Brooke: Welcome back to the Transfer Talks podcast. My name is Brooke Hoeltge and I am a Transfer Jacks Peer mentor. Joining me today is fellow Transfer Jacks mentor, Arrajanee. 

Arrajanee: Hi, my name is Arrajanee. My major is Creative Media and Film with a minor in theater. I transferred here in 2020 from Estrella Mountain Community College and I've been a Transfer Jacks Peer mentor for, I just started this semester, fall 23. 

Brooke: How are you liking it so far?

Arrajanee: I really enjoy it a lot. It's very rewarding. 

Brooke: For sure. 

Arrajanee: I have a lot of jobs right now. 

Brooke: Yeah. 

Arrajanee: And I would say this is my favorite job right now.

Brooke: Awe. 

Arrajanee: Just because I like interacting with people and I love to help. So, as long as I feel like I'm being helpful and getting to learn about different experiences and what fellow transfer students go through, I'm having a great time. I love it.

Brooke: Yeah. I love it too. It's a great job. So, you said a lot of stuff you'd like about being a mentor. What is, do you have like a favorite part about being a mentor?

Arrajanee: I would say my favorite part of being a mentor is kind of, I feel like an older sibling. I am the oldest out of my siblings at home. So, it kind of like feels good. It like reminded me of like how it felt to have people look up to you and ask you questions and be like, oh, you've been here longer, so what's this and how's this work?

Brooke: I could definitely relate to that. I'm an oldest sibling too. So, tell me about your other jobs. What else do you do on campus? 

Arrajanee: I have one other job on campus. It's "get involved ambassador." So, I promote getting involved on campus through our clubs and orgs, and then also different events that we have going on. And then I also support clubs and orgs on campus by helping them find ways to fundraise and different things like that. 

Brooke: That's awesome!

Arrajanee: Thank you. 

Brooke: Cool. So what is it about campus and the new environment that you enjoy?

Arrajanee: I love how walkable it is. I walk everywhere. I don't have a car up here. So it's true, campus is walkable. In the winter, it is a little sketchy just because of the ice, but you can walk everywhere. We have great public transportation too. So, that's what I love. And then also the trees, there's trees everywhere and grass. I'm from the valley where it's like desert. So, I love that too.

Brooke: Yeah, it definitely is a walkable campus. It's beautiful here. I'm glad you enjoy it. It is better than the valley. Do you have a favorite favorite memory of being at NAU so far? 

Arrajanee: I would say it was when I did the play. 

Brooke: Oh yeah, what play were you in? 

Arrajanee: The play were you in this last spring semester, spring 23. Yeah, we had a theatrical production, which was a theatrical adaptation of Stanislavski's 'Rite of Spring.'

Brooke: Cool.

Arrajanee: So it was like all dance, 10 tracks long, no breaks. 

Brooke: Wow. 

Arrajanee: And it was like really interpretive. No one knows what was happening. Not even us that were like in the show knew what exactly the story was that we were doing, but it was pretty fun. It was fun to be creative and like move your body and stuff. 

Brooke: Yeah, that does sound fun and a great like creative outlet. Do you have any piece of advice you'd like to give for transfer students like coming into their new schools and
whatnot? 

Arrajanee: Yeah, I would say get involved. Even if you are like, oh, I need to focus on my classes. I gotta like put academics first. It's always good to have something fun to do or something that's like less stress heavy, more relaxing, more community based to have to turn to when you're feeling stressed out with your classes. And then also it's actually been proven that students who get involved, like once they get on campus, actually have a higher retention rate than students who don't get involved. And they have higher GPAs as well. So, it's possible to balance your academics and get involved.

Brooke: That makes sense. I didn't know that. That's good to know. Thanks for sharing. So what are your feelings on being a transfer student? And how did you feel about it
when you first came to NAU and how do you feel about it now? 

