Columbia College Chicago Announces Recipients of the Chicagoland Transfer Award

News Office Staff / Jun 10, 2021

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Eleven transfer students receive renewable scholarships totaling nearly $150,000 for upcoming academic year.

Columbia College Chicago recently announced the recipients of its Chicagoland Transfer Award. The award provides ten $12,000 scholarships and one full-tuition scholarship to students transferring from Chicago-area community colleges to Columbia.

This is the fourth year Columbia offered the merit-based scholarships, which require students to submit an essay and to have earned a 3.0 grade point average or greater. This year, nearly 100 students from 21 community colleges applied for the award.

This year's full-tuition scholarship was awarded to Ariana Marshall, who is transferring to Columbia from College of DuPage. At Columbia, Marshall will further her dream to become a part of the Chicago design community by pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Design. Marshall is excited to explore the possibilities of a career in graphic design and to immerse herself in the Columbia community. "The program at College of DuPage showed me a career in a creative field is possible, and the Chicagoland Transfer Award gives me the opportunity to achieve it," said Marshall. "I'm excited to take advantage of Columbia's wide range of courses and extracurricular activities to broaden my experience as a multidisciplinary designer."

The following students each received renewable scholarships for $12,000: 

"Through this scholarship, Columbia College Chicago demonstrates our commitment to maintaining a supportive and holistic transfer experience," says Holly Herrera, associate provost for transfer initiatives and academic partnerships. "The 2021 CTA winners are excellent examples of transfer student persistence! As a community college transfer myself, I know what it takes to get through the transfer process, so I applaud every one of our transfer students and look forward to their continued successes."

The 2019 CTA scholarship winner and recent alum, Vashon Jordan Jr. '21, is already experiencing some early career success. Last summer, Jordan Jr. documented 37 demonstrations and recently published a book with some of those images being featured in exhibits at the Chicago History Museum and the Museum of Science and Industry. Jordan was recently hired as a staff photographer by The Chicago Tribune.

For the 2020-21 academic year, Columbia enrolled 555 transfer students. Ninety-seven percent of those students received an average of nearly $9,760 in institutional scholarships from Columbia. Transfer students also have access to additional aid, including Federal Pell Grants and State of Illinois MAP Grants. 

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Columbia College Chicago is a private, nonprofit college offering a distinctive curriculum that blends creative and media arts, liberal arts, and business for nearly 7,000 students in more than 100 undergraduate and graduate degree programs. Dedicated to academic excellence and long-term career success, Columbia College Chicago creates a dynamic, challenging, and collaborative space for students who experience the world through a creative lens. For more information, visit www.colum.edu.

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