Emma Mayville ’13 is working with the administration to establish a more fluid transition for transfer students as they begin to adjust to life on the Hill.

A transfer student herself, Mayville came to the College as a sophomore, having previously attended Dickinson College in Carlisle, Penn. On the Hill, she is a member of the Megalomaniacs a cappella group and has also served as a Colby Outdoor Orientation Trip (COOT) leader.

This past summer, Mayville, working with the deans’ office, sent a welcome letter to new transfer students. In the letter, she also included information about current transfer students, who described their majors, interests and activities, so that they could serve as resources during the year. “Emma took that initiative in establishing a resource for new students to contact current transfers before they arrived on campus,” Senior Associate Dean of Students Paul Johnston said.

In addition to creating this transfer network, Mayville invited new transfer students, transfers from previous years and representatives from the Community Advisor (CA) staff and the Student Government Association (SGA) to get to know each other during a dinner held on Sept. 20. “This dinner gives them an opportunity to meet each other and should be very helpful,” Johnston said.

“We wanted to organize a get-to-know-your-peers event where students could share their experiences and let people know that there are other students here at the college who are going through the same unique social transition,” Mayville said. “The goal of the dinner is to foster a community rather than create an official cult or club; it’s a more casual, friendly experience.”

Upon arriving on the Hill, transfer students are invited to become part of the College through the process of first-year orientation by going on COOT, and attending first class and C2IT, a community service trip organized by Campus Life during orientation. Matt Cheever ’12, who transferred to the College as a sophomore, said, “There is no ‘transfer’ orientation at Colby. Emma’s work in this area is the first of its kind here, and I applaud her for it. I had wanted to organize something like this ever since I’ve been here, but I lacked the conviction to set it in motion.”

“I think it’s important for the administration to see that this is an active group on campus and that transfer students can really contribute,” Mayville said. “It would be really nice for them to take a little extra effort to not have all the mailings the transfers get say, ‘welcome to the freshman class.’”

This year, there are 10 new transfer students, which is a few more than in recent years. Mayville hopes to create a networking system so the students can become better acclimated to the rest of the College. She hopes the dinner will be a good starting point to see what can be done in the future.