Gator News

Gatorcast Ep. 12: Choose your destination – Explore the transfer process

By College Relations, Media Services and the Office of the President, November 27, 2019

Episode Resources

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Episode Transcript: 

Karl Smith: Hi, I'm Karl, editor and producer of GatorCast. Due to complications, we are unable to present part one of this three-part series on transferring. We're going to post parts two and three over the next two weeks to get you up to speed. Thank you for joining us for this first episode of season two of GatorCast. 

President Johnson: Welcome to Green River College's GatorCast. This is Suzanne Johnson, president at Green River College, and today, we're going to continue our conversation about transferring. For all you students out there listening, we're doing a three-part series on transferring to your next college, and you know, the majority of you at Green River will be transferring to one school or another, so if you're picking up this episode today, what you might want to do is hop out, go back to podcast number one on transferring, which the topic is exploring transfer, because today we're going to be talking about planning your transfer, and to get us into this conversation, we are joined today with Srey Chea. 

Srey Chea: Yes, good morning, Dr. Johnson, how are you? 

President Johnson: I'm doing well, thank you so much for being here. First, let's talk about who you are, where you are at Green River, because I know a lot of our listeners, when they hear people on the podcast, they're like, okay, I'm going to go meet that person, because they seem like I can talk with them. So, tell us about yourself, tell us about your time here at Green River, and where students can find you, and how they can find you. 

Srey Chea: Excellent, yeah, so again, my name is Srey Chea. I'm one of the transfer advisors here at Green River College. You can find me in our career and advising center in the student affairs building, that's in room 104. So, in terms of my time here at Green River, I've been here for a little over three years as an advisor, assisting our transfer students, but before I became an advisor, I was a recruiter here at Green River, so I started off my-- 

President Johnson: Really? 

Srey Chea: Yeah, my higher education here at Green River as a recruiter back in '08 to about, I want to say, 2011, and that's when I decided where, maybe, you know, I need to figure out what's my next chapter in life after recruiting, and I really want to search to become an advisor, so what happened was I went back to my alma matter, University of Washington Tacoma, ended up being a new admission counselor advisor for U-UP-T, after I did that for about three years, a good buddy of mine that's, that worked at Green River, at the time was the director of career advising center, he mentioned that hey, you know, there's a great opportunity if you want to come back to Green River to assist our students for free, we would love to have you come and check, stop by and see if you can be a good fit with our team and from there it worked out and now I'm here at Green River, helping our chancellor students, so I'm very excited to come back, so it's almost like a full circle, 

President Johnson: Oh, that's great 

Srey Chea: In the sense, in terms of my educational path, in terms of my career path in higher ed. 

President Johnson: Well, we're so happy that you're here, and you've been here now for a number of years, tell us a little bit more about your own educational journey. 

Srey Chea: Yeah, so the reason why I wanted to come back to work at a two-year College, a two-year institution because I was that transfer student starting off at a two-year Community College, matter of fact, I went to Tacoma Community College for the first two years and I was one of those, you know, typical students that didn't know what I wanted to do, you know, all I know that I need to go to college, I need to have a degree so I can have a better life, but I don't know what that looks like and what that is. So I had a hard time trying to figure out, you know, what's my game plan? You know, when I was in school, and you know, what brought me into the position I'm in now is some of the folks I connected throughout the my, throughout my path, throughout my time in school and when I work with students, and generally I try to encourage them, you know, to find a mentor, find someone that you can connect with to help and guide you, you know, to help you identify possible avenues and direction that you can get into and that person at the time when I was at Tacoma Community College was my, my boss, my and he was a director for the Diversity Equity Inclusion Center. He was not only managing that center, but he also helped out with recruitment outreach, so I remember when he, when I chat with him, hey, you know, what do you think about you know, working part-time in the outreach department, you know, you have a great personality, you know, I can see you out there with the high school students, connect with them, talking about college, talk about Tacoma Community College and, and, and actually like yeah, you know, let's give it a shot, you know, let me see how that goes. 

