Transferring to Pitzer

Anna Pleskunas – North Kingstown, RI

 

As this semester begins to reach the midway point, I’ve been thinking more about my experience thus far at Pitzer. I am currently completing my second semester here, and as I reflect back on my experiences and evaluate where I am this moment, week, or month a few things have become very clear to me. The most important being that I couldn’t be happier with my decision to transfer to Pitzer College. The choice, of course, was not an easy one for me to make. I began college at a small liberal arts school in Maryland where I spent my freshman and sophomore year. My experience in Maryland was not negative per se, but there was a certain je na sais quoi missing from my life during those years. I craved more academic challenges and an environment that was conducive to self-expression. As I began my second college search it became evident that Pitzer College was everything I longed for.

My first weeks here were challenging in ways I didn’t except. The distance from home weighed on me more than I thought it would and it was exhausting having to completely re-find my niche in college. However, while going through some of these trying adjustments I learned just how supportive of a community Pitzer really is. There is a culture of kindness here that I have never experienced anywhere else in my life. This ethos is an ineffable aurora that surrounds the members of this lovely community in a comfortable padding of acceptance of self and others. People are encouraged and celebrated for being themselves at Pitzer.  Students are supportive of one another doing whatever it is that makes that individual happy.  People here are almost always friendly and I have found the social scene to be overwhelmingly inclusive.

So as I reflect back on my first six months as a Pitzer student I realize that I have been absorbed into a loving community more wholly than I ever could have imagined during my first few weeks here.  I’m also delighted to say that I have begun to internalize the ethos of acceptance, both for myself and others. I feel confident when I say that Pitzer College, in basically one semester, has made me both a more loving and tolerant individual.  My experience as a transfer student has been fairly seamless; I have truly found everything I was looking for socially and academically.