Timothy's Proposal

For my service learning project I have chosen to create something that will benefit those students in the community that I work with everyday. As an instructor at a junior college, I have the opportunity to help students as they transition from high school and home to the adult world and college. As their journey in junior college comes to an end, many of these students transfer to a four- year university to complete their education. During this  process, many of these students encounter obstacles that make transferring a challenge. My goal with this project is to create materials and guidance that these students will find beneficial to make the transfer process smoother and more navigable. 

For my service learning project I have chosen to create something that will benefit those students in the community that I work with everyday. As an instructor at a junior college, I have the opportunity to help students as they transition from high school and home to the adult world and college. As their journey in junior college comes to an end, many of these students transfer to a four- year university to complete their education. During this  process, many of these students encounter obstacles that make transferring a challenge. My goal with this project is to create materials and guidance that these students will find beneficial to make the transfer process smoother and more navigable. 

The population for this project is sophomore, music education majors, first and foremost at my current institution, but possibly beyond at other institutions in the future. This population is specifically chosen for two main reasons. First, this is the population of students I deal with perennially, and I can reach out to recent alumni as well to find out what aspects posed to the most difficulty for them as they were transferring. Secondly, I can also reach out to colleagues, and faculty members at four-year institutions to find out their input on the difficulties, the transfer students face as they enter their institutions.

My service learning project is a personal passion with me as I have watched students diligently work their way through my program, only to transfer and encounter difficulties as they transition to a four university. It is my hope, that by creating materials that the students would find helpful, that future students will be able to benefit from the wisdom of their experience. By creating materials that the students themselves will identify, as having been a possible solution to their difficulties, future students will have resources that they can lean on to help guide them through the transfer process.

I believe my years of experience as an academic advisor, and my role working with these students prior to their transfer makes this a unique opportunity for me to serve them, and the institutions involved beyond my current job duties.

As my former students have experienced these obstacles during their transfer process, this makes them uniquely positioned to be experts to call upon for the proposes of this project. Additionally, reaching out to faculty members and advisors at four-year institutions will give me unique insight into the challenges that transfer students face as they enter their four-year institutions.