A 150-Year Legacy

Huston-Tillotson University is Austin's oldest institution of higher education, an HBCU with a 150-year legacy that families have passed down through generations.

Its enrollment office runs lean. Five people recruit, admit and enroll every new student. That includes first-time freshmen, transfers, graduate students and working adults in the Adult Degree Program, HTU's bachelor's completion program built around adult schedules. The team knew exactly what each of those individuals needed. But as competition for college-bound students grew, the challenge was scale: reaching every prospective student with timely, personal outreach at the moment each one was deciding.

In August 2025, Huston-Tillotson began rolling out Element451 and its Bolt AI agents to extend what those five people could do. Within a year, the university had more students, more applications and more revenue, without adding a single position.

The Manual Work Standing Between the Team and Prospective Students

Before Element451, the challenges were familiar:

• Communication channels that never talked to each other
• Applications keyed in by hand by one processor and work-study students
• Past systems that needed a support ticket for every fix
• Recruiters working every lead the same way

"There was not one particular way for us to keep all the data for one student in a place where we can all see it," said Jorge Sousa, Vice President of Enrollment Management.

The team needed a way to extend its capacity, so its expertise could reach every student.

The answer: Element451 and its Bolt AI agents

First-Year Results With Element451

More Applications → More Students → $518K in New Revenue

Element451 joined a recruitment cycle already in progress, and it still paid off in its first year.

Growth showed up across nearly every student population, and a brand-new dual enrollment channel launched in the fall 2026 enrollment cycle:

Launched Mid-Cycle, With Governance First

The shift started at an AI conference for HBCU leaders hosted on campus, where Sousa first saw Element451. "I would have been excited if I just got a chatbot," he said. "I knew nothing about an agent."

Huston-Tillotson began implementation and had an inquiry form go live one month later. By February 2026, seven Bolt Agents were already driving lead gen efforts. A snapshot of their first 6 months is outlined below:

1. First: a board-approved AI policy
2. August 2025: implementation begins
3. September 2025: inquiry forms go live
4. January 2026: native applications launch, feeding directly into the university's system
5. February–March 2026: seven Bolt Agents and campaigns go live across undergraduate, Adult Degree Program and lead generation outreach

Recruiting Smarter With Engagement Data

For the five-person team, the biggest change was knowing where to spend their time. Element451 keeps every student's engagement in one record, including emails opened, texts answered, forms completed, pages visited and events attended. It shows those signals on each recruiter's dashboard, down to when a student is most likely to pick up the phone.

That lets the team prioritize students who are showing real intent. Sousa uses the same data to hold the team accountable and to rework campaigns that aren't landing, in real time and without waiting on a vendor.

"The system's telling you: don't fish there, there are no fish, go fish here," Sousa said. "Now, I'm not chasing the entire bucket. Now I've narrowed it down and I know which students in this bucket are the ones that really like us."

The day-to-day work changed too:

• Applications flow straight into the university system, so no one manually enters them
• Automated nudges remind students about missing documents by email and text until they are fully complete
• Event tracking follows prospective students from inquiry to Accepted Students Day registration, focusing outreach on students most likely to enroll

Full Adoption, Almost No IT Lift

"The team didn't have to buy into it. They wanted it," Sousa said.

• Less than 10% IT support needed, and some months none
• Every licensed tool in active use across the team
• Fewer manual labels, less redundancy and stronger data integrity
• Monthly trainings and SOPs that keep every recruiter current

Scaled Capacity for the Same Five People

In just its first year on Element451, before agents had even run a full cycle, Huston-Tillotson grew new student enrollment 9.5% and applications 28.2%, and added $518K in first-year revenue without adding staff. Agents now handle routine follow-up at scale, and engagement data shows recruiters which students to focus on.

That frees the team's time for the conversations that change a student's decision. As Sousa put it, it makes "the time spent out on the road recruiting more intentional and valuable."

Building Toward a 31% Larger Freshman Class

The recruitment cycle for fall 2027 will be the first one Huston-Tillotson runs on Element451 from start to finish. Sousa's goal for 2027 is to grow the incoming freshman class by 31%, with agents live before the season opens rather than partway through.

Four campaigns lead the plan: early FAFSA, confirmation fees, scholarship applications and housing applications. Outreach to rising seniors is already running, and the team is building agents to support recruiters while they're on the road.

For a five-person office, that means starting the year with every student engaged early and every recruiter focused on the students most likely to enroll.