TransferChella: Transfer Spotlight, Latine Community

For National Transfer Student Week, CCTS with UCB are hosting webinars to spread community and inform future transfers. CCTS Logo

Meeting Notes

They were open and honest with their experience in reference to their identities as a latino student.

What was the biggest adjustment when you first arrived at your UC, both academically and socially?

  • Adjusting to tools and management, it was tough
  • managing having a job with academic life
  • Moving away from home
  • quarter system, classes move faster

How did you find community/sense of belonging post-transfer? Events? clubs? How did you find your people, your support group?

  • Put yourself out there!
  • Attend events the transfer community offers
  • Transfer-Latine Bruin Day at UCLA
  • Transfer-Student Center, primary way panelist made many friends
  • Building/Dorm events
  • Transferpalooza (UCLA)

What advice would you give to students who are nervous about “transfer shock” or feeling behind compared to students who started as freshmen?

  • Be proud of yourself, transferring is hard. Once you adjust and open up to these spaces it’ll get easier
  • It’s all part of the journey
  • They(UC) chose you for a reason!

Did you connect with any mentorship programs, student orgs, or cultural groups that helped with the transition?

  • Recruitment Center UCB)
  • Transfer Summer Program (UCLA) - 7 weeks, in dorms
  • Working on campus
  • Mentorship Programs, take those opportunities - helped with transition between community/UC
  • Student orgs vary, try out a range of clubs/culturual organizations

Are there academic or mental health resources that you’d recommend to incoming Latine transfer students?

  • UCLA: Academic Advancement Program (First Generation Students), they have mental health counselors
  • UCB: Counselors?, personal counseling, DSP?, accomodations are offered, EOP

How do you balance cultural, family, and community responsibilities with the demands of being a student at your UC?

  • Hard with a lot of distance
  • Homesickness is normal
  • Try to multitask
  • Calls is common and a good way to communicate with them
  • Set boundaries though within reason

What are some ways prospective Latine transfer students can prepare now to make the most of their time here?

  • Understand the scholarships, it can be hard to navigate if you don’t understand it
  • Use linkedin to connect with people
  • Bring your unique skills and perspectives, to any UC
  • Be open minded & mindful of your time
  • Use community college resources, career center, checking in with professors, checking email

Panelists:

  • Kimberly Barrueta, UCLA
  • Daniel Contreras, UCB
  • Maika Jimenez Corrales: CCTS

Final Thoughts

This was such a wonderful opportunity to hear unique insight, thank you to the CCTS team and the panelists.