The College has received a $150,000 three-year grant from the William Randolph Hearst Foundation to improve outreach and on-campus support for transfer students. In an email to The S&B, Dean of Admission and Financial Aid and Vice President of Enrollment Joseph Bagnoli wrote that the admissions office hopes to enroll 25 new transfer students at Grinnell per year, which is about 3 times larger than the current number.
Sarah Fischer, the assistant vice president of admission, said that the College does not have a cohesive recruitment process for transfer students. The Hearst Foundation grant funds will go towards marketing and recruitment for prospective transfer students, as well as strengthening on-campus support mechanisms.
Last semester, Julie Howard `26.5, a transfer student from Cincinnati State Technical and Community College, learned about Grinnell through the Chautauqua Summer Scholars Program. The Chautauqua Summer Scholars Program works with honors students at community colleges across the U.S. Howard, who turns 27 on April 22, graduated at the top of her class at Cincinnati State and worked in adolescent behavioral health and as a waitress in fine dining.
“We started talking with them [Chautauqua Summer Scholars Program] last year to see if we could find students who have participated in that summer scholars program who might be interested in transferring to Grinnell,” Fischer said. “It seemed like those students are academically strong, which would make them a good fit for Grinnell.”
At Chautauqua, Howard met Dan Sullivan, president emeritus of St. Lawrence University, who connected her to Bagnoli. Howard learned about Grinnell’s existence five days before transfer applications were due.
“I met someone by chance that ended up changing my life,” Howard said. “It wasn’t something I intentionally searched for. It’s something that I stumbled upon that worked out in my favor.”
Howard said that being at Grinnell has been somewhat isolating, especially as she is older than most of the student body.
“I’ve met several people that live in town I would consider myself to be friends with, but it’s not the same as being able to talk about school,” Howard said.
However, she said her perspective also allows her to support her friends on campus.
“I do have friends here,” Howard said. “It’s nice, but it’s not the same as having age peers … But when they’re going through something, I am there to be like, ‘Hey, you’re fine. You are still so young. You’re gonna be okay.’”
Kate Ferraro, the interim assistant dean of academic success, is in charge of onboarding transfer students when they arrive on campus and supporting them throughout their time at Grinnell.
“A lot of them have talked about feeling more attached to maybe the first year class than their own class year just because they did the onboarding with them,” Ferraro said. “It can be hard, especially for students who might transfer in later in their college career, to feel integrated with other juniors.”
Audra Dooley `26, who transferred from Luther College last year, said that a small school environment was important to her when making the decision of where to transfer.
“I still liked the small school environment, because it’s easier to do things like undergrad research and you have more access to your professors, and you can walk everywhere,” Dooley said. “But I didn’t want to go back to my old school. So I decided to come here.”
Dooley said that at first, it was difficult to adjust to Grinnell’s environment.
“It was definitely pretty isolating to be here my first year,” Dooley said. “Now that I’ve been here for two years, I’m starting to get to know some more people, so that’s made it better, but I had to do my first year twice at two different schools.”
This year, Ferraro has started to host transfer student socials to build connections between transfer students.
“You get iced coffee and sparkling water and give them the opportunity to spend time with each other,” Ferraro said. “No one really understands what that experience is like better than folks in these transfer cohorts.”
Howard said that she would benefit from meeting other students who have had similar academic and life experiences, which Ferraro acknowledged is difficult to arrange.
“Provide more oriented services, especially to the non-traditional students,” Howard said. “If I’m experiencing isolation, I am not the only one.”
“Students have the right to privacy, so without special permission, it’s not like I can pull a list of students over 22 and disseminate that,” Ferraro said. “Without their permission, I can’t share that information, and that is, I’m sure, frustrating on the student side of ‘How am I supposed to just find these people?’”
While Howard does not have a connection with other students in her age range, she said that she has enjoyed living in Cleveland Hall, a gender-specific dorm, amid younger students.
“There’s so many canon events in college that I’ve already experienced that they’re going through for the first time,” Howard said. “If I see one of the girls crying, I’m checking in with them. If I know that the kids are going out one night, I pin crackers on the board outside my door. It’s wild, but it’s refreshing. They keep me young.”
The different perspective that transfer students bring is important to campus, Fischer said.
“They bring maturity,” Fischer said. “They bring an awareness of life outside of Grinnell and what it means to be educated at another institution. They, in short, have more life experience.”
Howard said that her previous degree and work experience give her a different view on her Grinnell education, which she hopes to use to make structural changes in social services.
“I’m one of the few students that gets to approach their classes, their education and their networking with former experience, having already done so … and a fully developed brain to be able to have a more comprehensive understanding of the consequences of not networking and not asking questions and not listening to people,” Howard said. “That’s a privilege in and of itself.”
Ferraro said that she is always excited to get to know transfer students when they arrive at Grinnell.
“There is something unique about really actively choosing Grinnell when it’s not easy to transfer,” Ferraro said. “It’s risky to start somewhere new, and yet we have this group of wonderful students every year who decide to take that leap, and it’s just so fun watching them hopefully find a really good place to land.”
