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When Joe Forte ’14 began his first semester at Rider this fall, he was ready to share the leadership skills he had gained as the Student Government president at Raritan Valley Community College in Branchburg, N.J. He immediately applied and was accepted into Rider’s Leadership Development Program, but he did not stop there. He wanted to help other transfer students like himself adjust to campus life. Rider has become an attractive destination for transfer students, with 285 enrolling since fall 2010.

Forte began talking with Elora Ponter ’14, also a transfer from Raritan Valley, and Will Nicholson ’13, from Bucks County Community College, about their personal experiences with transferring to Rider. Though the students felt the admissions process to be helpful, they sought to develop more opportunities for transfer students to get involved.

“We wanted to create a program that could mentor and help new students alike in getting involved,” Forte explained. “We found it would really benefit the entire campus.”

The group set out to form a student organization for transfer students, and after working tirelessly this semester with Rider’s Admissions and Orientation staffs, TRANSFERmation earned official recognition late last month.

According to the club’s prosposal, the mission of TRANSFERmation is “to ease transfer students of all kinds and ages into the Rider community as seamlessly as possible.” The organization plans to work with the Admissions and Orientation staffs to provide transfer students with organized events, on-campus mentors, information about social and athletic events, and notices about important upcoming deadlines.

“We have also been stressing the emphasis that the club is bridging the gap between admissions and orientation staff because both of our advisers work in different aspects of student life,” Forte said.  “Admissions works with getting the student here, but sometimes, that relationship is diminished after they are here. At the same time, Orientation doesn’t always know students prior to their arrival, but works with helping them get settled in.”

The club officers are all transfer students. Forte is the president, while Ponter is the vice president, Julie Ferreira ’14, from Mount Saint Mary’s, is the secretary, and Nicholson is the treasurer. The club advisers are Shannon Conte, assistant director of Transfer Admissions, and Ira Mayo, dean of New Students.