In order to help nursing students continue their academic careers and fulfill their goals in the nursing field, the Career/Transfer Center held its annual Nursing Networks Series, an event exposing nursing students to four-year universities’ nursing programs that they can transfer into.

The event was held Sept. 20, from noon to 3 p.m. in Fireside Hall, with guest representatives from San Francisco State University, Cal State-East Bay, Holy Names University, Samuel Merritt University and the University of Phoenix.

“The first hour was a meet and greet with food where representatives were able to converse with the students and let them ask questions and talk informally,” Career/Transfer Center counselor Andrea Phillips said.

The next hour and 45 minutes of the event consisted of representatives from the universities hosting presentations about their programs, explaining how to be competitive applicants, talking about the aspects of the application process and telling in detail how they review applicants.

The final 15 minutes of the event included a question and answer period for the nursing students and the representatives.

Phillips coordinated this entire event by herself, with help from her career/transfer center assistant Marina Melara.

One hundred people were signed up for the event, and they were not only CCC nursing students, but this event was open to people from all over the Bay Area, including students from CCC’s sister colleges —Diablo Valley College and Los Medanos College.

The event was marketed all over the Bay Area on social media and various websites.

“We wanted anyone that wanted this information to have it accessible to them,” Melara said. “We wanted to let them (the representatives) show that CCC has partnerships and we work closely with other schools.

“If someone comes to CCC, we will have that connection for them. We really wanted to showcase that and let people know that they can start their careers here, and then move on.”

This was Phillips’s fourth year hosting the event.

Though Phillips is a counselor for the Career/Transfer Center, she is solely a transfer counselor.

This was exclusively a transfer services event.

The free event received 80-90 attendees, filling Fireside Hall to capacity.

“Samuel Merritt has always done a Meet, Greet and Eat, and they sponsored the food portion with us. They provided that as an opportunity for our students to break bread together and talk

informally before the formal presentations,” Phillips said.

Biology major Donna Reyes said she is looking to change her major to nursing and she wants to work in a hospital environment that is hands-on.

She said that if she could not complete the nursing program at CCC, then she would want to transfer to a four-year university.

Phillips said a few years ago, former adjunct counselor Kim Blackwell saw a need to start offering more opportunities for nursing majors regarding transfer.

Together, the two started this event as something very small, but it has blossomed over the years.

“We saw a need as our pre-nursing students started to grow, but a lot of them had interest in transferring to four-year institutions and keeping their options open for nursing programs,” Phillips said.

A CCC alum, Andrew Almacen, was at the event and he spoke to the CCC nursing students.

He just recently graduated from UCLA’s nursing program.

He was accepted into nine California State Universities and both UC Irvine and UCLA, where he ultimately decided to attend.

“He was able to give some very insightful organizational tips and things to think about as students are planning to apply for nursing programs,” Phillips said.