Cora: Welcome back Transfer Talk Podcast. My name is Cora Brown and I am a Transfer Jack Peer Mentor. Joining me today is our lovely guest who wants to share their Transfer Jack experience with us.

Esteban: Hi, my name is Esteban Carrasco. I'm from Mexico and I transferred to NAU from Arizona Western College in Yuma, Arizona.

Cora: Nice. Well, we're so lovely to have you with us today and share your story with us. But before we get to share your story with our lovely guests, let's do our NAU edition. So pretty much what this means is I'm going to give you a this or that situation or object and you can explain to me which one you would prefer and kind of why. Okay?

Esteban: Okay. 

Cora: Okay. So sun or snow?

Esteban: Sun. I mean, I like, I grew up in the desert so I'm not used to the snow. I like it but I'm not there yet.

Cora: Yeah, I have to completely agree with you with the recent snow storms that we've been happening. I'm ready for some sun. It's yesterday was the first day of Spring and it was snowing so. Okay. So Fall semester or Spring semester?

Esteban: Fall. Mostly because I like the transition between from warmth to cold and I prefer the cold. Also, I like the end of the year. October, Halloween, one of my favorite festivities.

Cora: All the fun holidays. 

Esteban: All the good ones, at least.

Cora: Okay. So Fall or Winter?

Esteban: Fall. Still fall.

Cora: Why?

Esteban: I don't know. It's just like Winter is nice. I mean, Christmas time and all that. But I just prefer Fall. It's like, also it's about the transition from the warmth to the cold. Also the colors of Autumn. They're pretty nice.

Cora: I love watching the leaves fall. 

Esteban: Yeah.

Cora: So I get that. Okay. Homecoming or family weekend?

Esteban: I think Homecoming because like, normally you see your family once or twice in a while. And like Homecoming is more of an opportunity to meet more people your age, meet more friends around campus. You get to socialize more with a lot of different people.

Cora: I get that. I completely agree. Being either an out-of-state student or a transfer student, it's a little hard to enjoy a Family Weekend when your family's quite far apart.

Esteban: Yeah. My, my family's kind of far.

Cora: Yeah. Same here. Mine has never came. 

Esteban: Mine has never.

Cora: I think the first time they came down here was just to kick me into the dorms and was like, see you later. See you at graduation.

Esteban: I was, I got to campus by myself from the get-go.

Cora: Oh wow.

Esteban: It wasn't that bad.

Cora: Okay. So the Union or HLC for studying? Which one would you prefer?

Esteban: I think HLC. Normally I go there because there's a place that I like. It's quiet and I can go there, get some studying done. And in the Union like, there's good spots to study but there's always some kind of noise around and I focus better with quiet.

Cora: I get that. The Union can be quite busy, especially in the morning and afternoon rush.

Esteban: It's always busy.

Cora: NAU North Campus or South Campus?

Esteban: Most of my classes are on South Campus and I'm going to be in South Campus next semester so I'm just going to go with that.

Cora: I agree. A lot of my classes are in South Campus but coming up to North Campus and coming to like the Union, they have some nice food.

Esteban: Yeah. I mean I live in Central Campus so the Union's pretty close by.

Cora: Okay. So morning classes or afternoon slash evening classes?

Esteban: Morning classes. I like, I'm not an early bird at all. I hate waking up at seven or six but I enjoy my afternoons. I like my free afternoons.

Cora: I get that. I have taken a combination of both morning and afternoon classes and I enjoy it a lot more when I have my morning classes. I get done at like 12 instead of having to wait for the entire day to go by. For my afternoon class it's at like five so I get that. NAU Gold or NAU Blue?

Esteban: I'll go with blue. Like mostly because I think blue, like blue and gold are school colors but I think blue is the most recognizable one. Also blue because it's for a laundry situation. Dark colors are just easy to put in the washing machine for me.

Cora: You're not wrong.

Esteban: I prefer dark ones.

Cora: So the Dub or the Hot Spot?

Esteban: The Hot Spot. I mean the Dub has some nice food but I don't go there that often. I only like once or twice in the week because of my classes and it's like walking distance. And I live in Central Campus so the Hot Spot's pretty close and I go there in the mornings and the evenings at night. And they have the sandwich that I like.