Again, I didn't have plans to become a recruiter, you know, when I was in high school, I'll work in higher educations, so I just came about getting into it because someone recognized that hey, you have a great fit in this particular position, so I did that for, until I graduate from Tacoma Community College and that was fun, I enjoyed that piece of just going out there to the high school, get them excited about what college can offer them, and when I graduated from University of Washington Tacoma, so that's where I went to, I transferred to after my time at TCC, you know, after I graduated in Urban Studies, great field to get into, you know, I was one of the students who have a degree but didn't end up doing you know, end up landing a job that they're, the degree prepares for, so you know, throughout the next two or three years after college, you know, end up doing random jobs here and there and then just three years of doing jobs and trying to think about you know, what position, what jobs that I liked, you know, in my previous experience, and you know the whole time when I was working at Nabisco as a salesperson, so yes, I was a salesperson for Nabisco, making sure all the cookies and crackers are in stock at the grocery stores, you know, I was just thinking about, what's my future going to be, knowing that, you know, it might not be with Nabisco being a sales rep and I just remember thinking back that wow, I had an amazing time as a recruiter at Tacoma Community College, and I want to be in that position where I could help these students who, you know, where I was in their shoes, you know, during that time so, and you know, I was fortunate enough when I was looking for jobs online, and again that, that position for Green River as a high school recruiter was available, just made it clear that that's my pathway. 

So yeah, it's been quite a journey for me to end up where I land and the crazy thing, this is the type of story that I'd like to share with our chancellor students, as you may know, a lot of them don't know what they want to do, which is fine. I always tell them that it's okay, but you know, it's always important to make sure that you try, you know, and see what pathway is what you know, what you like and what you're interested in, see if that's going to work or not and eventually you'll end up finding something that you're going to want to become as a professional career, you know, per se so.

President Johnson: This is such a great story and it's such a good reminder, you know, for our student listeners out there, listening to Srey, you see that he's tried a lot of different careers, he's explored, he's been brave in the context of trying things out that seemed right at the time, it's so interesting, we were talking with Josh Stufiary, recently about career advising, and one of the things we kept circling back to, is such a, it's a normal experience for students to wonder about where they're going in their life, you know what do they want to be when they grow up, no matter what our ages, you know, we're all discovering that we're still asking that question, regardless of what our ages are, and that this is part of being in college, it's part of being a college student and just listening to your story, reminds me of my own in terms of having different career stop offs and different experiences and you know, through each one, you find something that's a bit more meaningful and that works, so I think it's really important for students to realize that when they're speaking to you or another advisor or faculty member here at the college, you know, everyone has their stories in terms of life journeys, and so often times from the student perspective, I think they look at you and others, you know, successful professionals and they think you never had any questions, you never did anything different, you had a clear path, you knew exactly what you were going to do and now you've gotten this job, when they don't know about you working as a recruiter or Nabisco, I never knew that you worked at Nabisco, that's fascinating, did you get like free cookies? 

Srey Chea: I did yes, first, Christmas time was a lot of fun, and that's when they will put it, you will have it like an annual meeting, and part of that meeting will discuss, you know, the upcoming holiday cookies and treats, so they have displays set up, and so that way we could have a visual what that looks like in the stores, soon after that, the conference, they'll say yes, so the items that we have here, hey, it's free for all, feel free to grab a box, grab some Triscuit's, some Oreo's, take it, share with your family, so yeah, I, I came back with a huge box of just Nabisco products, passing 'em out to my friends, so yeah, they liked it. 

President Johnson: So, we don't have a culinary program here so we're not gonna really be able to give you the free baked goods, but what we are here today to talk about, is transfer. 

Srey Chea: Yes. 

President Johnson: And as we were saying earlier, the majority of students that come to Green River, based on what they're interested in studying or the fact that they're exploratory students, they're going to be transferring on. 

Srey Chea: Correct. 

President Johnson: And this becomes a really important thing for students to know, that when you come to Green River, and you're interested in studying something that is not one of our career and technical education programs that are linked directly to job placement after, that this is part of your journey, in terms of college education, and it's so very important for a student to have a plan. 

Srey Chea: Correct. 

President Johnson: To have a plan, now as I mentioned earlier in this episode, this is the second part of a three part series on how to transfer, and our first episode focused around exploring, the student looking at what they're interested in, what they want to study, and based on finding their career path, knowing that that then means that, okay, this option that I'm thinking about or the options that I'm considering, will require that I need to transfer. This episode is focusing on the actual planning to transfer and for our listeners, as fyi, the third episode will be all about making your applications, so, planning to transfer, let's talk about that. 

