How to Start a Transfer Student Event on Your Campus: 8 Tips From an LSU Transfer Student
Oct 20, 2026
How LSU student leader Joshua Jones found campus partners and secured funding to start LSU’s first National Transfer Student Week.
At Louisiana State University (LSU), Joshua Jones helped bring National Transfer Student Week, a national initiative hosted every year by the National Resource Center on First Year Experience and Students in Transition during the third week of October, to campus, while carrying a full course load. A community college transfer student himself, he used his role in student government to advocate for the celebration, secure funding and bring campus offices into the planning.
“I wanted transfer students to see themselves represented on campus and have more opportunities to connect after orientation.” -Joshua Jones
For many transfer students, finding a sense of belonging at a new college isn't always easy. While most institutions offer orientation, these programs are often designed with first-time college students in mind, leaving transfer students to figure out much of the transition on their own.
Beyond learning their way around a new campus, transfer students are also trying to build friendships, get involved and find a community where they feel connected. And when orientation ends, there may be few opportunities or resources specifically designed to help them navigate those challenges.
For LSU’s first National Transfer Student Week, Jones secured nearly $2,000 in student government funding for shirts, stickers, and notebooks with pens. For the second year (happening Oct. 19-23), he created a committee of campus partners, with offices sharing responsibility for a resource and networking mixer, professional headshots, a career lunch and learn, a study skills session and a coffee chat for veterans and transfer students.
His work reaches beyond that one week. Jones also created Transfer Tiger Trek, LSU's first welcome week event for transfer students. Nine campus offices took part, including admissions, financial aid, the career center and study abroad.
For students who want to start transfer programming on their own campus, Jones’s experience offers practical guidance on where to begin and how to best advocate for transfer programming, because in many cases, it will not be easy. Here is how he found support, where he looked for funding and what he learned about turning an idea into events students could attend.
1. Find a campus organization that can help
Jones served on student government, which gave him a way to advocate for the needs of the transfer student community. He wrote two resolutions: one to update LSU’s transfer student website and one urging the university to highlight National Transfer Student Week. Through his website resolution, he worked with a student affairs communications manager on updating information that transfer students might otherwise have to obtain at an admissions event or orientation.
He recommends that other students find a similar starting point, whether that is student government, Tau Sigma Honors Society or a transfer student organization. Those groups offer connections to administrators and to the staff already working with transfer students.
It also helps to arrive knowing what students need. Jones gathered that feedback through Qualtrics surveys. This can often be vital as it is tough to advocate for money without showing there is an issue, so having the data and the student stories to make your case may be necessary.
2. Ask an experienced organizer how they did it
Jones’s next step was to find people who had already done it. Searching online for National Transfer Student Week programming, he found multi-day celebrations at the University of South Carolina and the University of Georgia. Then he came across Binghamton University’s schedule.
"Golly, they have a lot of events," he remembered thinking. "Can LSU pull this off?"
So he asked. He contacted Michael Henningsen, who works in Binghamton’s Office of Transfer Student Success, to learn how he plans and coordinates a full week and what Jones could bring back to LSU.
One conversation led to more. Jones then joined Transfer Nation, a community for advocates and professionals who work with transfer students or on transfer-specific issues, where he spoke with transfer professionals about planning and evaluation. He later helped to host a national think tank event with others focused on starting their own celebrations. You can find more inspiration for transfer events here.
3. Recruit partners before carrying the whole project yourself
Jones’s first year taught him how demanding an entire week could be alongside taking about 15 credit hours. "Coordinating all of it was very hard," he said.
His advice to anyone starting out: "Please form a committee."
As he planned this year's celebration, he approached LSU offices that worked with transfer students and asked who might be interested in participating in the planning of National Transfer Student Week. University College, the Center for Academic Success, Student Affairs and Parent and Family Programs were among the partners that said yes.
From there, each office selected a day of the week to host an event or join another department to organize an event. This allowed Jones to help lead the committee rather than trying to connect and run every piece himself. Below is the collective outline of events they came up with for this year's celebration.