Cora: What kind of sandwich?

Esteban: It's like, it has like a whole wheat bread with chipotle, lettuce, tomato, and turkey.

Cora: Sounds actually good. I'm quite hungry right now so. Okay. Well, that concludes our NAU edition. Now we're going to do more of the lighthearted questions.
So what has been your favorite memory been here at NAU so far?

Esteban: Maybe the first time I actually hung out with all my friends outside of like the clubs we met in because like when COVID started I, I graduated from high school in 2020. Like when the pandemic began so I lost a lot of communication with my friends, with a lot of people. And from 2020 to 2022 I was pretty much alone and didn't have a lot of friends. Not a lot of people I could talk to. So when I got here I started meeting new people and yeah I still remember the first day we all just, as soon as we left our club we all went to our friend's dorm and we just hung out. All of us. It was my, one of the best memories I have ever since I got to NAU.

Cora: Oh that's awesome. Nothing like hanging out with people or meeting new people. 

Esteban: Or having friends at all.

Cora: Or having friends at all. I completely agree. I for myself also graduated in 2020 and gotta, had to leave my friends and didn't really get to say goodbye to them before I came down to Arizona. So I completely get the lonely feeling and then coming here and meeting new amazing people. It's always kind of nice. Some of them are crazy but it's nice to meet new people especially down here.

Esteban: Yeah I mean I spoke, I had once, one or two conversations with people in my classes in my community college but none I keep in touch with now.

Cora: It's a different feeling. 

Esteban: Yeah it's a different feeling. 

Cora: So what was your favorite transfer event that you've been to?

Esteban: There's two actually.

Cora: Yeah.

Esteban: Yeah the first one would be the one time we went to a laser tag thing.

Cora: Laser tag yes.

Esteban: I don't know if I, I think the first round I, I didn't do well but the second round I think I was in third or second place which felt good to me.

Cora: Yeah.

Esteban: The second event was like it was the most recent one when we all played dodgeball and used head and nerve guns and all that. And I remember that we were just chasing each other and I saw a few people like slip because we weren't like we were wearing snow boots in that area and it was very slippery. I know I remember when I was when we were playing dodgeball I ran to get one of the balls and as soon as I wanted to back out I started slipping and I fell.

Cora: Oh no.

Esteban: And I had to like stay in the back just for support.

Cora: Well first I want to go back to the dodge, not the dodgeball, the laser tag and the reason why you got third place in the second round is because you cornered me and just kept on shooting at me and then I couldn't really do anything because I was cornered by you and another transfer student. So for listeners that's reading, or listening to this do you think that was fair because I think it was not.

Esteban: I am not above some dirty tricks just to get to first place.

Cora: So you say. And then the other event the Transfer Welcome Event that we have I really really enjoyed that one too and playing capture the flag 

Esteban: Oh, capture the flag.

Cora: And winning it in 2.5 seconds.

Esteban: Yeah. I was always on the losing team.

Cora: Yeah but I'm glad that those were your two like favorite transfer event ones and there's plenty more to still come. So, okay, so what was your experience like in your previous school?

Esteban: Like community college or high school?

Cora: Community college.

Esteban: I mean, it was a, it was a bit of a mixed bag. I started with online courses because like I said graduated from 2020. Pandemic had barely begun. Everyone was scared and no one wanted to take any chances which I understood. So for two semesters, I, yeah, for two semesters, I took online courses which was fine. We had Zoom calls. Some classes were with our cameras off. Some with, were with the cameras on. And I was still in the house so it was that. But then in the, my third and fourth semester I actually went to the school and took some in-person classes which was nice. Yeah, it was, it took some time getting used to it again after being stuck in my house for a long time. And I did talk to some people there but most of the time it was just for like one of, one of the assignments we had or they weren't people like they weren't people my age someone I could like. There wasn't a lot of people my age like because most of my high school friends have gone on to other cities. I was the only one who stayed here. But yeah it was it had its good, it had its good times. The teachers were nice and the people I talked to were nice. But like I said before I was, I was alone there so that was the only downside I could think of.

Cora: It must have been hard to experience. But with that experience what was your experience like transferring to NAU?

Esteban: It was overwhelming.