Srey Chea: Yeah, yeah, so it's definitely a key component for, you know, a lot of of our students success in terms of transferring, like you mentioned, you know, a lot of our students are here, for those who are planing to transfer to a four-year school, I mean, they're here to take classes to not only complete an associate degree, but also to meet the requirements, to tick the appropriate classes to get in to that four-year University, so our goal as an advisor, you know, once you step foot on our campus is trying to have that discussion and again, you know, we talked about how some students who are undecided or they're here exploring, and some might know what they want to do and that's great, but we want to make sure that your time here with us at Green River College is well equipped, you're well prepared and part of being prepared is planning. 

President Johnson: So what are the first steps then, so I'm a student, I decide okay, well I'm studying English or I'm studying psychology or chemistry, as examples, I know that I'm going to get an Associates Degree, an Associates Degree is a two year degree, but I know if I want to do something with those fields, I need to go on to get the four-year degree, might be a, my Bachelor of Arts degree or my Bachelor of Science degree, BS Degree, so what are my first steps then, in terms of the planning, what will I do? 

Srey Chea: Well, I mean for new students and also current students, you know, the one thing that we encourage you to do is connect with your advisor, whether it's the advisor in the career advising center or your assigned advisor, whether that, and that could be your faculty advisor as well. 

President Johnson: Let's talk about that. So, are all students assigned an advisor? 

Srey Chea: Yes, so for our new students who's gonna step foot on our campus in their first quarter here, they'll be assigned to an advisor at the career and advising center, so part of the process once they register for classes, we encourage them to sign up what we call, sign up for what we call a first quarter advising appointment, okay.

President Johnson: And that will happen in the advising center in the student affairs building. 

Srey Chea: Correct, yes, that will happen during, in the advising center with one of the transfer advisors okay, and the goal for that first quarter advising appointment is to sit down with, to kind of discuss, you know, your game plan here at Green River, you know, what you're looking to do, you know what type of majors or career that you're hoping to obtain down the road, and then what we'll try to do is trying to look at what possible paths that will be the best fit for you, so like you mentioned, for someone who might be interested in the science field, we will let them know, hey yes, if you have interest in going to Eastern Washington University for computer science, here's a pathway, here's an associate transfer to be that's kind of geared towards those computer science major and this is what your world map's going to look like. 

President Johnson: And why is it important to have that destination or, and what I've always been told, tell me if I'm wrong, if you're potentially a transfer student, you need to have at least three or four colleges that you know, you may want to apply to, is that correct? 

Srey Chea: That is correct, yes, one thing that our office is, I know that the transfer advisor always encourage students to do, is look at multiple schools, apply to multiple schools. We know that yes, there's a few favorite ones out there in terms of you know, public and private university in the state of Washington, but sometimes the majors that the students are interested in are considered competitive majors, so there's a slim chance that you might not get in to your first choice, so you have to figure out, okay, if I don't get into my first choice, what's my backup plan, what's my backup schools? So if you are able to prepare, to identify possible schools that you want to transfer to for your major, that will help you down the road if your first choice doesn't work out. 

President Johnson: Okay, so let's just assume then, this is a student that knows generally what they're interested in studying, or they know that they want to complete the first two years of their electives, so on. So they've got that idea set, right? Well, I want to transfer and study psychology or I want to transfer and study chemistry, or you know what, I don't want to determine what I want to study yet, so I'm just going to take my general education class requirements to transfer, let's talk about then, the importance of having those destinations, those three or four, minimum three or four schools that the student is thinking they may want to go to next, why is that so important in terms of planning? 

Srey Chea: Well, in terms of the majors, you know, the requirements for the majors might be different from one another, you can't just assume-- 

President Johnson: At one school or another. 

Srey Chea: At one school or another, correct, so generally what we tell students, you know, don't assume that the prerequisites for you know, say Washington's gonna be the same as Eastern Washington, or Central Washington, okay? So identifying, you know, those requirements for that major, at those particular school will be helpful, so that way when you register for classes, you know that you're checking off boxes for, you know, a particular university or checking off boxes for all three universities that might have the same requirements, so that's gonna be very important, you know, to make sure that, you know, students don't end up taking classes they don't need, you know, and that's, you know, important aspect of education is making sure you don't waste time, especially money, you know, students end up paying out of pocket, we would hate for students to end up taking classes that's not necessary, so in terms of identifying, you know, that institution, that program ahead of time, would avoid some classes that are not required, as they end up, you know, choosing the wrong one, so I think, yeah, it's definitely gonna be very helpful, you know, once they game plan ahead, work with their advisor to figure out, you know, what requirements are needed for this particular institution, for this particular program, so that way we can create an educational plan, making sure that, you know, for the quarters that they're taking now and for future quarters, they're taking the right classes for the institution, for the major. 

