Moorpark College Joins Initiative to Increase Community College Transfer to Elite Universities

Moorpark College has officially joined the Transfer Scholars Network (TSN), an initiative dedicated to expanding community college student transfer to the nation’s highly selective colleges and universities.

Led by the Aspen Institute College Excellence Program with support from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, TSN facilitates direct connections between high-achieving community college students and senior admissions representatives at colleges and universities in the American Talent Initiative, such as Princeton University, Yale University, John Hopkins University and MIT. In the pilot of the TSN program, 20% of participating students who applied to the four-year partner universities received offers of admission, outpacing the average admission rate of 15%.

“Moorpark College is committed to maintaining our high transfer success rates and increasing transfer opportunities for our students,” said Julius Sokenu, President of Moorpark College. “Over the past five years, the college has increased its transfer rates by 22%, a trend we hope to continue by providing strategic support systems, like The Transfer Scholars Network, to our students.”

Historically, community college students have faced significant challenges when aiming to transfer to any of these elite universities, many of which did not accept transfer students in the past.

“The community colleges have very distinct articulation agreements with California State Universities that ensure a student’s credits will be accepted for transfer, but with out of state and private universities, students are often apprehensive about whether their community college courses will count toward their degree” said Kellie Porto-Garcia, an Academic Counselor at Moorpark College who assists students in the University Transfer Center.  “This program should alleviate some of these challenges and improve students’ chances to transfer to their dream university.”

One of the missions of The Aspen Institute for Community College Excellence, the organization behind The Transfer Scholars Network, is to close equity gaps in achievement among community college students.

“There is incredible talent within community colleges, including high-achieving students who should, based on their merits, have access and opportunity to take advantage of all that the leading colleges have to offer,” says Tania LaViolet, director at the Aspen Institute College Excellence Program. “We cannot have true equity in higher education if there is not a path for students across the nation to transfer from community colleges to highly selective institutions.”

Moorpark College Honors Students will be participating in the program this year, with the hope of further expansion of the program in the years to come. For more information about The Moorpark College Honors Program, and updates about the Transfer Scholars Network at Moorpark College, visit bit.ly/MC-Honors-Program