By Isiah Magsino

A new mentorship program meant to elevate the experience of transfer students in Fordham College is set to pilot in the upcoming 2019 spring semester. Drafted and proposed by Danielle Terracciano, FCRH ’19, the program is meant to aid transfer students with their experiences at the university by providing a mentor that will walk new students through what it means to be a Ram.

Terracciano transferred to Fordham College Rose Hill as a sophomore and said that although she was fortunate enough to have had friends at Fordham before transferring, she found her experience as a transfer student very challenging.

“I had endless questions about how Fordham works, and how to navigate the academic curriculum,” says Terracciano.
Realizing how fortunate she was to have had friends to ultimately help her during her first months at the university, Terracciano acknowledged how many other transfer students lacked any sort of guidance.

The new mentorship program will provide incoming transfer students with a mentor that is a current transfer student at Fordham with two semesters of experiences. The purpose of pairing current transfer students with incoming transfer students is that the mentor will have been through the process before, understanding the questions and experiences of incoming students, according to Terracciano.

While this mentorship program is centered on academics, the connection transfer students will form with their mentor is inseparable from their feeling was a complete member of the Fordham community, and community membership and academic success piggy back off one another,” says Terracciano.

Though a similar program exists within Fordham’s Gabelli School of Business that was founded by Terracciano’s roommate, Alexandria Morrell, GSB ’19, the program is completely unique to Fordham College and will cater to the liberal arts education.

The spring semester will be Fordham College’s first semester offering the mentorship program. Patrick Fox, FCRH ’20, worked to get the program up and running as United Student Government’s vice president of FCRH. He said student retention is one of the overall priorities of the program.

The mentorship program will be placed in the hands of the head of transfer sub-committee at FCRH and Deans’ Council with the ultimate goal of having the program passed down year to year.

“The main focus is giving transfer students a reason to enjoy being here,” Fox said.

Fox said the spring semester will be the ideal trial-and-error period to pilot the mentorship program as the number of transfer students will be more manageable at that time than in the fall. For the upcoming semester, the program will be included in the new student orientation schedules with two anticipated mentors, including Terracciano, ready to aid those in need.

On a final note, she further emphasizes how her, USG and the deans are going into next semester with the intention to revise and improve the program for the fall semester.

“The Deans’ and myself are open minded to the framework changing, but this spring semester will only be a pilot of it,” said Terracciano.