Arrajanee: So, when I first came to NAU, I was a little insecure about being a transfer student. I was like, oh, these people have been here before me. They built connections. I'm starting from square one. And then also like my age was getting to me. I'm older than people I'm going to be in my classes with and stuff. But then I realized that NAU is a very transfer friendly school. Like you can even go through Greek life recruitment as a
transfer student. I did that when I transferred over here. And so it was like a way I put myself out there. And I really appreciate that because some universities are like strict to the book where it's like freshman year, if you didn't get here, too bad. So that's what I love about NAU. And so now I actually appreciate being a transfer student. I feel like it's given me more experiences and more things I can look back on. So, like sometimes if I'm in a class here and I learn something, I'm like, I feel like I learned that in my other school. That's pretty cool. Or like some things are like really different here then I can compare and contrast it. It just gives me a bigger view, I guess, of college life.

Brooke: Yeah, I totally agree with that. And what sorority are you in?

Arrajanee: I am in Kappa Delta. Yeah, I joined or pledged in fall of 2020.

Brooke: COVID times.

Arajanee: Yeah. Online recruitment is weird.

Brooke: I bet it is.

Arrajanee: But yeah, it's great memories.

Brooke: Good. Do you like your sorority sisters and everything?

Arrajanee: Oh, yeah. It's great to have a sisterhood, to help you build a community. I haven't been able to be as active because of classes, but it's still good.

Brooke: Cool. What do you wish people understood about the transfer experience?

Arajanee: I wish people understood that there's so many different stories to a transfer student. Like, I think some people can just imagine in their head like one cookie cutter transfer student, like, oh, they probably just didn't get along at their last school, didn't fill their last school, so they just came here. When some people, they actually finished degrees before, like, associate's degrees and then came up here. Some people were in school, took a break for like a long amount of time, like maybe even 10 years plus and are coming back. So I wish people knew that like transfer students have pretty cool stories to tell. So maybe like talk to someone.

Brooke: Yeah, just like you. Yeah, transfer students definitely don't all look the same. So I'm glad you touched on that. That's awesome. So now we're going to do this or that NAU edition. You ready? 

Arrajanee: Yes! 

Brooke: Cool. Okay. North or South campus?

Arrajanee: North campus, just because I live near North campus and then also all of my classes and everything is on North campus.

Brooke: Cool. Morning classes, afternoon classes or evening classes?

Arrajanee: Afternoon classes. It's like morning. It's hard to wake up.

Brooke: Yeah.

Arrajanee: Evening, it's in the way of like all the evening events. And it's like afternoon is just right there in the middle. Perfect.

Brooke: Solid. Union or HLC as a place to study?

Arrajanee: I would say the HLC because it's huge and it's easy to find like some random part of the building where it feels abandoned and no one's over there. So if you need quiet space for yourself, they have like cool couches with like little tables and stuff near it. You can hang out there. Or if you need to be around people, they even have like a cafe. They have a smoothie bar and then the gym's in there. So like you want to go work out. That's cool too.

Brooke: Yeah. The HLC is pretty cool and the union's always like packed so you can never like find a good place to study. 

Arrajanee: Yeah, I feel like it echoes a lot in the union.

Brooke: Yeah. All right. Sun or snow?

Arrajanee: I am a snow person. I love snow. I feel like it looks like powdered sugars being just like dropped in the sky.

Brooke: That's cute. All right. So I think I know the answer to this fall or winter.

Arrajanee: Winter. Yeah. Just because the snow, I love it. It looks like hallmark everywhere. Looks like a little like a Christmas card.

Brooke: So, since you're graduating either in the spring or the summer, what are your plans for after graduation?

Arrajanee: So, I plan to like apply to internships. Right now I'm trying to find an internship in Australia. I saw that there's an internship abroad opportunity out there. So I was going to do that through NAU and see what the possibilities are. So fingers crossed on that.

Brooke: That's sick, good luck!

Arrajanee: Thank you. And then other than that, I might try acting. I do have an interest in being a working actor. So I might just like try to get an agent maybe and start doing auditions.

Brooke: I can't wait to see you in some stuff one day. That'll be so awesome. Thank you so much, Arrajanee, for coming in and joining us today. We appreciate you taking the time to share your experience with us.

Arrajanee: Thank you. I had a great time! Thank you for having me.

Brooke: Of course!