ACCS’s Communications team is road trippin’ all week to celebrate National Student Transfer Week! We will be visiting four-year universities across the state and talking with our very own community college grads. We’ll also talk to helpful faculty and staff and get the inside scoop on scholarships, the STARS Guide, and other resources for community college students.

Our trip kicked off Monday at the University of Alabama! We connected with several students and officials at the University of Alabama on Monday, Oct. 21. According to Brandi Stacey, Project Manager for the Alabama Transfers Project housed at UA, community college students who transfer statewide do exceptionally better academically at a four-year university than students who start at the university their freshman year.

“The Alabama community colleges do a phenomenal job of getting students ready for that next step, getting them ready to integrate into the campus community and to achieve high academically,” she said. “… Transfer students are gritty individuals. They know how to dig in and get what they need, especially if they’re at the University of Alabama.”

Our community college grads said the scholarship and student life experience they had at our colleges helped prepare them for what they faced at U of A.

“When I was in high school I had to find money to pay and Coastal was kind enough to give me a two-year scholarship. I was a member of PTK at Coastal so I got a lot of money to come here (to UA). It was a very good experience for me and I’ll never ever regret going to Coastal. I It helped me so much.”

– LauraBella Casciano, Coastal Alabama Community College and Phi Theta Kappa alum, current UA student

“My transfer credits from Marion, coming here to Alabama, really helped because a lot of my common classes were already done so I can focus on my higher-level classes. Marion was a great introduction for just balancing me – coming here and being part of inaugural programs to help the University of Alabama grow and help the students coming after me have that same introduction.”

– U.S. Army Second Lt. Eli Teixeira, Marion Military Institute alum, current UA student

Stay tuned for more talks with transfer students, and feel free to drop your own #NationalTransferWeek story about your transfer experience from an Alabama community college!