Columbia College Chicago announces the 2022 recipients of the Chicagoland Transfer Award

Campus Communications / May 23, 2022

Transfer Award Recipients The 2022 Chicagoland Transfer Award recipients
Caleb2022 Chicagoland Transfer Award full-tuition winner Caleb Hester
The award provides ten $12,000 scholarships and one full-tuition scholarship to students transferring from Chicago-area community colleges to Columbia.

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 fifth 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, 108 students applied for the award. 

The 2022 full-tuition scholarship was awarded to Caleb Hester, who is transferring to Columbia from Triton College. Hester will be pursuing a BA in Audio Arts at Columbia and is excited to begin turning his passion into a career. "Because of the Chicagoland Transfer Scholarship, I have access to an education that will bridge the gap between my passion and my career,” said Hester. “Receiving this award has taught me that although life will not always go as planned, even when it takes years to get back on my feet, the future holds opportunities beyond anything I could have imagined. I will forever be grateful to Columbia College Chicago for believing in me." 

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

“The CTA essay was changed this year to ask applicants to tell us their story; how did they make the decision to attend their community college and how has their college experience(s) impacted how they view themselves and/or the world,” says Holly Herrera, associate provost for transfer initiatives and academic partnerships. “Providing this space for personal storytelling highlights the varied paths our Columbia transfer students create.”  

In the 2021-22 academic year, ninety-eight percent of transfer students received at least one institutional scholarship from Columbia, averaging $8,800 per student. Transfer students also have access to additional aid, including Federal Pell Grants and State of Illinois MAP Grants. 

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