Transfer Student Spotlight: Casey Wofford
The college transfer process can be intimidating for a wide variety of reasons. It often requires a degree of adjustment and adaptation that many students may be nervous about. However, for students like Casey Wofford, an NC State senior majoring in forest management, it is worth taking that leap of faith.
Wofford, who transferred to NC State from a local North Carolina community college in fall 2020, knew she was interested in environmental science, but she wasn’t entirely sure what she wanted to do within the field. Everything changed for her when a member of NC State’s College of Natural Resources recruitment staff visited her community college.
“I told her I was interested in environmental science, and that was when she told me about forest management,” Wofford said. “I had already been thinking about transferring to NC State because I knew they had a really good natural resources program, but speaking to her made me realize that was what I was most interested in.”
Upon starting the transfer process, Wofford was able to work one-on-one with her academic advisor to make sure the classes she had taken at other institutions were accounted for at NC State.
“I started in the middle of the pandemic, but it honestly ended up working out. I was able to spend more time adjusting to NC State’s course load,” she said.
Wofford was also able to find her niche on campus quickly through a variety of clubs and organizations offered through the College of Natural Resources. She’s currently a member of the Forestry Club, the Forestry and Environmental Resources Leadership Board, the Society of American Foresters Club, and the Student Association for Fire Ecology.
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These clubs and organizations allowed her to meet people and make friends with common interests, as these clubs and organizations often go on trips, such as timber sport competition trips and field research programs. She’s even been able to find professional opportunities working with her academic advisor, Jodi Forrester.
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“Last summer, I participated in a forestry summer camp program which was a nine-week course,” Wofford said. “I was working for my advisor, helping her with research. I ended up spending around nine days in Alabama doing field research. This summer, I’m actually going to be one of the teaching assistants for that summer camp.”
She attributes much of her success as a transfer student at NC State to the College of Natural Resources and even calls it “a little family.”
“Try to go out of your comfort zone,” she said. “With the Forestry Club, I wanted to meet people with similar interests, but I didn’t know what to expect which made me nervous. I went to the interest meeting anyway, and now I’m about to be vice president of the club.”
NC State is excited to welcome a new class of transfer students to campus in the fall. Admitted transfer students should confirm their enrollment in their wolfPAW account by May 1 or within 10 days if they’re admitted after May 1.