President Johnson: So this becomes a really important point for the students who are listening today, to keep in mind, let's say, you want to study Chemistry, and you've now identified three or four schools that you're going to apply to, and what I've noticed, with a lot of students here, they want to stay in state, and there is a short list of schools then, right? So you've identified three or four schools in the state of Washington that have Chemistry degrees, so now that you have those schools and you can see what their graduation requirements are, you can sort of, back track and then more effectively pick the classes you take here for the first two years of your education. 

Srey Chea: That's correct. 

President Johnson: So that when you go to the next school, whether it's WSU, U-Dub, Eastern Washington, so on, you will have had all the courses that they can accept over, you don't lose time, you haven't taken a class you don't need, you haven't taken a class that you'll have to take again at the institution, and so having those destinations actually makes you more effective in figuring out what you should take here at Green River from term to term. 

Srey Chea: That's correct, that's correct. 

President Johnson: So, how does a student decide then, how to make their plans in terms of finding the schools that they might want to transfer to? 

Srey Chea: And one thing that we tell our students that, there's new resources on campus and one of the things that we do in the career advisement center in terms of helping students identifying those possible schools, those possible majors, we'll have events on campus, so one of the unique events that I strongly encourage students to attend, especially our transfer students, and also career tech students if they want to explore that transfer option as well, is our transfer fair, so every quarter, except for summer, we have a quarterly transfer fair, where all the university in the state of Washington, public and private, will come to our campus to connect with our students. 

President Johnson: And how do students find out about these transfer fairs? 

Srey Chea: Right, the transfer fair will be promoted on our website, so definitely check out the events calendar. 

President Johnson: And where do you find that? 

Srey Chea: Events calendar, you'll find that on the front page, of the school calendar, should be on the bottom left-hand corner. 

President Johnson: At GreenRiver.edu 

Srey Chea: .edu, yes. 

President Johnson: Bottom left-hand quarter. 

Srey Chea: Corner, bottom left-hand corner, I'm sorry, but also our office, the career advisement center will send a mass email, letting students know what's coming up, what's going on for this particular quarter. 

President Johnson: And this goes to their student emails? 

Srey Chea: That's correct, yes. 

President Johnson: Student listeners out there, there is a reason you have a student email account. 

Srey Chea: Exactly, yes. 

President Johnson: Important information comes to that, I know you probably have a lot of other email accounts, and it might be a bit of a hassle, but it's important for you to check your student email periodically, there are reasons that we communicate with you about certain things through your Green River College email account, some things we can't communicate with you through other email systems, email, on occasion, is important, so you say that you blast an advertisement to them through that? 

Srey Chea: Exactly, yeah, so I'll send like a mass email to all of our transfer students, to let them know about our transfer events, whether it's the transfer fairs, on occasion we'll have University make additional visits to our campus, they want to, you know, truly connect with our students and make sure that they know, you know, what to expect in terms of the transfer process. 

President Johnson: So let's, what is the transfer fair, what happens there? 

Srey Chea: So our transfer fair is again, it is held every quarter except for summer, so it's located in our student union, where the grand hall is at, so is basically you will have a bunch of reps in a bunch of tables, so this is where students can go to each table-- 

President Johnson: Oh, from each college. 

Srey Chea: From each college, yes. 

President Johnson: So colleges come here, 

Srey Chea: Exactly.

President Johnson: To our campus, they have a table, and they're there trying to woo our students to make application to their school. 

Srey Chea: Correct, yeah, so this is a great opportunity for our students to connect with the rep that they want to connect with and get the answers they need, you know, generally what I tell our students that you know, us advisors in the career advisement center, we're generalist, you know, there's a lot of schools that we need to try to understand and we might not know all the information and might not have all the questions, so one thing that we encourage students early on, is make that connection at the four-year university, identifying who's that admission councilor that works with Green River students, so that way you have a contact person, so if you have question about, you know, WSU engineering requirements you have a person that could get you information. 

President Johnson: So are you saying that at most of the colleges in the state of Washington, there is somebody at the other college that works with Green River College students? 

Srey Chea: Yes, yes we do, there are admission counselor at the four-year institution that are designate to work at particular two-year colleges. 

President Johnson: And how does the student find that out then? 

