The campus hosted its annual Transfer Day event from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Fountain Quad area for students in need of academic guidance on Oct. 7 for students interested in transferring to a university.

Event Coordinator and Student Personnel Assistant Emily Barkley said, “knowledge is power, and information is key for students to stay on track and meet deadlines as they’re going through the transfer process.”

She followed through by providing the students with collegiate outreach officials, advertisements, on-campus volunteers comprised of staff, faculty and students as well as a few new aspects that aid students in gaining information.

“For the first time, we have a counselor table where students can ask counselors from our campus about general transfer information,” Barkley said.

This was only one of the resources provided to students during this event.

The other resources are mobile applications that provide students with information. ListServ is a CRC Transfer Center-made application that distributes information to subscribers on an electronic mailing list and GradGuru is another application that keeps community college students on track by sending deadline notifications, academic guides and on online help center.

“We try to do as much as we possibly can with what we have in the transfer process, such as helping students fill out applications, bringing students to different campuses and offering more modes of advertising for events like this,” said Transfer Director Lee Weathers.

Staff in the student services department understand that the transfer process can be an academic gauntlet, which is why they encourage students like Aiza Valencia, 23, a pre-nursing major to initiate the cooperative procedure as soon as possible.

“I like the opportunities that this event provides,” Valencia said.  “Since I’ve completed all my prerequisites, I needed to know all the school options that are out there, and the programs that they can provide for me.”

The nursing field is projected to increase by 19 percent from 2012 to 2022, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which means academic competition in this specific sector will be rigorous.

The event came just in time to inform her on how to go about beginning the transfer process. Just as it did for the 27-year-old film production major Joseph Kimbo.

“Most people don’t even know what options they have until they encounter events like this, so I feel like I was given a huge advantage in terms of receiving all of the general information I needed for my future in higher education,” Kimbo said.

From a student services perspective, Lee said that students are getting the best help that community colleges have to offer.

“The Student Success and Support Program is a new state legislation that has reformed and restructured how we do things from a student services perspective,” Lee said. “It primarily involves students having an education plan, a focused major and other services that support that assessment.”

Although this new legislation has shifted student services from being “open access” to “more accessible and active,” Lee was disappointed to see how few representatives came out.

“We’re kind of at the mercy of our consortium,” said Lee. “Obviously, this is our off-year because there was priority given to other campuses in our district and we didn’t get as many colleges here as we’d liked to, but I’m still proud of the turn out.”

This consortium that CRC is affiliated with is represented by all Los Rios community colleges, and allocates funds for each campus’ events, advertisements and resource distribution among the district.