The quad was filled with students celebrating their last semester in LMC as they prepare to transfer to their final college. On Tuesday, May 6th, LMC Transfer and Career Services held a Transfer celebration event for students transferring to colleges, but they opened the event to the LMC population.
The event ran from noon to 3 p.m., and there were many activities. Students ran and jumped through the large inflatable bounce houses. Others sat at the cap decorating station and customized their graduation cap to prepare for the graduation ceremony.
Kat Pangilinan, a student life associate and physics major transferring to Cal State Long Beach, enjoyed decorating her cap.
“I just like to decorate stuff. So, cap decorating is really fun.” Pangilianan said. “ I’m going to decorate it like Trolls band together; bro zone cover album.”
One of the most popular activities was the dunk tank. The celebration attendees were given three baseballs, and they’d throw them to hit the target. The LMC professor would fall into the dunk tank if the target were hit. Many students lined up to try their hand at dunking their favorite professors in water, while the other professors volunteered to be dunked.
The water and lemonade refreshed the students and kept them hydrated in the 80-degree weather, while popcorn and cotton candy were freely given to students.
Briana Rose, a student life associate who helped distribute popcorn, understood how important this celebration is for transfer students.
“Celebrating transferring is so important because it’s a huge accomplishment that is basically your first steps of completing a college education, so you’re just one step closer to completing your goals,” Rose said.
The primary department that ran the event was Career and Transfer students; the volunteers who helped with the event came from student life workers and Career and Transfer workers. The planning started six months ago.
The Senior Program Coordinator for transfer services, Sandra Parsons, recounted the event planning process.
“So I met with the transfer career services team. We would meet on a weekly basis for the last three months before that, primarily it’s me because I do this every year, so I already know what to expect,” she said.
Before the transfer celebration, they personally invited graduates to attend the festival and encouraged them to decorate their caps for the graduation celebration. However, the event was open to the broader community. It was run in the middle of the campus for a reason.
“Unfortunately, not everybody always knows about it. So by hosting it in this area, even if a student’s just walking to class, they’re gonna happen upon us and hopefully partake,” Parsons said.
The annual event is a long-standing Los Medanos tradition. It honors the hard work and dedication that students put into eventually graduating from Los Medanos and pursuing their careers at their chosen college. The event also helps relieve the oncoming stress of finals week.
“We hope everybody enjoys it, and we’re so proud of everything they’ve accomplished while they’ve been there,” said Parsons.
