Indiana Wesleyan University hosted 16 students and three staff members from Grand Rapids Community College (GRCC) for a special campus visit on Friday, Oct. 27. The purpose of the visit was to introduce the students to both the IWU residential campus and the IWU online adult program as viable transfer options after completing their time at GRCC.
As part of IWU’s strategy to create more partnerships with community colleges around the country, students from GRCC were invited to campus for a full-blown visit day. The students experienced chapel, took a campus tour, ate lunch in Baldwin Dining Hall, talked with IWU representatives about the campus culture and listened to a presentation on financial aid as a transfer student.
The visiting students hailed from various backgrounds, races and majors—which included Pre-med, Business, English, Nursing and more.
“We as an institution talk about how to best diversify, and inviting different groups to campus is one way of doing that,” said Michael Moffitt, special assistant to the president. “I truly believe the more diverse of a campus we have, the better experience it will be for everyone.”
The students had such a positive visit experience that the president of GRCC, Dr. Bill Pink, is planning a trip to IWU to learn more about the programs in hopes of matriculating more of his students to IWU after their time at GRCC is finished.
“We’ve never done anything like this before,” said Moffitt. “The biggest benefit of this visit was simply providing the opportunity for these students to have different options in terms of where they want to go and helping them understand who they are.”