Transfer Student Success at Oakton

Oakton Community College, located just north of Chicago, is a Raise Me partner that has implemented a “whole college” approach to transfer student planning, introducing micro-scholarships as a key part of their strategy. Serving students in Chicago’s North Shore suburbs like Des Plaines and Skokie, IL., Oakton students commonly transfer to Raise Me partners such as Columbia College and Arizona State University, and the school has a long history of expanding articulation agreements with four-year colleges. With a purposeful focus on academic advising, Oakton’s transfer success model has engaged students in meaningful conversations about how Raise Me micro-scholarships can aid students on their transfer journey in several ways:

• Transfer Basics Workshops: Oakton included information on Raise Me in their workshops throughout the semester, which focuses on both academic and financial planning. Raise Me has a number of financial planning curriculum pieces that help reinforce that being a successful transfer student means thinking about tuition and expenses early, so you can develop a plan.
• Advisor & Faculty Engagement: Space was created to allow the Raise Me team to present to advisors, faculty, and leadership to demonstrate both the student and educator platforms. Additionally, Raise Me was shared in planning meetings, including during conversations about Guided Pathways, highlighting how micro-scholarships support existing institutional priorities around completion, retention, and transfer. Raise Me is available to present to your team as well, and you can spread the word too.
• Classroom Conversations: Raise Me makes it easy to share an announcement in your online course shell inviting students to join us. Try posting this course announcement, your students will be happy you were thinking of them.
• Student Engagement: Raise Me met directly with Oakton student leaders to discuss how their service directly correlates with scholarships. Students also had the opportunity to give feedback to Raise Me, providing them with a valuable experience in self efficacy.

The results

• Half of the students who attended Transfer Basics Workshops reported that Raise Me was the most valuable thing they learned about during their session.
• Faculty and staff are using the educator portal to access information about their student’s transfer college interests, equipping them to be more effective in supporting their students.
• Oakton has over 60 students using Raise Me, who have already earned over $116,000 in scholarships.

“What I found was that students specifically listed Raise Me as the most useful resource/piece of information discussed during this [Transfer] workshop. For context, half of them listed Raise Me.”-Brian Bacon, Transfer Coordinator, Oakton Community College

Want to share in successes like Oakton Community College has? Try the best practices linked above, consult our getting started tips, and access tools in our free educator portal at www.raise.me/educator. Upon selecting “community college” as your educator type, and follow the sign up prompts, and becoming verified, you can see the portfolios of students from your institution, along with which schools they are interested in, and how much they are earning!

With students from nearly 1,000 community colleges using Raise Me for transfers, chances are your students have already found us.

For questions regarding how your two-year college can partner with Raise Me for free, contact Tara Zirkel at tara@raise.me.