systems they move through to the small moments that shape how they feel. It’s where behaviour, story and operations meet, rather than three separate departments each solving their own piece. For a school, that means the way a family is welcomed at the front office, the clarity of the enrolment process and the honesty of the website all telling the same story. At Bolsta, it’s the throughline of our work across a school’s story, brand, website and enrolment journey.
