Decide to Succeed

At Western Carolina University, we are a community of students, faculty and staff who all welcome challenges, who seek out opportunities, and who reach beyond the expected. We make the daily decision to relentlessly strive for excellence. We Decide to Succeed.

An Overview

The Western Carolina University brand platform recognizes the unique potential within every student to achieve greatness through ambition, hard work, and the willingness to push through obstacles, even those that can seem insurmountable.

As an institution, and individually, we choose to see the possible rather than the impossible. We are resolved to tackle challenges head on -- those that face each of us and those that face our community, our region and our state -- with confidence that success will come through commitment and collaboration.

We embrace the Decide to Succeed brand platform as a powerful statement of our commitment not just to the outcome of greatness but, more importantly, to the everyday choice to see our individual and collective potential and to work hard to reach it.

See the Stories

It's More Than a Tagline

Student success is at the heart of every decision we make. We see our institutional role as one of mentor and supporter to students who are hungry for success - students who chase after their goals with persistent determination. We strive to help students discover their life purpose and reach their full potential, preparing them to contribute to success in our region and our state. Watch the video:

Bringing It To Life

We encourage our faculty, staff, students, alumni and other stakeholders to help us tell the story about how and why they Decide to Succeed. Keep in mind that it is not only about making good choices or achieving great things. It's about purposefully and passionately reaching for a goal that matters. When we tell Decide to Succeed stories, they are stories of aspiration, innovation, leadership and tenacity. They demonstrate a strength of purpose that drives us individually and collectively.

Ways to incorporate Decide to Succeed in your marketing and storytelling:

Include the #decidetosucceed hashtag on social media content that showcases aspiration, innovation, leadership or tenacity.
Use headlines that incorporate statements that support the Decide to Succeed theme. Examples include phrases such as "chase an ambition," "work hard," "dive in," "embrace change," etc. These phrases are always active rather than passive. In print design, phrases supporting the campaign can be called out with the Decide to Succeed highlight font treatment.

Our brand ambassadors should be careful not to dilute the brand theme by connecting it to unrelated programs or initiatives.

For questions on using the brand theme with your program, login with your WCU credentials to submit a request for a consultation.