Yahoo! Another assignment done, finished, and delivered over email. As many of you have heard me talking about, these past 2 weeks I have been interviewing Napa Valley College Community College Transfer Students to find out if they joined Greek Life at the University level. Thank you Sonya, Ryan, Mariam, Vicente, Matt and Mario for being part of my focus group. Here are some of the common themes found between their interviews.
1. Greek Life builds a social community.
All of the students interviewed mention that Greek life is a social community and essential on a college campus.
2. Greek Life at the Community College.
The group was split on this topic. Interesting enough the three students who wanted to join Greek Life did not think Greek Life could exist on a community college campus, while the three who did not pledge, agreed that Greek Life could exist on a community college campus.
3. There is a connection between past experience in Student Government and wanting to go Greek.
All of the students mention that their experience in Student Government influenced their decision to go Greek. Some of them mention the similarity between Student Government and Greek Life. For example they compared Student Government and Greek Life with each having a sense of family, community and focus towards working together.
4. Rushing as a transfer student.
Only one out of the three students who pledge felt weird being a transfer student pledging. In the end, he was not chosen.
5. There are many ways to learn about Greek Life, except at Transfer Orientation.
Most of the students interviewed mentioned that they had learned about Greek life through a family member, friends or Sorority Life on MTV. Only one of them heard about Greek Life at their Transfer Orientation.
6. Community College Transfer Students attend Transfer Orientations.
All of the students interviewed attended their transfer orientation. They all mentioned that they received free food, had time meeting with a counselor and made friends. All of theirs transfer orientations were only for transfer students and lasted for a day.
7. Not all transfer students at Napa Valley College use the Transfer Center.
I was surprised to hear that only one student out of the six interviewed used the Transfer Center. Most of the students were part of the Napa Valley College outreach program; Student Support Services (SSS). One of SSS’s outcomes was to successfully transfer first generation, low-income students to four-year universities. The one student interviewed who used the Transfer Center was not part of SSS.
Great Job!