Engineering Student Success provides aid for transfer students at Purdue
From Los Angeles to Atlanta.
To West Lafayette, Indiana.
Moving around has been the norm for Tavon Hill, a Purdue University civil engineering senior. Hill is used to transition, to making a home away from his California home. But the resources that Purdue provided to Hill eased the transition from his first degree in physics to his second in engineering.
Hill enrolled at Morehouse College in Atlanta, pursuing physics and taking pre-engineering courses. After completing a bachelor’s degree at Morehouse in 2024, Hill transferred to Purdue for a degree in civil engineering.
When Hill opened his Purdue email, one of the first was from the Horizons Student Support Services. The program connects students to mentoring, scholarship, financial literacy, tutoring and cultural enrichment via museums and field trips. The community was great support — and a fantastic way to learn about Purdue, West Lafayette and Indiana.
A well-timed email from an advisor with Purdue Promise — a program supporting 21st Century Scholars with financial aid and coaching through professional staff and support — also changed the trajectory of Jerrad Garrett’s college experience, connecting him to scholarships and resources for success as he transferred from Ivy Tech to Purdue.
Garrett was initially accepted into first-year engineering at Purdue in 2020, but life took a turn and he started a career instead. Once life had “settled” — a steady position as a quality engineer at Holscher Products Inc. and a family — Garrett took a second look at Purdue for mechanical engineering.
Through Ivy Tech’s mechanical engineering Transfer as a Junior program, Garrett finally made his Purdue Engineering dreams a reality in summer 2025. That same summer, Garrett received an outreach email from an advisor. The advisor connected him to Purdue Promise.
The aid was especially helpful, as Garrett is a full-time quality engineer, a husband and a father of two.
“Support to me looks like confirmation, and anything that keeps the ball rolling,” said Garrett, from Kentland, Indiana. “It’s nice to have people on the inside (of Purdue) who can help me figure out if what I want is possible.”
Possibility drove Hill to ask friends in Horizons about tutoring resources for engineers. He was introduced to Jessica Perkins, assistant director of the Engineering Success Center (ESC) in the Engineering Student Success program, when Hill sought help at the beginning of his first Purdue semester.
“We set up weekly meetings to create goals in and outside the classroom so I (could) adjust to the pace of Purdue,” Hill said. “We kept doing regular check-ins, and then the plan that we made I was able to apply to my other classes. I don't think I would have fared as well here or adjusted as quickly without Dr. Perkins.”
By the second semester, Hill was “chugging along” and keeping up with the engineering pace. Though the weekly meetings with Perkins became monthly check-ins and an office stop-by or two by spring 2025, Hill regularly stopped by to say hello, both to Perkins and to new friends in the ESC just across the hall.
“When students transfer to Purdue, typically from a much smaller campus environment, the initial adjustment to the rigor and pace of our engineering programs—along with being the new person joining a cohort that’s been together two or three years already—can be daunting,” said Phillip Dunston, the Dean’s Faculty Fellow for Undergraduate Transfer Pathways. “That’s why places like the ESC—here for all engineering students—are vital to help individuals maximize their potential.”
The extra support was helpful to Garrett, who was balancing a full work and class schedule. He will graduate with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in spring 2027.
Hill was a part of the National Society of Black Engineers and the American Society of Civil Engineers. When not hanging in the ESC, Hill is meeting new faces and strengthening his community in the Horizons program.
That's exactly how he spent his last weeks at Purdue, and exactly what he’ll do to make friends in his new home while working full-time for Kimley-Horn as a civil analyst.
“As long as I have people that support me, I think I can feel comfortable anywhere.”