Srey Chea: Through the transfer fair, so that's one way that they can connect with that, that university, that university person rep will let them know, like, yes, I'm your, an admission counselor for this particular university, if you want to come to my institution, other option is connecting with advisor at the career advisement center, you know, we have contacts, you know, if you have an interest in transfer to Western Washington University, we have a contact person that you can connect with as well.

President Johnson: So you can connect these students as well. 

Srey Chea: Yes, yes. 

President Johnson: So, what I'm hearing right now, 'cause we're going through you know, what are the services, what are the resources students should be utilizing at Green River to help them transfer, help them start making their plans, you're saying transfer fairs, big ones, and then, people like you. 

Srey Chea: Exactly, yeah. 

President Johnson: The advisors in our Student Affairs building. 

Srey Chea: That's correct, yeah, in addition to the transfer fairs, one of the things that we also host, are some of our transfer workshop or transfer information session at the career advisement center put together, okay, so every quarter I will set up a, what I call a chance for information session, so for those who wants to know what the process looks like, here's your opportunity to attend an hour session to hear about what that process looks like, you know, what does four-year institution look for in a transfer student, you know, what you need to do to prepare yourself, to not only complete an Associate degree here but also be admissible to the university and to the programs. So every quarter, we'll host a transfer information session, and the location varies, depending on what's available, sometime it could happen in our student affairs building, sometime it could be in the student union, so it all depends on what rooms available during that week I'm trying to schedule that, and yeah, and again, going back to the university reps where they're making those additional visits, so some of those reps are coming in and asking for, hey, could I schedule a time block where I can meet with your students, do a one-on-one advising appointment, so we do get some of those admission councilor that will have a table or have a room in our office, in the career advising center, to connect with students, so that's one way for them to make sure they have all that plan, you know, planned out, so that way they're prepared for the transfer process. 

President Johnson: An excellent, and for the listeners here, if you go to greenriver.edu/gatorcast, g-a-t-o-r c-a-s-t, you will find additional resources that are linked to this episode, and we'll be gettin' up there some dates that you need to keep in mind in terms of any workshops that are coming up, as well as when the transfer fairs are, so again, greeriver.edu/gatorcast, that's also where you can subscribe to these podcasts, but you'll find additional resources linked there. 

Srey Chea: That's correct. 

President Johnson: All right, so now we've got transfer fairs, advisors, advisors being able to connect with the other advisors of four-year institutions who might be here visiting for different workshops, or opportunities to meet students, what other resources are available? 

Srey Chea: Well, I mean, for me personally in terms of planning, I mean, to go back to planning, you know, we offer tools on our campus that students can utilize to help them stay on track, so-- 

President Johnson: Let's talk about that. 

Srey Chea: Yeah, so one of the tools that we encourage students, or I, you know, encourage students to utilize on a quarterly basis is our degree audit, you know, the degree audit is a helpful tool to get an idea of what that path looks like for someone who wants to do the associate business transfer, associate science transfer, it will include, you know, required courses, recommended courses that you know, business schools are looking for, you know, or the science department are looking, when students come to us, you know, the question we get a lot is, could you help me identifying, you know, what classes I should take, or should you, or could you recommend me some courses to take for winter quarter and the first thing we'll ask them is like, did you check your degree audit? Did you get an idea? 

President Johnson: So what is a degree audit? Is it a piece of paper, what, do you find it online, is it something that I carry in my folder, what's a degree audit?

Srey Chea: Yeah, so a degree audit's an online tool that's available through our class registration home page, so part of that, the advising component, when you meet with your advisor, is identifying some of those tools, so-- 

President Johnson: And where do we find our Advising home page? 

Srey Chea: Right, so the advising home page, for me, the quickest way, if you go to the bottom, there is a link-- 

President Johnson: The bottom of our home page. 

Srey Chea: The bottom of the home page, correct, there is link for the Career and Advisement centers, so if you click on that, you'll lead you to information, about what we have to offer, and also I believe it links to some of the transfer page as well, so if students have a question about some of our transfer degrees or some of our transfer tools, I believe it's whole, located in there as well. 

President Johnson: So they click on the career and advising center area and are they gonna find a link for degree audit? 

Srey Chea: The degree audits, I'm not 100% sure if it's there or not, I could double check but I know that the class registration homepage, so when you register using the class finder tool on the right-hand see you see a lot of those helpful tools, degree audit is one of them. 

President Johnson: Okay, in the class registration area. 

Srey Chea: Exactly. 

