Baldwin Wallace celebrated Transfer Student Week from Oct. 21-25 as a way to specifically recognize transfer students.

It was originally created by the National Institute for the Study of Transfer Students at the University of North Georgia.

Lorrie Beatty, the associate director of Adult, Transfer, and Military Student services, was inspired to bring it to Baldwin Wallace after discovering it several years ago.

“It is a population that sometimes doesn’t get the recognition they deserve,” said Beatty. “They kind of fly under the radar sometimes, and it is a mixed population that can include an age range from a traditional college age student to individuals well into adulthood; they can be first generation college students, they can be individuals who work full time or part time, they could have earned an Associate’s degree, or transferred from a two year or four year, they can have five credits or ninety five credits under their belt.”

The goal for the Adult, Transfer, and Military Student services, said Beatty, is to make the transition seamless and easier for a transfer student coming into Baldwin Wallace.

They offer pre-schedule meetings with transfer advisors to review any class credits they may have from previous classes and talk about the process.

“We like helping students understand how and where all that credit falls into their academic programs,” Beatty said with a smile.

Transfer students were given the option to submit their stories about their transfer experiences and be entered into a drawing to win a $25 gift card for The Buzz on Front.

Winners were chosen every day of the week: the winners were Amanda Fakir, Maya Cundiff, Steven Fore, Francesca Yarull, and Jessica Gut.

Gut, who graduated from Loraine Community College in 2000 with an associate degree in computer programming, found an advertisement for Baldwin Wallace on a billboard while driving home. She transferred in 2016.

“I always wanted to go back to school and get my bachelor’s, it’s something I had always wanted to do but I had had kids, so I never did it,” Gut, a senior business administration and management major, said. “I saw a billboard sign on the side of the highway that said, ‘From A to B’, and I thought, ‘Well that would be easy, I have an associate degree.”

She found the transition process helpful, and the application process straightforward.

The process of applying back to school has assisted her in helping with her youngest child’s college application process, which is a bonus.

“As a student here, I feel very valued,” she said. “It’s nice to be a name and not just a number