Transfer Student Week: Leveraging the Liberal Arts and Sciences

On the day LSA spoke with Sky Evans, a first-generation student majoring in political science and minoring in philosophy, she had already been in three meetings and two classes. When our call ended, she was off to another meeting, a research presentation, and then a shift at work before she turned in for the night. 

It’s a lot to handle for any college senior, but Evans takes it all in stride as a part of her university experience. 

Raised by her aunt and her grandmother, Evans grew up in Saginaw, Michigan, where her initial plan after graduating high school was to escape the state’s winters for good. She started college at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, taking on the challenges of the pre-med track. But due to her financial situation—she wasn’t eligible for financial aid packages because of her status as an independent student—Evans realized she had to make a change. She went back home to Saginaw and enrolled in Delta College.

After her first transfer, Evans learned about LSA and the Go Blue Guarantee. “I said to myself, ‘That’s where I have to go to get a top education and have as many resources as my heart desires,’” she reflects. “LSA has everything that I could possibly want.” She matriculated in the fall of 2024.

LSA gave her the opportunity to explore different fields outside of premed courses. Evans had attended Saginaw Arts and Sciences Academy as a high school student, where she focused on global studies. “When I transferred to LSA, I was like, ‘I still love this topic,’” she says. “The only reason I didn’t pursue it after high school was because I didn’t know what job I could do.” She found her passion in the Department of Political Science, later picking up a philosophy minor. 

But academics aren’t her only focus. Before Evans even enrolled in classes, she applied to be on the Black Student Union’s committee board as the academic concerns chair. As a transfer student, she knew “the ins and outs of how to transfer credits and how to succeed in order to get into university.” Evans is also a transfer student ambassador, a role she started as soon as she got to campus. 

“It’s been so rewarding to mentor other students and to be that first face that people see when they’re either doing a prospective visit or a transfer student day,” she says. “My favorite thing about this school is that there are so many new people to meet. So many new experiences to have.” 

And the experiences keep coming. Evans knows that her background and education will only continue to open doors in the future. “I’m leveraging my liberal arts education,” she says. And an LSA class taught her to value every part of it. 

In Political Science 301, “Ancient Political Theory,” Evans recalls the graduate student instructor, Mirza Abu Bakr Baig, warning the students against using generative AI. “He explained it in a completely different light,” she remembers. “A liberal arts education grabs from all these different focal points: humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences. You’re wasting it if you’re using ChatGPT.” 

The myriad focal points in the liberal arts and sciences guide Evans’s purpose: making sure people feel represented. It stems from her family background; her mother and grandmother have disabilities. “We go to certain places and there’s no wheelchair accessibility,” she says. Her major has taught her about race, gender, and health care politics, which she hopes to utilize in the world of community organizing and advocacy. 

When Evans reflects on her life, she highlights the importance of a university degree in her home. Her aunt finished high school but didn’t go to college, and her grandmother only went up to middle school. “They understood the power of education, and that’s been instilled in me since sixth grade,” she says. 

Evans finds herself sometimes undermining her journey to LSA, but her time here has taught her to take pride in it. “Through my political science classes, I’m learning that a lot of people who grew up the way I did would not be in a university of U-M’s caliber, never mind a university at all,” she reflects. As a first-generation college student, Evans has had to lay the path she walks on.

And she knows that her perseverance—through a low-income upbringing and three colleges—will always pay off. She says with a smile, “I’ve always had huge dreams.”

Photography by Natalie Condon