President Johnson: You're gonna find the degree audit, as a tool that the student can click on. So now tell me, describe what a degree audit is, because a lot of our students, you know, I understand that language, you understand that language, we've been in a college world for many, many years, but a lot of our students, are, this is the first person in their family that's been to college, this might be their first time to any college, what is it? 

Srey Chea: Right, so a degree audit tool is basically what I consider a road map, okay? So for someone who wants to pursue business, once you log into your degree audit, select the transfer that you're looking to pursue, it'll pop up the requirements, you know, for that-- 

President Johnson: Specific list of courses. 

Srey Chea: Exactly, so students can use that as a guide to identifying, okay, I need to complete this degree but what does that degree consist of, you know, what type of courses I need to take, so that degree audit will indicate recommended courses for that particular pathway, and the nice thing about that tool, is that once you register for classes, it will place those classes in the degree audit, so that way you know, I got my English 101 done, I have my Math done, okay, I need some Science classes to satisfy the remainder required for my Associate in Arts degree. Okay, so, we don't have, I mean, I think the students have the expectation that we have some sort of a magical plan, where we can just tell students what, you know, this is where you go to find this, I like to tell students that that information is available to them, it's just a matter of just identifying what the tools are. So when students come to us and ask what classes they can take, and it's like yeah, you have that information just a matter of just, knowing the, the resources, knowing the tools is available and then you know exactly what courses that you're gonna take based upon this particular tool. 

President Johnson: Now what the degree audit is going to have then, are different topic areas, so if you want to get a degree in business, in terms of transfer, it's going to show you a list of all the classes you to need to take to complete that degree, to complete that program, and so when you choose classes here at Green River, it will then pop itself into that degree map or that chart, it's a chart. 

Srey Chea: Exactly. 

President Johnson: It's a chart of courses, and that's, that way you can keep track of what you've taken, what you still need to take, and what you'd be taking once you go on to another institution. 

Srey Chea: Correct. 

President Johnson: Okay, that sounds like a really important tool. 

Srey Chea: It is. 

President Johnson: What other kinds of resources and tools for the planning process of transfer, should students think about? 

Srey Chea: I think, for me, it just goes back to, you know, like you say, you know identifying that, your angle, you know, where the angle's gonna be, and where, in which institution it's gonna be, I think once you kind of figured that out, there is another tool that we use with our students in terms of what we call an ed plan, an educational plan. 

President Johnson: Okay, how is that different from a degree audit? 

Srey Chea: Well, the educational plan, so this is where a student could map out their time here with us, in terms of, it allows students to place courses for a particular course, or let's say that you're new to Green River and winter quarter's your first quarter with us, you signed up for a first quarter advising appointment, with one or your, with your chancellor advisor, and he or she will sit down with you and say okay, let's create a academic plan or educational plan, and that tools allow students to place courses they want, they want to take for a particular quarter, okay? So one of the question that we get a lot from students that, am I able to complete my degree within two years, okay, you know-- 

President Johnson: The answer is yes. 

Srey Chea: Yes, the answer is yes, yes, it also depends on your placement as well, but you know, degree audit doesn't allow you to place those potential classes that you're going to take for future quarters, so the educational plan allows you to incorporate those classes, so that way you can see winter quarter you're taking English, you're taking Math, you're taking a Social Science class and then your spring quarter, let's plan on continue on that Math class, continue on that second English composition course, so that way once you register, once we get ready to register for spring quarter, you have a plan already, of knowing what classes to take, and then in terms of knowing if you could complete this degree within the term that you indicated for yourself, we could map that out using the degree audit tool, identifying the courses are needed for that particular transfer degree and then place those courses into the educational plan, so that way you know, boom, yes, I'm able to complete my degree within two years or yes, I'm going to have to take a summer quarter because I need to make up or add this Science class to make sure that I'm on track, to not only satisfy the Associate degree requirement but also meeting the requirements for the admission to the university, and to the program as well. 

