I first chose College of San Mateo for its vibrant campus, great opportunities, and reputation for transfer students; and my 2.5 years have been transformative. To achieve my goal of transferring to the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) and majoring in Psychology and Brain Sciences, I had to step out of my comfort zone and immerse myself in student clubs and talk about different services, as well as participating in events to meet representatives, such as CSM’s Transfer Day!

At first, to know more about the transfer process, I joined the Transfer Club, and became their ICC Representative, where I started developing my leadership skills. After being President of the Transfer Club, I was able to have an even more direct contact with the universities and planned 2 events monthly for our students. For my major, I took the opportunity to join an amazing program, which is the Mental Health Peer Educator, which allowed me to do my passion project on a semester cohort interconnecting plant care and mental health of students, as well as two workshops on scrapbook journaling. Also, my involvement in the Honors Program helped me deepen my understanding for research, which I plan to develop once I transfer. 

For prospective students, I would tell them to trust themselves on whatever they want to do, because they will have all the support they need from CSM, as it offers a supportive environment with ample opportunities for anyone to achieve their goals. What impressed me most was the dedication of the faculty and staff, who genuinely invested in my growth. My advice would be to look for your learning community such as Puente, Katipunan, Veterans, etc (you can join as many as you have time!); but also, for academic support, the counseling/career/transfer services were particularly helpful for me, as they hosted useful events that also talked about mental health and strategies for students to deal with stress.