By Donald Gilpin

Fatima Abella (Photo by Daytwan Coates Hall, DCH Media)

Ramping up its outreach to non-traditional students and to New Jersey community college students seeking to transfer to four-year institutions in particular, Princeton University has launched the Transfer Scholars Initiative (TSI).

Forty students from seven community colleges participated in the pilot TSI session from June 26 to August 18 this past summer and most followed up on the weekend of October 14-15 with a two-day “bootcamp” on the Princeton University campus to work on their college transfer applications.

“It was important to me because it’s my first time applying with the Common App,” said Hudson County Community College (HCCC) student Fatima Abella, who attended the bootcamp as well as the eight-week summer program.

Abella, who is majoring in cybersecurity and described herself as the poet laureate in her school, commented on the recent two-day session. “The process was broken down with an emphasis on the parts that took a lot of time to complete, such as requesting letters of recommendation, writing our personal statements, highlighting experiences, etc. We were asked to share our drafts with our cohorts and we gave each other feedback. The professors were also attentive to any specific questions we had.”

She continued, “The announcement ‘when in doubt, just ask’ felt like a common statement, but reminded us why we were in the program: to use the opportunity for all it’s worth and more.”

Abella, who is applying for transfer to Princeton and other Ivy League “reach schools,” as well as a number of other New Jersey colleges including New Jersey City University in Jersey City and New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, is looking for a computer science program that specializes in cybersecurity or information security.

“In the future I plan to enter the technology field and hone my skills by practice,” she said. “Once I’ve been in the field for enough time, I would like to go into teaching where I can nurture the interest of more students who are motivated but needing the extra push or opportunity.”

Funded by Princeton University, TSI this year included participants from Camden County Community College, Middlesex College, Mercer County Community College, Raritan Valley Community College, Rowan College of South Jersey, and Union College of Union County, as well as HCCC.

“With these outreach-focused programs, our goal is to reinforce and support the larger system of higher education, helping more students pursue an education and complete a high-quality degree,” said Princeton Vice Provost for Academic Affairs Cole Crittenden, as quoted in a University press release. “these programs allow us to expand the reach of Princeton’s intellectual resources, but they also allow us to learn from our neighbors and to strengthen the system of which we are a part.”

Keith Shaw, director of transfer and outreach art Princeton’s Emma Bloomberg Center for Access and Opportunity, described the recent bootcamp as “a two-day sprint, helping them draft, revise, and curate their materials for transfer applications, building on the foundations we established this summer.”

Queenie Reda, outreach program associate at the Bloomberg Center, pointed out that TSI students were able to expand their horizons, and that many are applying to four-year colleges they had not considered before.

“This cohort built a community of support and friendship that I hope will last a lifetime,” she said. “They learned so much about the transfer process, researching four-year schools and gaining an understanding of financial aid packages. To witness them absorb the information and see the excitement in their eyes truly added to the highlights of the summer.”

Reda, who graduated from community college as an adult and transferred to a state school for undergraduate and graduate programs, continued, “I genuinely value the support and opportunities that TSI offers to students. The transfer process can be intimidating and even isolating. I believe TSI can help mitigate some of the barriers and offer a successful transfer process.”

TSI is looking to expand the program in coming years, Reda said, with more students enrolled and more community colleges represented. Crittenden noted, “Our plan for next year is two-fold: to accept more students from current partners and to grow the number of partners,” with a goal of 100 students in the program in the next two years.

Princeton University reinstated its transfer admission program in 2018 and continues to increase the numbers of undergraduate transfer students on campus. “Princeton’s transfer program has a rapidly growing number of students coming from community colleges across New Jersey,” said Jordan Reed, associate director for transfer, veteran, and non-traditional student programs at the Emma Bloomberg Center.

He continued, “They’ve ingrained themselves in every aspect of academic and campus life at the University from producing theatrical performances at the Lewis Center for the Arts, to advancing research with faculty members in Princeton’s laboratories, and landing competitive internships and jobs at
leading financial institutions in New York City. They’re also getting out into the world, taking the perspectives they developed in New Jersey to summer opportunities in London, Stockholm, Copenhagen, and beyond.”

The eight-week TSI summer program offered classes, college counseling, co-curricular workshops, and mentorship from Princeton faculty, staff, and undergraduates. The students took a writing seminar and a laboratory-based class, which provided the chance to work directly with incoming Princeton undergraduates who were on campus for the Freshman Scholars Institute.

TSI students also attended in-person college fairs on campus, taking advantage of the opportunity to talk directly with admission officials from a range of colleges and universities.

The TSI program offered two Princeton course credits that students could apply to their community college and four-year degrees.

Abella, who works a full time job in addition to pursuing her studies at HCCC, learned about the TSI program through an HCCC email, got nominated by her Java programming professor, and decided “since the application was free, I might as well try my luck.” When she was accepted into the program and was offered a stipend as well, she decided to quit her job and spend the month of July and half of August at Princeton.

“I was very busy. It felt to me like my 9-5 work with homework,” she wrote in an email. “Yet I was very happy because I was learning so much.” Abella emphasized the value of one-on-one feedback and numerous revisions in her writing class, which she described as “my favorite class because I love writing and I was just full of inspiration.”

Her Engineering 150 quant lab class focused on calculus and physics. She talked about the professor’s motivational teaching style. “She encouraged teaching each other and to avoid looking at the internet for solutions,” Abella wrote. “In that way, we learned to think creatively, and it helped us remember concepts better. She also encouraged asking questions. This kind of attention to every student’s needs changed the way I looked at education. Physics is an intimidating subject for many people and the collaborative learning experience they encourage at Princeton ensures no one gets left behind.”

Abella said the TSI program helped to inspire her to “keep dreaming big.” She added, “This program gave all of us hope that our reach schools are within reach, instead of impossible.”