It was Shannon Woodward’s first year away from home, and she was admittedly nervous.

Woodward, who was transferring to Syracuse University from a New Jersey community college, had a friend from the University of Scranton who told her she had no idea who the transfers were at her school.

‘That kind of made me feel like coming to Syracuse, people would already have their own groups established and their own friends,’ said Woodward, a junior broadcast journalism major.

It took her about two months to adjust to campus as she discovered how to get involved in groups and deal with a heavier workload, she said. But she met people on her South Campus SkyHall floor very easily.

‘We all kind of came together, because we did have something in common,’ she said. ‘We were all transfer students.’

For transfers and students from the armed forces, SU is not their first stop. Some in both groups initially struggle to adjust to classes and different social lives, but they cope by meeting others and learning how to get around.

Nearly 300 students are transferring to SU this fall, according to the Office of Undergraduate Admissions.

Students may transfer to be closer to home, leave a school they disliked or for financial reasons, said Laura Crandall, assistant director at the Office of First Year and Transfer Programs.

‘Every transfer transfers for a unique reason,’ she said. ‘So how you handle them is very unique to them.’

Thirty former transfer students are assigned as mentors to the incoming class. The mentors plan semester events, such as barbecues or bowling, and help new transfers adjust on a more one-on-one basis, said Katie Budd, a senior transfer mentor.

‘It helps because it gives them someone to talk to that’s also their friend,’ said Budd, an advertising major.

But not all students are adjusting to SU from another U.S. campus. Those in the armed forces may come from across the globe.

More than 56 student veterans are using GI Bill benefits, marking at least a 20 percent jump over past years, said Peg Stearns, financial aid advisor and director at University College. The total number could reach 70 when school officially starts.

The rise is caused by the Iraq War winding down and last year is extension of GI Bill benefits to veterans who served after 9/11, Stearns said.

Michael Rivezzo transferred to SU in fall 2007 from Valley Forge Military Academy and College in Pennsylvania, but a deployment to Afghanistan that December interrupted his education.

‘I traded a textbook in for an M4,’ said Rivezzo, a senior marketing management and finance major.

When he returned to SU in January 2009 as a student veteran, he had to walk out of classes during his first few weeks, because there was too much for him to understand, he said.

‘You’re using brain muscles you didnít use and had on reserve for a year,’ he said.

But he adjusted as he hung around with a student who was deployed to Iraq during school, he said.

A group called the Student Veterans of America for students who have served in the armed forces started in fall 2009 at SU. Rivezzo said itís a good point of contact for student veterans to see what eligible benefits exist.

For Eva Hopkins, however, the adjustment to SU wasn’t from the sand dunes of Afghanistan, but rather a small campus in New York called Alfred University.

‘I was kind of concerned socially how to just jump right in,’ said Hopkins, a junior communication and rhetorical studies major.

She went to Alfred for a year and a half before transferring to SU, where she was placed on a SkyHall floor with mostly freshmen from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

Only ESF and transfer students live in the SkyHall dorms, which resulted in Hopkins meeting lots of people who weren’t in her classes, she said. After a month, she said she became comfortable in her routine of knowing where dining halls and classes were and who was in them.

‘I adjusted well,’ she said. ‘And I’m totally excited to go back’

Matt Troia expects an easy adjustment of two to three weeks when he transfers to SU this fall from Niagara University, he said.           

He has friends from high school who went to SU and introduced him to their college friends.

But the sophomore accounting major said he liked the idea of meeting others, even if some of the social events were forced.

‘I’m certainly not afraid of anything,’ he said. ‘If anything, I’m just excited to get there.’

mcboren@syr.edu

 

Published on August 24, 2010 at 12:00 pm