Tracing the Path Forward: How CAS Transfer Student Leaders are Building Community for New Transfers

On Tuesday nights, the Lattie F. Coor House, the wood-paneled home of the administrative offices for UVM’s College of Arts and Sciences (CAS), is filled with action.

Ten Transfer Student Leaders (TSLs) and two TSL Directors (TSL-Ds) can be found at the round table in the main meeting room, planning events for the Tr.A.C.E. program, discussing the qualities of a good leader, and making each other laugh. Matthew Claeys, the CAS Transfer Success Coordinator, listens in on the meeting.

Claeys founded the Tr.A.C.E. program–which stands for Transfer, Accelerate, Complete, Engage–in early 2025 after noticing students transferring into CAS from other institutions faced challenges with their transition. Tr.A.C.E. acts as a support system for incoming transfers: In addition to providing resources for students, like off-campus housing guidance and a “Transfer to Triumph” course taught by Claeys, the organization also hosts monthly events designed to foster connections between transfer students.

“Tr.A.C.E. has helped me a lot,” says current TSL Phoebe Boehm. “I was really sad and lonely and I regretted transferring, and then I joined Tr.A.C.E. That’s how I made a lot of my initial connections, and now I enjoy being at UVM.”

The TSLs are the backbone of the Tr.A.C.E. program. Each TSL is a previous transfer student in CAS who has attended one or more institutions besides UVM. They collaborate to plan social events during the semester, develop formal communication skills by sending out personalized weekly emails to new transfer students, and help Claeys improve the future of the transfer student experience at UVM.

Input from the TSLs helped to shape one of Tr.A.C.E.’s most significant accomplishments. Drawing on their own feedback, the TSLs worked together with Claeys to advocate for a change to the transfer student experience during Orientation. Instead of being intermixed with first-years, incoming transfer students are now placed into orientation groups exclusively with other transfers. In the spring 2026 semester, 70 new students transferred into CAS. All of them were grouped with other transfer students and led by previous transfer student Orientation Leaders (OLs).

As Boehm says, “It’s easier to connect over things that a lot of students struggle with.” This change was designed to provide relevant programming to students who may have already been through orientation at other institutions, and to immediately create opportunities for transfer students to relate to one another and build community.

Conner Hazard Grover serves as both a TSL and an OL, and he has seen first-hand the impact that Tr.A.C.E. has had on welcoming new transfer students into UVM. “I’ve learned what other people’s transfer experiences are like, compared to my own,” he says. “I’ve been able to understand other aspects of the transfer experience and to take those TSL skills back to Orientation.”

Fostering connection is Tr.A.C.E.’s main mission. Not only are TSLs working to create systems of support for transfer students to fall back on, but they are also becoming members of that community themselves.

“Being a TSL helped me make some really good friends, and it’s helped me bond with other transfer students,” says Leeza Kusmit. She loves sending out her weekly emails to the new transfer students assigned to her, knowing that showing up for students consistently creates a bond that can deepen as the semester progresses. “Eventually, I become friends with some of [the students],” says Kusmit.

No matter how they choose to interact with Tr.A.C.E., the program ensures that transfer students know CAS is actively working to support them. “Transferring is a lot more common than you think it is,” says Kusmit. “I’ll be talking to people in class and they’ll say, ‘I’m a transfer student,’ and I’ll ask if they know about Tr.A.C.E. They don’t always come to the events, but they still appreciate that Tr.A.C.E. is there.”

The TSLs are championing transfer students’ visibility in the UVM community. Building on the success of its past initiatives, with a cadre of passionate former transfer students at the helm, it is clear that Tr.A.C.E. is only just getting started.

Take it from Hazard Grover: “Tr.A.C.E. is one of the many reasons I love UVM.”

Mo Ray is a junior majoring in English and Film and Television Studies, as well as a Transfer Student Leader for the College of Arts and Sciences. He also serves as an editor for Headwaters Magazine. When he is not writing, he loves playing guitar, making sourdough bread, and going to independent movie theaters.