Joint project with GRCC helps transfer students

A new joint project between Grand Rapids Community College and Grand Valley helps minority students ease into a four-year institution.

The project, Student Transfer Enrollment Partnership, began in January. Two counselors from Grand Valley's Advising Resources Center travel weekly to GRCC to meet and advise students.

GRCC student Dhieu Akoi talks to, left to right, Ann LeJuene and Sulari White, about  transferring to Grand Valley. Through STEP, counselors from the Advising Resources Center travel weekly to GRCC to meet and advise students.

"We really focus on helping disadvantaged students and those from

special populations," said Ann LeJeune, director of the Muskegon Partnership Program. LeJeune said STEP is modeled after the work she does with Muskegon Community College students at the Stevenson Center in Muskegon.

"I'm like a four-year adviser they have while at MCC," she said. About 200 MCC and 1000 GRCC students transfer to Grand Valley annually.

Sulari White, director of Grand Valley's EXCEL Program, works with LeJeune at GRCC. She said STEP became critical this year as transfer admission requirements increased. "This coming fall, students will need a 2.5 GPA to be admitted," she said. "It used to be a 2.0."

With office space on the third floor of GRCC's Student Center, White and LeJeune collaborate with GRCC counselors and advise about 10 students each Tuesday. They expect that number to increase as word spreads. White said questions about schedules and financial aid can be answered quickly, but STEP is more about building relationships with students.

"We really focus on the individual needs of a student," she said.

Advising is open to all GRCC students, but to participate in STEP, students must be enrolled in GRCC, be a member of an ethnic minority, meet with GRCC and Grand Valley counselors and have interest in transferring to a four-year institution.