Early Bird

Transfer students leave their mark on MSU Denver

Transfer Student Success celebrates nearly 400 graduates and looks to improve future services.

By Lindsey Coulter

June 6, 2019

The spring Commencement ceremonies in May celebrated hundreds of hardworking Roadrunners, including a key group of particularly dedicated graduates. Proudly wearing their transfer cords, symbols of persistence and obstacles overcome, nearly 400 transfer students completed and accepted their Metropolitan State University of Denver degrees.

Two days prior, Transfer Student Success held a special graduation celebration for transfer students, complete with family, friends, photos, cake and an opportunity to inspire future transfer Roadrunners. Graduates wrote letters to future transfer students, including words of encouragement and advice gleaned from their own experiences. Some students wrote letters in Spanish while others directed their words of wisdom to fellow nontraditional, adult or first-generation students.

“These letters serve as beautiful testimony to not only the diversity of our transfer students but also their determination and commitment to achieving the goal of obtaining a college degree,” said Tiffani Baldwin, Ph.D., coordinator of Transfer Student Success. “The letters will be given to incoming transfer students at orientation.”

To further support this unique MSU Denver population, Transfer Student Success hired 14 new transfer peer mentors this spring. The mentors conduct weekly outreach to incoming transfer students, help plan and implement tailored events and assist with transfer-student orientations.

“Preliminary data suggests this pilot has been successful, and we are very excited to welcome in a new class of transfer students in the fall,” Baldwin said. “In order to better support our incoming scholars, we are looking at breaking students into groups based on their previous college experience — for example, two-year vs. four-year schools — and their full- or part-time status.”

The model is being developed in consultation with campus stakeholders and national research, and more information and findings will be available in the coming year.

Learn more about the mission, vision and work of Transfer Student Success.