Finding your place at a university as large as Michigan State can be a challenge. For transfer students who have limited time on campus, finding community and resources can be doubly difficult.
For Aesha Zakaria, a senior double majoring in Psychology and Human Biology with a minor in International Development, even growing up in East Lansing for most of her life did not fully prepare her for the transition.
“Even though I lived in East Lansing, I didn’t really go to MSU’s campus,” she explained. “So when I transferred to MSU, I was pretty much starting fresh with MSU’s campus and getting acquainted with resources. Living by MSU is very different than going to school there.”
Finding her place
Born in Iraq, Aesha and her family moved to East Lansing when she was a child while her father pursued his Ph.D. at MSU. A graduate of East Lansing High School, Aesha did an early college program at Lansing Community College before transferring to MSU in the spring of 2023.
With a keen interest in acclimating and finding her way around campus, Aesha became a student leader with New Student Orientation in the summer of 2023, where she ultimately became familiar with the Transfer Student Success Center (TSSC) and the Transfer Student Advisory Board (TSAB).
“It takes a while to get acclimated to this campus and to every college, department, resource that is out here,” Aesha explained. “As a transfer student, you don't have as much time to explore campus and explore all the ways in which you can get involved.” But with the help of TSSC and TSAB, Aesha began making more connections and finding her way.
MSU’s Transfer Student Success Center, part of the Transitions and Transfer Student Success unit in the Office of Undergraduate Education, focuses on eliminating barriers to success MSU transfer students face through collaborative efforts with internal and external partners. Part of the work of the TSSC includes TSAB which is a diverse group of transfer students from various backgrounds who provide insight and feedback on how to improve the transfer experience at MSU.
The work of TSSC and TSAB all aim to ensure the limited time transfer students have is marked by engagement and community building, “The Transfer Student Success Center exists to ensure that every transfer student at MSU feels seen, supported, and empowered from day one,” said Charles Jackson, director of the Transfer Student Success Center. “And combined with the Transfer Student Advisory Board, these resources bring transfer student voices directly into the conversation, helping us shape programs and policies that reflect their true needs.”
Starting the conversation
As Aesha continued to acclimate to MSU, she became more involved and soon was elected to be APASO's Vice President of Undergraduate Student Affairs (VPUA). From there, she became the ASMSU General Assembly representative for APASO. During this time as a representative, Aesha noticed that many other student groups—like first-year and international—had representation in the ASMSU General Assembly, but there was no seat for transfer students, “There was a gap in terms of transfer student representation because there was nothing, no representative to speak on behalf of their interests,” she explained.
ASMSU is the undergraduate student government at MSU, where they work to enhance the “individual and collective student experience through education, empowerment and advocacy by dedication to the needs and interests of students.” In Aesha’s mind, the lack of transfer student representation could be contributing to a lack of visibility to the needs of transfer students, and she felt she could make an impact.
“I started seeing the ways in which we can improve the transfer student experience because every transfer student should be able to find and engage with their transfer student community and access all the resources that are there for them,” she said. With her involvement with ASMSU, she had a possible solution: draft and work to pass a bill to create a dedicated seat in ASMSU’s General Assembly for transfer students.
Drafting the bill was a collaborative effort, supported across offices and the institution. “I ended up collaborating with then Vice President of Internal Administration of ASMSU Kathy Harding, now ASMSU president, on the bill, of which she was very supportive. Ashley Hewlett, program coordinator within the TSSC, also provided important numbers and statistics about transfer students, so we could incorporate that research into the bill,” Aesha described. “It was a team effort and a testament to show that with teamwork and a vision, you can go very far.”
Overall, Aesha said the process for getting the bill drafted, and subsequently passed, was relatively smooth, and she found all those she engaged with in its development were incredibly supportive of the goal. This new representation on ASMSU will, ideally, provide a structural and a cultural shift where the needs of transfer students will be formally acknowledged, providing them a voice within committees and assemblies when major decisions affecting students are being taken.
This will also help to deepen the growing transfer student network across campus and funnel more transfer students into leadership positions. “I wanted to make sure that there’s other ways where transfer students can be heard and their needs can be met by the university,” Aesha added. This fall semester, the first transfer student seat in the ASMSU General Assembly was filled.
As MSU continues its dedicated work on the transfer student experience, in 2024 securing MiLEAP grant funding to help build a robust, welcoming ecosystem of transfer student resources and opportunities, this seat on ASMSU is an incredible step in this ongoing work.
“Aesha’s initiative to establish a dedicated ASMSU seat for transfer students is a powerful statement that transfer students deserve to be heard, supported, and represented. Her work bridges the gap between student experience and institutional action, and it’s exactly the kind of advocacy that helps us build a more inclusive and responsive university,” said Charles Jackson. “As we grow the TSSC and our offerings for transfer students, I look forward to more opportunities to continue developing and engaging in positive change for our students’ success.”
Learn more about the Transfer Student Success Center and MSU’s MiLEAP grant work.