The Transfer Symposium is an aperiodic topical event designed to provide valuable insights for faculty and other higher education professionals on how to best support transfer students. We believe in fostering a more inclusive and seamless educational experience for students who are transitioning to our university.
About the Transfer Symposium
Appalachian State University hosted the first Transfer Symposium in 2013 to raise awareness about transfer students and the issues they face so faculty and staff could better understand the students with whom they work. The inaugural symposium focused on who transfer students are and how App State can better serve transfer students in and out of the classroom. Since then, we have held additional symposiums, each with a unique topic, to further engage the campus community in conversation about this important student population.
Why Transfer Students Matter
Transfer students play a vital role in the diverse and dynamic tapestry of our university community. They bring unique perspectives, experiences, and aspirations to our campus. The Transfer Symposium aims to celebrate and support these students as they embark on a new chapter in their educational journey.
Hosting Your Own Transfer Symposium
Interested in hosting your own Transfer Symposium? We encourage institutions and organizations to replicate the success of our event to better support transfer students in their campus communities.
Here are some highlights of session types and engagement strategies that have worked well in our events:
Papers and Poster Presentations
Sending out a call for papers and presentations provides your faculty and colleagues an opportunity to share and celebrate the work that they are doing to support students on your campus. This scholarship opens up important dialogues and allows your community to engage with one another in a way that is meaningful to them.
Keynote Speakers
Involve your administrators by having them present opening or closing remarks and demonstrate the value they place on the support being provided and developed for transfer students. You may also opt to bring in guest speakers from other institutions to highlight and present ideas from the unique work they do on their own campuses.
Breakout Sessions
Dig deeper into the transfer experience by facilitating topic-driven discussions. These sessions can focus on specific issues or individual populations of transfer students, such as military students, early college students, and non-traditional and online students.
Student Involvement
There is no better way to shape and improve the transfer student experience than by engaging with the students themselves. Provide students the opportunity to share their experiences and perspectives by hosting moderated panel discussions, and allow them to present ideas on how to help students similar to themselves overcome shared challenges.
For more ideas for hosting your own symposium, please feel free to explore our Transfer Symposium Tool-kit. The tool-kit contains proceedings and materials from past events that can help you get started.
For ideas on hosting regular engagement events for transfer students on your campus, check out our appstatetransfers Instagram account.
Contact Us
If you have questions or would like more information, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Email: transfer@appstate.edu
Phone: 828-262-7877