Every year over 1.2 million transfer students enroll in colleges and universities across the country, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. For many, the experience can leave them feeling like outsiders or imposters in their new academic homes, and few universities offer opportunities designed to make that transition easier. However, a partnership between biology faculty at the University of Virginia and Piedmont Virginia Community College is helping to solve the problem, and it’s creating opportunities for undergraduates to gain hands-on research experience, an increasingly valuable asset for students who have their sights set on grad school and careers in the sciences.

The program’s students gain hands-on experience with what is rapidly becoming an essential part of an undergraduate education in the sciences for students who want an advantage over their peers in an increasingly competitive market for jobs and advanced degrees. However, when Joanna Vondrasek, a biology professor at PVCC and a former postdoctoral fellow at UVA, spotted a flyer posted by UVA biologist Alan Bergland, she saw it as a chance to make the PVCC capstone program even better.

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Photo credit: Associate professor of biology Alan Bergland with UVA's Department of Biology and Joanna Vondrasek, a professor of biology with Piedmont Virginia Community College, have developed a program that's making the transition easier for some of UVA's transfer students. Photo: Molly Angevine