Ambassadors Reach Out to Adelphi’s New Transfers

To prepare for their first major appearance, Adelphi’s first transfer ambassadors gathered at the July 30 Transfer Transition event with Jennifer Hunker, Center for Student Involvement associate director, in the Ruth S. Harley University Center. Flanking Ms. Hunker are (on the left) Jordan King and Anthony Paralikas and (on the right) John Abrenica and Sabrina Levy.

By: James Forkan

The Center for Student Involvement (CSI) recently selected four students to serve as transfer ambassadors, whose mission is to connect with incoming transfers and help them acclimate to Adelphi.

The four, chosen from among a dozen candidates, will serve a one-year term: John Abrenica, Jordan King, Sabrina Levy and Anthony Paralikas.

Each ambassador has his or her own reason for joining this program. For Anthony, it’s “the opportunity to help others. It can be intimidating to learn the ins and outs of a new community, and I have walked in their shoes.” He added, “Personally, I found the transfer transition very difficult. It wasn’t until I had gotten more involved on campus and pursued Greek life that I had truly felt connected to the Adelphi community.”

Anthony said he considers becoming a transfer ambassador “the best way I can give back to this campus which has given me so much.” This program, he felt, will make the newcomers “feel right at home, with someone to guide them if they need help.”

John cited “the fact that I would have the opportunity to help and mentor a student who will be in the same position as I was in the last academic school year.” The transfer process should be easier for incoming transfers who will now have experienced students “to show you the way.”

To Jordan, being an ambassador means “I could give someone else a helping hand on a campus that can be a little confusing to navigate.” Similarly, Sabrina Levy said she wanted to help students, during a potentially “nerve-racking, stressful” time, “feel welcome and comfortable at Adelphi just like I was made to feel the second I arrived.”

Those on the interview committee included Jennifer Hunker, associate director at CSI; Christina Russo, associate director, Office of University Admissions; and Annette Uvena, senior coordinator of academic services.

“The Transfer Initiatives Committee looked into starting a transfer mentor program several years ago,” Ms. Hunker said. But that was put on the back burner until the commuter assistant program was implemented. “We wanted to assess that program before starting another one,” she added.
“I researched other schools,” she said, “and found that some of them had a modified mentor program called transfer ambassadors, where individual transfer students weren’t matched with the TA but could utilize any of them for assistance and the TAs provided an extension of the University’s transfer student programming and services.” The committee felt that this best matched its needs and approved it as a pilot program for 2013–2014.

The ambassadors began assisting at Adelphi’s Transfer Transition Days, held July 30 and August 22 for Fall 2013. (Transfer Transition became the new name for Transfer Orientation in 2011.) They will also attend Adelphi’s Transition Day and Transfer Registration Day in January 2014, as well as communicate with incoming transfers via Adelphi’s new Transfer Students Facebook Group.

Describing the July 30 event as “awesome,” Sabrina said, “I truly believe the students benefited from the experience a great deal.” These student leaders will receive a $250 annual stipend as well as a $700 programming budget to assist them in providing appropriate programming for transfers throughout the academic year. Each TA will host one or two events per semester.