Cora: Yeah

Esteban: Yea, I was not ready for it. I was not ready for it at all. Like everyone kept asking me like my mom, my sister, my grandma, everyone kept asking me the same question like are you ready to do this? Are you ready to take this next step? And all of them I just gave them the same answer. I told them no I am not, but I'm here already, so I'm here so I'm going to make the best of it. But yeah I like it was I knew that I knew that I had to transfer eventually. I could not stay where I was forever and it was overwhelming when I got here because all the people were just walking like people were when I got here. It was the day before classes and people were just talking, chatting with each other. Some people knew each other, some people were together, some were alone, and I felt like overwhelmed because this was an experience for me. This was my first time like really being on my own here. So yeah overwhelming.

Cora: I completely agree with you. My experience I came during the pandemic and I was doing classes online so there wasn't like a lot of people around. And then in my second year that's when campus like fully reopened again and I saw so many people and I was overwhelmed too. I was like I didn't know we had this many kids that go to our school like I didn't know we have this many students and it was kind of nerve-wracking to walk and like I don't know about you but every time I was like walking to the business building I feel like I was getting stared at. I was like because I was like by myself and it was kind of an uncomfortable feeling. But after being here for some time I just kind of realized it was because they were also new and didn't really know what to do either. So but with that how does it feel like how do you feel about being a transfer student?

Esteban: It's a, I really didn't know anything about being a transfer student per se before I came here. I thought it was I thought it was going to be any other student like the rest of them and in a way, I am, everyone here is just a student. But I didn't that I didn't know there was like a lounge for students or I didn't know there was like events specially for the transfer students. I didn't know anything about Transfer Jacks. So yeah it was a surprise when I saw all of it.

Cora: When I came after you and was like we have to have a meeting. 

Esteban: Yeah I was like, I was so surprised. I was like that there was something wrong. Something going on.

Cora: No, no, no. Okay, so what was your feeling about it when you first came to NAU compared to now?

Esteban: Well when I got here like I said I was pretty overwhelmed. I didn't really know what to expect. I didn't have any plans. I came in here blind which was good or bad. That's it's up for debate. That's up to, that's up to the person. And now I'm much more comfortable here. I, Now that I know more about how things work around here. I know more of the places. I have my group of friends with me. I have people I talk to every single day. I mean I have my Transfer Jacks Mentor who puts up with me. Props to her.

Cora: Thank you, thank you.

Esteban: Now I'm much more relaxed. I mean I'm still stressed because of classes and school and everything like everyone else is. But I'm much more quote-unquote relaxed. You can't see it but I did the quote sign with my fingers.

Cora: Yes, yes, yes I can fully get that's nerve-wracking coming here at first. It takes a while to kind of get custom and settle down but you're still going to have that stress with all the classes. That does not change no matter if it's your first semester here or your last semester here. The stress of the classes is sadly still there. What is one piece of advice that you would like to give to incoming transfer students?

Esteban:  Don't rush into things. Like, like you got, you got a lot of support systems here like academically and emotionally and all of that. Like don't do what I did pretty much. Don't think that as soon as you get here you need to have all the answers or you need to have your entire life figured out. I mean God knows I don't have anything in my life figured out. I'm playing everything I do, everything I do up until this day. I'm just playing it by year. And it's working so far. But yeah just take it slow and if you need help and you're a transfer student you need help just talk to your mentor whoever it is. Yeah you have a lot of people here that can help you get some answers you need or if you ever need or are stuck in a bind.

Cora: I completely agree with that answer. No one knows all the questions that you need to know. You know. Everyone here may look like they got it together but we've all been in the phase of we don't know what we're doing. Even those that we admire that have graduated they still don't know what they're doing.

Esteban: I'm pretty sure when I graduate I'm still not going to have any idea what I'm going to do.

Cora: I have no clue and I graduate in a semester so I completely get that. Well, thank you so much for joining us today. We really appreciate you coming and kind of sharing your transfer experience with us and sharing what it was kind of like for you and making connections with maybe future Transfer Jack students that are incoming. And yeah thank you so much.

Esteban: Yeah I mean who knows maybe someday I'll end up being a mentor myself.

Cora: Oh we would love that.

Esteban: Who knows?