A running start and fast friends for first-generation transfer students

Navigating a university can be a challenge. To a first-generation student who transferred from a community college, that task may be formidable.

Anna Jackson Calderon tries to break it down. As director of California Lutheran University's Student Support Services, a federally financed program for disadvantaged students, Ms. Calderon coordinates advising, tutoring, and financial-aid workshops, among other activities. The goal: to keep students on track to graduate. The services help-if they reach the students in time. But transfers have a smaller window.

"We wanted to be able to give them the resources," says Ms. Calderon, "so that we wouldn't see them too late."

With a grant from the Wal-Mart Foundation and the Council of Independent Colleges, California Lutheran has been able to counsel first-generation transfer students even before classes start. The university took a summer program it had been running for freshmen who qualified for Student Support Services and adapted it. Last August, for the first time, first-generation transfer students participated in their own version of the program.

The university, which has 2,200 undergraduates, could accept applications for only 10 spots. This year, that covered about 25 percent of all first-generation transfer students. For a week the students stayed on the campus, which is 40 miles northwest of Los Angeles, with their days fully booked. They met with academic advisers, to plot out semesters, and faculty members, to understand their expectations of students. They took part in sessions on course registration, study skills, personal health, and financial aid.

So much useful information eased Fortunate Hove's anxieties about starting at California Lutheran. Ms. Hove, who is originally from Zimbabwe, transferred to the university from Los Angeles Mission College. She knew that she would be working at a drug rehabilitation facility and commuting to class, with little time for missteps. "Instead of losing three weeks trying to adjust," she says, "we were so clear on what we needed to do."

Ms. Calderon has also used the grant to establish another kind of clarity, through articulation agreements on transferring credits from local community colleges. Once students transfer-in higher numbers, Ms. Calderon hopes-they are eligible now not only for the early orientation, but also for extra tutoring, graduate-school preparation, leadership programs, and $1,000 scholarships.

Stephanie Saindon, who transferred to California Lutheran from Cypress College, used the scholarship to reduce one of her federal loans. That made the university more affordable. Meeting other first-generation transfer students made her more comfortable.

"Going into the first day," she says, "there are so many people, and you don't know any of them." She walked around feeling overwhelmed-until she saw familiar faces from the orientation program. "It gives you that sense of, I'm home."

--- Published in the Chronicle of Higher Education on Feb. 14, 2010