Bridging the Transfer Transition Gap: The Design of a Transfer Student Peer Mentoring Program

• In Event: Exploring Supports for STEM Students Spanning the Transfer Trajectory From Community College to University

Abstract

Post-secondary students who first enroll at associate-degree granting institutions (ADGI, often called community colleges or technical colleges) are historically undersupported especially through the transition into the bachelor-degree granting institution (BDGI; Wang, 2020). Transfer students describe feeling “shoved in with freshman orientation,” and “I [felt like] I was here by myself basically.” (Sawtelle, unpublished results). These descriptions of lack and needing additional support in the transfer process are aligned in the literature where students describe wishing for a transitional hand to hold (Townsend & Wilson, 2006), and they often feel like they are left to figure out things on their own (Wang, 2020). Flaga (2006) suggests that one mechanism for improving these informal resources is through a peer mentoring program. Research shows that similar successful community college transfer peer mentors can act as living counter-stories to help bridge the cultural gap for students navigating the transition between institutions (Jain et al., 2020).
In this paper we present the design and evaluation of the Transfer Experience Mentoring Program (TEMPO) at Michigan State University (MSU)—a large, predominately white BDGI. We designed TEMPO as a program to support transfer students through the transition between community college and a BDGI such as MSU with a launch in Fall of 2023. TEMPO is designed to utilize peer mentors - students who successfully navigated the transition from associate’s-degree granting institutions (ADGI) to the BDGI. These peer mentors serve as a transitional support (Townsend & Wilson, 2006) for students through the transfer transition gap—the transition time from their final semester of community college and into their first semester at the BDGI. The successfully transferred peer mentors provide a direct role model and connection to the BDGI student body.
As part of the evaluation of this program, we conducted a series of constructivist conversational interviews (Hatch, 2002; Rubin & Rubin, 1995) with mentors and mentees who participated in the pilot year of the program. Using a thematic analysis of students’ experiences in the program, the research aims to uncover how relationships between mentors and mentees act as an information network (Karp, Hughes, O’Gara, 2010) for transfer student capital (Cepeda, Buelow, Jaggars, Rivera 2021). Through this relationship we explore the information that transfer students gain to navigate the transfer and post-transfer process. Additionally, we explore how acting as a peer mentor impacts the sense of self (Facchiolla et al, 2020; Prefontaine et al., 2021) of the students who engage in TEMPO as mentors.
Findings from the pilot year of the TEMPO program suggest that pairing transfer-intending students with a successfully transferred peer mentor supports the development of positive information networks (Karp, Hughes, O’Gara, 2010). Specifically TEMPO supports transfer-intending students in gaining navigational information beyond academics. TEMPO relationships support building social connections with others, knowing where to eat and study on campus, and even understanding how to navigate large courses at the BDGI (Wood & Sawtelle, 2022).

Authors

• Vashti Sawtelle, Michigan State University

• Frank Dachille, Michigan State University

• Vicky Phun, Michigan State University

• Ashley Hewlett, Michigan State University

• Charles Jackson, Michigan State University

• Rachel Henderson, Michigan State University