Posted: May 13, 2015 | Written by Laura Tapia

Twenty-nine college representatives were in attendance for the Transfer Center’s biannual transfer fair on April 27, allowing students to meet them in person.

One of the representatives in attendance was a former Riverside City College student.

“For me personally, I got my AA from here, so I have a personal connection because I was born and raised here in Riverside,” Sheryl Blackshire, UC Davis representative, said.

Blackshire has one recommendation for students wanting to transfer.

“I definitely say visit the Transfer Center because it does exist and often times, as university representatives when we want to provide updates and things of that nature or provide more current information. Our direct connection is always to the transfer center versus the counseling center, so the Transfer Center really becomes the hub of more current information,” Blackshire said.

Although the spring transfer fair is half the size of the fall fair it is one of the many resources the Transfer Center offers students to help them transfer.

Campus tours are another resource the center offered this semester and it’s something the Transfer Center hasn’t done in years.

However when the center’s coordinators received a call from Ed Bush, the vice president of Student Services, he granted them the financial resources from the student equity funds to allow students to visit college campuses for free.                   “This is the only one we’ve done, in four years,” said Monica Delgadillo, the Transfer Center Coordinator, about the campus tours.

The trip which began on the first day of spring break allowed students to visit eight different campuses in a span of four days.

Forty students signed up for the trip and according to Kheesa Slaughter, the center’s educational adviser, some students were also recruited by the Transfer Center due to their participation in guidance courses and special programs like Ujima and Pathways.

Among the colleges visited were San Diego State, Cal State Fullerton and Claremont McKenna.

Surveys were handed out to students by the Transfer Center representatives on their way back to campus to find out how beneficial the tours were, according to Zachary Wilson, a student on the campus tours.

“The survey asked if visiting the campuses changed my mind or opened my mind to attending one of them, and my response was yes; had I not gotten this chance I wouldn’t be applying to one of these colleges in the next year,” Wilson said.

Planning for this trip began late January when the center’s coordinators received student equity funds to host this trip.

In total, the Transfer Center spent about $7,000 on the entire trip, continuing these types of trips is something the center wants to continue, according to Delgadillo.

Campus tours have been something they’ve always wanted to do and hope to keep the momentum going; however, as Delgadillo mentions, it’s hard without knowing how the finances will be a year from now.

“We don’t know what the financial future holds, so we can’t make commitments on something if we’re not sure,” Delgadillo said.

The Transfer Center representatives are not alone in their hopes to continue these tours; Ryan Rudolph, the newly appointed student trustee notes that it is something he hopes Associated Student Organizations would take part in.

“Hopefully in the future we could give more opportunities to our students to go on these tours because students would like to take a look at the campuses where they want to further their education, students want a broader view,” Rudolph said. “I can’t speak for all of ASRCC or all of the other student governments, but personally, I think it’d be beneficial if the student governments got involved in helping fund those tours because if the students want that then the ASO’s should follow and try to make that happen.”

Although the Transfer Center tends to go unnoticed because it is located inside the Counseling and Admissions building and tucked away to the right, it makes itself known by sending out email blasts, hosting events like campus tours, transfer fairs and various workshops throughout the year.

The center’s representatives try to send notifications, and use other methods of letting the students be aware of the events they hold; however, Slaughter also notices other ways the college can help students know about small departments like the Transfer Center.

“I think, just from my observation, signage is important, a lot of students don’t necessarily know where certain things are on campus and then because we are now inside of a building, I think that kind of confuses them they’re like ‘where is the transfer center?’ A lot of students don’t know where we are,” Slaughter said.

After the tours were done, the Transfer Center had an array of events to quickly switch its focus to.

Those events consisted of the biannual transfer fair it hosted a week after spring break and its upcoming transfer ceremony put on for students transferring this spring.

In order to attend the ceremony students must have already submitted an application to the center’s representatives. The center plans to host the transfer ceremony on May 22.