Graduation Date
Summer 2024
Document Type
Project
Program
Master of Arts degree with a major in Education
Committee Chair Name
Tristan Gleason
Committee Chair Affiliation
HSU Faculty or Staff
Second Committee Member Name
James Woglom
Second Committee Member Affiliation
HSU Faculty or Staff
Third Committee Member Affiliation
HSU Faculty or Staff
Keywords
Transfer, Sense of belonging, Transfer students, Lower division transfer, Upper division transfer, Transfer student organization, Transfer course, Engagement
Subject Categories
Education
Abstract
Universities and institutions have started to create student programming to ensure their students have the support that they need to be successful at their institutions. Many of these programs center and focus on the first-year student experience, which are those who are entering the institution right after graduating High School. These students are the traditional student population that studies and universities tend to focus on, however, other populations get overlooked. One “non-traditional” population that has increased in universities over the years is the transfer student population.
[aa1] Transfer students are students who, after high school graduation, have attended another institution, such as a community college, and then continue their educational journey at a 4-year institution. Attending a community college to receive an associate degree or complete general education became a viable option for many students who could not afford to pursue a 4-year institution right after High School. Many initiatives and pathways have been created to ensure that the transfer process is as seamless as possible for these students, such as Associates Degrees for Transfer (ADTs), Guided Pathways, course articulation, and institution partnerships. In California alone, there are 116 community colleges throughout the state. Community colleges enroll more students than all other colleges in California combined, and they are the primary access point for low-income, first-generation, and other historically underrepresented students seeking a college degree, including African American and Latino students (Johnson & Cuellar Mejia 2020). Regardless of these initiatives to increase and smooth out the transfer process, we do not see the same efforts being made once the students transfer to their new institution. Institutions lack programming and support for this increasing population.
For my project, I have decided to focus on the transfer population here at Cal Poly Humboldt, where I work as the Transfer Coordinator. Being in my role, I have experienced the lack of support the transfer population receives and the struggles that students experience once they make it to campus. Using my role and the information I have acquired as a transfer student myself, I have decided to initiate a transfer success course on Canvas for new incoming transfer students. This course will help transfer students build a sense of belonging in a cohort-style course that will lead to resources they can find on campus. The class would occur one month before classes start and create an asynchronous environment so that all may join regardless of where they are located before they transfer. During move-in week, the cohort will meet in person to attend Orientation together and create that community, as well as other in-person programming. Finding a sense of belonging is crucial to a student during their first few semesters, and as a transfer student, they typically have fewer semesters to become familiar with the campus. This course will become a resource for our transfer population with the goal of changing the outcome for more programming on campus.
Citation Style
APA
Recommended Citation
Holguin, Marissa Carla, "Transitional course for incoming transfer students at Cal Poly Humboldt" (2024). Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects. 781.
https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/etd/781
Included in
Adult and Continuing Education Commons, Curriculum and Social Inquiry Commons, Higher Education Commons
Comments
Universities and institutions have started to create student programming to ensure their students have the support that they need to be successful at their institutions. Many of these programs center and focus on the first-year student experience, which are those who are entering the institution right after graduating High School. These students are the traditional student population that studies and universities tend to focus on, however, other populations get overlooked. One “non-traditional” population that has increased in universities over the years is the transfer student population.
Transfer students are students who, after high school graduation, have attended another institution, such as a community college, and then continue their educational journey at a 4-year institution. Attending a community college to receive an associate degree or complete general education became a viable option for many students who could not afford to pursue a 4-year institution right after High School. Many initiatives and pathways have been created to ensure that the transfer process is as seamless as possible for these students, such as Associates Degrees for Transfer (ADTs), Guided Pathways, course articulation, and institution partnerships. In California alone, there are 116 community colleges throughout the state. Community colleges enroll more students than all other colleges in California combined, and they are the primary access point for low-income, first-generation, and other historically underrepresented students seeking a college degree, including African American and Latino students (Johnson & Cuellar Mejia 2020). Regardless of these initiatives to increase and smooth out the transfer process, we do not see the same efforts being made once the students transfer to their new institution. Institutions lack programming and support for this increasing population.
For my project, I have decided to focus on the transfer population here at Cal Poly Humboldt, where I work as the Transfer Coordinator. Being in my role, I have experienced the lack of support the transfer population receives and the struggles that students experience once they make it to campus. Using my role and the information I have acquired as a transfer student myself, I have decided to initiate a transfer success course on Canvas for new incoming transfer students. This course will help transfer students build a sense of belonging in a cohort-style course that will lead to resources they can find on campus. The class would occur one month before classes start and create an asynchronous environment so that all may join regardless of where they are located before they transfer. During move-in week, the cohort will meet in person to attend Orientation together and create that community, as well as other in-person programming. Finding a sense of belonging is crucial to a student during their first few semesters, and as a transfer student, they typically have fewer semesters to become familiar with the campus. This course will become a resource for our transfer population with the goal of changing the outcome for more programming on campus.