From the Inner City to the Elite
Vassar’s Exploring Transfer program offers community college students five weeks to a brighter future.
By Ann Farmer
NEW YORK
When Maribel Perez arrived at the tree-laden campus of Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., in June, she was quickly entranced by the 100-year-old library, a towering Gothic structure with majestic turrets, crystal chandeliers and stained glass windows. “I looked at it and said, ‘This is so beautiful. I feel like I’m in a movie,’” recalls Perez.
But this was no celluloid fantasy. It was her first day of an intensive summer program called Exploring Transfer that Vassar offers to a select group of community college students from around the country. Exploring Transfer, which recently completed its 21st summer season, is hailed as an affirmative-action program that provides a much-needed educational boost to its diverse, low-income participants.
