Many Fullerton College students will be transferring in the Fall 2021 semester, as admission letters from universities are now being sent out. The students included in this article are transferring to a higher level institution in the Fall in order to help themselves achieve or advance their career goals.

As the transferring process can be looked at as complicated, these students have shared the resources that have assisted them throughout the process and what they found helpful.

Lexi Luna

Luna is environmental horticulture and urban forestry major from Yorba Linda. She has a transfer admission guarantee from the University of California, Davis, and plans to transfer there after she gets an official statement before the end of April.

She admires that UC Davis has a “green campus” and is thrilled about meeting new people in the same field and taking even more in-depth classes that relate to her major.

For her career goals, she desires to work for a botanic garden as a horticulturist, aiding in plant collection and conservation.

Luna was able to learn and experience more about her major through the Horticulture Department’s internship program and was able to study abroad through scholarships during her time at Fullerton College. She felt that there were many incredible resources that Fullerton College offered so she took advantage of them ranging from the professors’ encouragement, counselors, and the Transfer Center.

Honors courses were particularly helpful in preparing her for the type of work at universities such as writing dissertations and being assigned work months in advance. She went frequently to both tutoring and writing centers that qualified her for the honors program.

“As the first person in my family to go to university, I didn’t have anyone in my personal life who could explain to me the university application and transfer process, so I attended practically every seminar offered by the Transfer Center and they were so helpful. I can’t imagine how stressful the process would have been without them,” Luna said.

Emandra Garavito

Garavito is a communication major with an emphasis in public relations from Hacienda Heights.

She received acceptance letters from Cal Poly, Pomona, Cal State, Fullerton, and Cal State, Long Beach but is still undecided on which of these institutions she wants to attend.

As for her career goals, she hopes to either become a publicist in the entertainment industry or be a part of a company’s social media team.

Garavito is most excited about either studying abroad or landing an internship because she felt that both of those opportunities will be a great addition to her resume and help accelerate her career prospects.

During her first semester at Fullerton College, she recalled that it was difficult for her because of her previous background of attending a 4-year institution. She admits that she had negative perceptions of community colleges and found it difficult to overcome this mentality during her first semester.

“I now think that attending Fullerton College has been the best decision I’ve made and it’s sad to think of how my time here is almost over. Fullerton College is a great place to find out who you are, what your standards for higher education should be,” Garavito said.

Throughout her college experience, she spoke with a counselor every semester to ensure that she had everything in order and stated that it gave her the confidence in knowing that she was ready to transfer.

Garavito attended all of the workshops from the Transfer Center and used the career & life planning center for resume building, networking, and figuring out her career path. These two resources made the transferring process much simpler for her.

Melissa Garcia

Garcia is a sociology major from Brea, who is planning to transfer to Cal State, Long Beach.

Although she has been accepted to every campus that she has applied to, she is set on CSULB and has placed Cal State, Fullerton as her second choice.

She was mainly inspired by her counselor, Elisa Latourelle, and was involved in the Puente Program, which is a counseling and mentoring program at Fullerton College. She is now aspiring to become a community college counselor herself and is very excited to be a step closer to her dreams.

The resources that she found extremely helpful were both the Counseling and Transfer centers, as they made the transferring process much smoother.

Garcia also works at the counseling center and has learned so much from being there.

“My experience wouldn’t have been this great if it wasn’t for them! Fullerton College has been my home for the past three years and I have nothing but positive things to talk about. I am glad I choose the route I did since I didn’t know what I wanted to do. Thank you for the endless support from my counselor, professors, and staff. I will always recommend this school to anyone,” Garcia said.

Mark Caringal

Caringal is a kinesiology major from Anaheim, who has received conditional admission to California State University, Long Beach, and plans on attending there in the Fall.

He has set his career goals to be a physical therapist. For his process, he will first need to earn a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology. After finishing the undergraduate program, he will apply for a graduate program hoping to earn a doctorate in physical therapy.

He is most excited about the change in environment because the classes he will be taking at CSULB will be tailored more towards his specific major.

“This will make school slightly more stimulating as I find an interest in Kinesiology,” Caringal said.

He also expressed that Fullerton College has given him the opportunity to practice both time and stress management.

The pandemic has negatively impacted his motivation and organization lately but he also said that the workshops have helped tremendously. He mentioned that he would have been more anxious during the transferring process without the resources from the Transfer Center.

“Fullerton College is a great community college with resources to help motivated students succeed. Use the resources,” Caringal said.

Briana Martinez

Martinez is a business administration major with a concentration in accounting from Fullerton. She hopes to transfer to either Cal Poly, Pomona, or Cal State, Fullerton in the Fall.

She has been accepted to Cal Poly, Pomona and Cal State, Dominguez Hills but is currently waiting to hear back from Cal State Fullerton.

As for her career goals, she wants to become an accountant for the Walt Disney Company, by working her way up the worldwide known company as well as opening her own beauty studio offering different types of services.

The counseling service, transfer workshops, and the Extended Opportunity Programs and Services (EOPS) have drastically helped Martinez with keeping her on track and making sure that she is on the right path.

“I’m excited to be the first in my family to attend a university and broaden my knowledge. I have heard that Cal State Fullerton is a great school for business and I’m excited to experience the life of doing great and better for yourself and your family,” Martinez said.

These five students are a few amongst the many success stories in Fullerton College history.

The most common resource amongst these students were those provided by the Transfer Center. To learn more about the resources included in this article, visit the Transfer Center website here.

Go Hornets!