The Transfer Advocacy Group Experience and the Future of Transfers

Community colleges have long served as a starting point for many students of color who later go on to transfer into bachelor's granting institutions. Despite the success of reaching such a milestone, transfer students still face obstacles at their new institution such as: not knowing about inherent order to upper division courses based on discipline; delayed graduation timelines, and feeling alone at their institution. Transfer Advocacy Groups (TAG) are groups of faculty, staff, and students that work together through facilitated meetings to create institutional change to support transfer students of color at two bachelor's granting institutions: San Jose State University (SJSU) and Michigan State University. This presentation will share experiences as a participant on a TAG within the physics and astronomy department at SJSU. These experiences include what it feels like to collaborate with faculty, be asked opinions about the department, and have student ideas be valued. I'll also give an update on the current TAG's goals and where it's at with respect to achieving them. By sharing about my TAG experience, I hope to inspire more institutions to show care for their own transfer students by providing support and agency for students to create change.