The Main Quad drummed with the footsteps of students awaiting their turn to talk with college counselors for Transfer Day on Oct. 17, where over 85 representatives from various colleges tabled.
Represented colleges ranged from the University of California, Berkeley; Notre Dame University and Parsons School of Design to a University of California, Santa Cruz program for formerly incarcerated students; and several international universities.
Students collected flyers, infographics, stickers and more from the desks set up by universities.
Transfer counselors ran the information booth, distributing flyers and packets for students to pick up. The counselors ran a booth for raffles, where students could turn in a ticket for a chance to win prizes.
Navigating the canopies, plenty of universities located in California filled the roster. UC Berkeley set up a separate tent for its wildly popular engineering school, Berkeley Engineering — the distinct crowd surrounding the booth made it stand out among the other colleges.
“They (students) get a chance to talk to university representatives who have transfer information as well as information for financial aid,” transfer counselor Betty Inoue said.
While academics are a focal point of students at De Anza, a sense of community could be felt throughout the students beside the tents. Friends linked arms beside the tables and shared warm smiles with counselors as they passed out pamphlets.
Individual tents provided unique information for students interested in specific career paths.
Emily Stanton, a representative from California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo, said that “each major has (unique) course requirements … Assist.org is a phenomenal resource for students confused about the transfer process.”
Stanton also highlighted that at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, “transfer students are welcomed and integrated on campus just as much as first-year (students).”
In a far corner of the quad, Samuel Chavez, a program representative for University of California, Santa Cruz’s pathway for formerly incarcerated students UCSC Underground Scholars shared the importance of sharing the program at community colleges.
“The kind of students that we (Underground Scholars) engage with (are) students that are like me,” Chavez said. “I was formerly incarcerated — system impacted. My father was living out of prison my whole life; we work with youth who are at that fork in the road and provide them with the resources that they need to be successful and seek higher education.”
The Transfer Day event also hosted a panel detailing the transfer process for students applying to the UC system in the Hinson Center, welcoming students to interact with counselors through a Q&A session to close the panel.
Though the Transfer Center only holds Transfer Day once a year, the De Anza Student Resource Center hosts numerous events that help prospective transfer students get into the four-year institution of their choosing; transfer workshops multiple times a month — accessible both over Zoom and in person — and speaker events, including one-on-one interview sessions and information sessions with college representatives.
Students not only interacted with the college and university counselors, but also fostered connections with one another through the Transfer Day event. College counselors were provided a chance to promote their respective campuses and inform students on the transfer process and what it entails.