- Monday, Oct. 19: Transfer Connections, a resource and networking mixer with Student Government, student organizations and campus offices
- Tuesday, Oct. 20: Transfer Student Headshots, professional photos students can use for LinkedIn and Handshake
- Wednesday, Oct. 21: Transfer Career Power Hour, a lunch and learn with the Olinde Career Center on résumés and LinkedIn profiles, followed by drop-in hours at the Tailored Tiger Closet for free professional clothing
- Thursday, Oct. 22: Transfer Study Skills & Success, a workshop with University College and the Center for Academic Success on time management and study techniques
- Friday, Oct. 23: Veterans & Transfer Coffee Chat, a breakfast at the William A. Brookshire Military & Veterans Student Center to close the week
4. Explain the purpose and make a specific request
Jones had an advantage when he proposed Transfer Week. Administrators already knew who he was, and he said they were receptive.
Students starting from scratch have to make the case. As Jones mentioned earlier, surveys can be a great way to gather data in order to make the case. He recommends a deck of five to seven slides that explains the week, states why it matters and shows how administrators can take part.
The request itself can be small. An administrator could record a 30- to 60-second video to open or close the week, or come to an event and talk with students about their experiences.
Whatever the request, lead with the purpose. "State your why and show how administrators can play a role," Jones said.
5. Ask about existing funding channels
Jones did not have to raise money from scratch. As a senator, he used student government senate funding to allocate nearly $2,000 for LSU’s first National Transfer Student Week. It paid for shirts, stickers, and notebooks with pens.
He plans to ask the student senate for funding again for the second year. "I'll definitely try to use that again," he said.
He found other places to ask, too. One committee member offered to ask their supervisors about funding a meal. LSU Auxiliary Services has a donation request form. "That's another outlet," he said.
The Alumni Association can also be a terrific partner, as they are interested in continually cultivating lifelong alumni loyalty and leadership. Plus, it helps alumni associations understand that a sense of belonging and that transfer students matter to the four-year institution, which is vital to shifting the culture on college campuses.
6. Promote the week as hard as you plan it
For Transfer Week, he described setting up a welcome table in Free Speech Alley, a location student organizations already use. His advice was to look for places where students naturally gather and, during the week, to set up there.
The fall social that opened LSU's first Transfer Week drew the biggest turnout, and Jones credits promotion. LSU Marketing and Communications covered it and posted it on Instagram and TikTok. The other events, he said, did not get as much engagement as he would have liked.
Marketing was "very difficult" that first year. The LSU transfer week had no website to provide specific information, and delays in student government elections pushed everything back.
This time the committee met early to get its marketing out. The plan included promotion on the TV screens in the student union and senior colleges, and a National Transfer Student Week page on LSU's website.
7. Bring food and swag
Asked for his must-haves, Jones was direct: "You've got to have food and swag."
Food runs through the schedule. There is lunch on Wednesday, snacks at Thursday's study skills session and coffee on Friday.
The first year's budget bought shirts, stickers, and notebooks with pens. The notebooks did not get much engagement, so more money can go to shirts, including an "I Heart Transfer" design. Jones wants students to wear them to games and around campus.
"If you see someone wearing the same shirt," he said, "it's like, 'Okay, cool. I want to start a conversation.'"
8. Make sure the work outlasts you
Jones graduates in May 2027. He wants the celebration to keep going after he leaves.
That is the job of the week's final event, the Veterans and Transfer Coffee Chat. It is an informal Friday gathering, with coffee and breakfast, that brings transfer students together with students from LSU's veterans and military center. Jones included military veterans because often the majority of student veterans are transfers and/or have taken the less ‘traditional’ educational and professional journey so can relate to the shared experience. The chat doubles as a review of the week. Students and offices talk through what worked, what did not and what should change. Jones called it a "reflective moment."
"I want someone to keep getting that student feedback," he said, "and asking, 'How can we make National Transfer Student Week better?'"
Create the table
Asked what drives him, Jones returned to the lack of visibility he found when he arrived at LSU.
"When you don't see yourself," he said, "be the person who creates the table."
Keep reading
Interested in how a university organizes National Transfer Student Week? Read Planning Transfer Week? Start With Partners, Promotion and a Reason to Attend, featuring Michael Henningsen of Binghamton University’s Office of Transfer Student Success. He shares how he builds campus partnerships, promotes events and creates experiences that encourage transfer students to participate.
Michael also hosts The Transfer Table, a podcast for transfer students. Binghamton’s Office of Transfer Student Success links to it from its website.
Resources to get started
Planning a transfer student event on your own campus? These are good places to begin:
- LSU's National Transfer Student Week page shows the full 2026 schedule Jones's committee put together.
- The National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition offers a National Transfer Student Week marketing kit and ideas for campuses.
- Transfer Nation is the community where Jones connected with transfer professionals and who he is currently working with to grow the transfer student community and resources.
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