Transfer students have a new option to guide them through life in the Swamp.
Adopted Gators was founded this semester to ensure transfer students the opportunity to excel on campus, said president and founder of the program, Diesha Cole, a 20-year-old UF linguistics junior.
Applications for members are now available on the Student Activities and Involvement section of UF’s website and close March 13.
Program organizers hope to accept about 50 peer mentors this semester. Transfer students with Associate of Arts degrees will be able to join the group at Preview in the upcoming semesters, she said.
“We will give them an inside look at UF,” Cole said.
The program’s goal is to inform transfer students about campus events and point them in the direction of involvement.
“You could miss out on everything available to you if you don’t have someone else to tell you,” she said.
Cole came up with the idea for Adopted Gators because she is a transfer student herself. Her best friend and co-founder, Gianna McNealy, helped her a lot when she first transferred to campus.
“I’m at a better place than I would’ve been if I hadn’t had her giving me that inside look,” she said.
Michelle Albert, a 21-year-old UF public relations junior and Campus Diplomat, said she thinks the new program is a great addition to transfer student services already offered. Although Campus Diplomats hosts one event for transfer students, it does not provide an ongoing program for them.
Morgan Crummett, a 19-year-old political science sophomore at Florida Gulf Coast University who plans to transfer to UF, said she wants to get involved on UF’s campus, despite how much bigger it is than her current school.
“I think it would be helpful to go somewhere where there are other transfers,” she said. “I think it’s helpful for students who want to get involved.”
All UF transfer students must:
- Submit the online UF application and $30 nonrefundable application fee six to nine months before the term begins
- Submit all high school and postsecondary transcripts
- Submit SAT/ACT with writing test scores
- Submit documentation of two sequential courses of foreign language in secondary school or 8-10 sequential semester hours at the postsecondary level, or document an equivalent level of proficiency
- Apply to a specific UF college and major
- Submit proof of immunization prior to registration
[A version of this story ran on page 9 on 2/26/2014 under the headline “Program created to help transfer students plug in"]