President Johnson: Okay, so I want to do a, sort of a recap, for just a moment here, for our listeners, so what we've been talking about is, coming to the terms where you realize, okay, I'm going to be transferring to another institution, and so what I'm hearing you say Srey, is that once I realize I'm gonna be transferring some place, step one is, I need to realize I need to find three to four, if not more, schools that I might consider making application to, and those programs, those schools are going to be used by me, as a student, to determine what I need to be taking here at the college so that I can transfer on to the next college without losing credits or time, but the way that I'm going to be able to do that the best, is by seeing an advisor, for sure, and with the advisor, or on my own but always with an advisor to get that, you know, review of what I think as a student is what I'm supposed to be doing, utilizing the degree audit and the other tool that we have, that parallels that and supports the degree audit, which is for the four-year degree, is the educational or academic plan that an advisor can help layout with each of our students, in terms of what they should take from one term to the next, now we have lots of students that want to finish in two years or around that, and you know, they're able to be full-time, we have a lot of students that are part-time and so we can do educational or academic plans whether your part-time student or full-time student, correct? 

Srey Chea: That's correct, yeah. 

President Johnson: Okay, and then we have, in addition to that, events like our transfer fairs and workshops and visits by some of the institutions recruiter advisors that might be here separate from a transfer fair, that students can utilize and attend and those things we're going to get up on our website for our gator cast, so the students can look the upcoming dates up, what other advise or steps would you offer to the students listening today, in terms of planning for transfer? 

Srey Chea: Connections can be very important, connecting with the resources that you have here at Green River College, so whether it's making that appointment to meet with your advisor, or your faculty advisor, or your assigned advisor, whoever that is, you know, make sure that that's a, something that you will try to do early, you know, you, again it goes back to making sure that you are prepared, taking the right classes and making sure that you're using your time wisely here at the college, so just, you know, the early intervention you have with an advisor, assigned advisor, will definitely help you be prepared and then making that connection with the institutions that you want to transfer to and see if it's a good fit, you know, I always tell students, you know, don't pick a school based upon where you're peers are going, you know, make sure that that's, that institution is going to check everything off for you, making sure that it provides the degree that you're looking for and that way you don't waste time and money again when you transfer to a four-year university, so identifying that early is gonna be very beneficial, so the early intervention that you start with creating that plan, will help you be successful throughout your time here at Green River College. 

President Johnson: I think this is a great way for us to wrap this episode up and focusing on connections and what Srey is conveying to all of you, is the importance of you connecting, meaning coming to meet in person, Srey and his other transfer advisors, in our student affairs advising and career center, on the ground floor of student affairs building, and he's also shared the importance of connecting with your classroom instructors, the college faculty, this is very important because our faculty who are here, those who are teaching the classes that you're taking, Green River College students, are there as a resource for you, it's not just about the class that instructor is teaching, it's also about the field that they're in, and they can give you lots of good advice, not just about what classes you should take next term but they can give you lots of good advice in terms of your career and career opportunities, these are the experts in the content area you might be interested in, so if you're interested in Chemistry, the Chemistry faculty have their degrees in Chemistry, they not only know how to teach in a classroom and share information to you but they also know lots of people in that field that do a lot of different jobs in terms of Chemistry, just taking it as an example, same with Psychology, English, History, Physics, name the area, faculty here at our campus are great resources, so Srey, we always like to end each episode in terms of some actions, what should the student that's listening today do next? In terms of planning for transfer. 

Srey Chea: I would say connect with your assigned advisor, making sure you're on track, if you don't have a plan, let's create a plan, and that will help you throughout your time, and also participate in some of our transfer events, whether it's the transfer fair, advising day, I forgot to mention that, advising days can be very important. 

President Johnson: Another resource we'll have on our website. 

Srey Chea: There you go, yes, a great way for you to connect with the faculty as well, so plan, plan, plan, that will definitely help you.

President Johnson: And how do we find our assigned advisor?

Srey Chea: If you go to our websites, for me personally, the class registration homepage is a great page for a lot, for all of our students because all of those unique tools that we have to offer, so that's one way where students could find their advisor, or contact career and advising center, we can definitely tell you over the phone or in person, who's your advisor is and get you scheduled to meet with them. 

President Johnson: Excellent, and the phone number that a student can use? 

Srey Chea: Yes, so our college number is area code 253-833-911, extension 2641, so remember that number if you have a question or you need some help or assistance regarding your ED plan. 

President Johnson: Excellent, so the goal is plan, get on it early, you don't have to know where you're going yet, and you don't even have to know what you're going to study but get on that planning. 

Srey Chea: That's correct, yes. 

President Johnson: Thank you so much Srey, for being here. Everybody, remember, greenriver.edu/gatorcast, that's where you can subscribe to the Green River College podcast series and you can find additional resources, you'll find additional resources for this episode linked, to this episode number two on transfer planning. 

Srey Chea: Awesome. 

President Johnson: Have a great day.

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