Virtual transfer event to expose students to educational, vocational opportunities

In conjunction with Arizona Western College (AWC)’s annual transfer week, the institution’s university partners are collectively hosting the inaugural Desert Southwest Virtual Transfer Conference March 8-11.

Afforded through U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) grant funding awarded to the University of Arizona-Yuma branch campus (UA-Yuma) last fall, the conference is aimed toward exposing students to the educational and vocational opportunities that exist in the local community.

Throughout the week, representatives from UA-Yuma and the local Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University campuses will host informational sessions and application workshops to help create a smooth transfer experience for college students seeking opportunities on the baccalaureate level.

Students will also hear from keynote speakers on maximizing their strengths, breaking the barriers inhibiting their success and the value of bachelor’s degree attainment in supplying local workforce and economic demands – an area in which Yuma is trailing far behind, according to UA-Yuma regional academic programs manager Tanya Hodges,

“In the Yuma County region, our bachelor’s degree attainment rates are 14%, compared to the state which is close to 28%, compared to the national level which is 32%,” Hodges said. “We are way behind everybody else. Which again goes back to why do we have this gap; we have plenty of jobs, but we don’t have the skill set and education necessary (to fill them). The hospital and the ag industry, Yuma Proving Ground, the Gowan Company and all these big corporate companies and agencies that are in Yuma – they want to grow their own so that they’re not having to spend as many dollars as they’re spending now in recruitment and retention. In order to do that, we have to go back all the way through the pipeline and start building the number of students that have a bachelor’s degree.”

By spurring students to start weighing their options before their graduation date draws near, Hodges said she hopes the transfer conference will also serve to enhance students’ perception of self.

“We’re trying to close the gap on some of those perceptions,” she said. “A lot of first-generation students don’t have that peer mentoring, so they don’t visualize themselves as a professional – as an engineer, or a nurse or a teacher or an accountant. This (conference) is also trying to empower students to start seeing the strengths that they have so that they don’t talk themselves out of it.”

In a similar vein, Hodges hopes the transfer conference will also re-engage students who’ve checked out amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“So many college students have disengaged; the pandemic has caused this environment of fear, and then some students have needed to help support their families, so what’s happened is they’ve needed to put their education on the back burner or maybe take a lot less credits or maybe just getting the ‘C’ instead of really putting their time into school for the ‘A,’” she said.

On the final day of the conference, industry and peer mentor panelists will discuss internships and their value, paired with skills and education, in getting one’s foot in the doorway to the workforce.

“Industry will be there to say, ‘We need you – we need you to get your degree, to be skilled and educated, and here’s why,’” Hodges said. “The mentorship piece is getting seniors in college or early alumni that are barely graduated to talk about their challenges and how they overcame them and, from their perspective, if it’s doable or not.”

But making those discoveries, according to Hodges, is just a preliminary step.

“If we don’t start getting more people with bachelor’s degree education and the skilled workforce that we’re needing in our community, then we can’t continue to grow the next step – which is filling the gaps in that workforce, or even being able to recruit new industry to Yuma because we have a skilled and educated workforce,” said Hodges. “Right now, we don’t have that.”

The provisions of the two-year grant allow the conference to recur next year; after that, Hodges said the intention is to imbed the event in the community as an sustainable, annual opportunity.

To register for the Southwest Desert Virtual Transfer Conference, visit www. iseemegrant.wordpress.com/transfer-conference. The first 100 students to register will receive a “conference-in-a-box” stocked with snacks and university paraphernalia.

According to Hodges, having the status of a college student is not a prerequisite for participating in the event – it is open to high school students, parents, individuals who are already established in the workforce and anyone else who’s interested in tapping into the well of educational and career-related opportunities available in Yuma.

With questions, contact Hodges at 928-271-9560.