Transferring to a new university is one of the most daunting transitions a student can take. You’ve just finished one chapter, you’ve built relationships and finally figured out how a place works only to start over somewhere new and unfamiliar. If you’re transferring from a small community college, it also means a bigger and busier campus which can add to the pressure. For transfer students coming from Clackamas Community College, Mt. Hood Community College and Portland Community College, a program called ACCE is working to make that jump a little less scary and a lot more supported.
Short for Access, Complete, Connect, Engage, ACCE pairs transfer students from community colleges with a dedicated coach who checks in, connects them to resources and helps them navigate everything from credit transfers to financial aid.
A new grant is expanding the program to Chemeketa Community College and adding career advising to the mix of wraparound services.
This National Transfer Student Week, we talked with three students, Alona Williamson, Maggie Frackenpohl and Haishee Paw about what that support has meant for their journeys.
Access: Opening the Door
For Williamson, an art and design student who transferred from Clackamas Community College, ACCE was on her radar before it even officially existed. While researching scholarships on PSU’s website, she stumbled onto the program’s page and reached out, only to find out it hadn’t quite launched yet.
“I knew immediately I wanted to join ACCE before it even existed,” she says. As one of the program’s very first students, she was drawn to something an academic advisor couldn’t quite offer. “It’s nice because with ACCE, they’re reaching out to you. It doesn’t feel like such a burden where everything you’re doing has to be self-driven. They’re actually meeting you where you are.”
That distinction matters. Especially for students balancing more than just coursework. Williamson became a full-time business owner at 20, running her own nail business while finishing her associate’s degree. Since she joined ACCE, her parents have often told her they wished these supportive resources existed back when they were her age.
“They wish they had someone specifically checking on them and responsible for them during those periods of transition,” Williamson says. “So I feel very lucky to have that.”
Frackenpohl, who returned to school after nearly two decades in the working world, found ACCE through a chance encounter. A self-described expert at tracking down resources, she didn’t go looking for this one. Instead, she spotted a classmate at Clackamas giving a presentation and asked about it afterward.
“It wasn’t like normally going back to school where I do a ton of research,” Frackenpohl says. “In this instance, it was more of a kismet moment.”
Complete: Clearing the Path to a Degree
Transferring credits is where students can lose time, money and…momentum. ACCE coaches help students make sense of it all before it becomes an issue.
For Paw, a public health student with a concentration in preclinical health sciences who transferred from Mt. Hood Community College, the biggest benefit was time. With her coach’s help, she met with a PSU advisor over the summer — well before the rush of her first term.
“I love being prepared before things just come running,” she says. “I was able to plan out what my semester would look like ahead of time. It definitely reduced my stress and nerves.”
Frackenpohl’s path was a bit more complicated. She came to PSU with more than 280 credits — far beyond the 180 needed to graduate — but because they were scattered across majors, and institutions they didn’t neatly add up. Most independent pathways she’d mapped out added two or even three more years but by working with faculty, she found a way to finally finish sooner than she’d ever anticipated.
“Every other pathway I looked at that I could create on my own would be two or three years,” she says.
She’s set to walk in the spring — a milestone nearly 20 years in the making.
Connect: Someone in Your Corner
If there’s one throughline across all three students, it’s the coaches themselves.
For Williamson, her coach was more than an advisor. She compiled lists of housing and financial resources, flagged deadlines and connected her to support she didn’t know existed — including free counseling at her community college.
What stuck most with Williamson was a simple question. One meeting, after they’d run through all that she was juggling — school, work, her business — her coach paused.
“She said, ‘That’s amazing that you’re doing all this. But how are you?’” Williamson recalls. “Her asking me that was like — oh, I guess I just ignore my health a lot. It was very sweet.”
For Frackenpohl, her ACCE coach was the person who quieted the “what ifs.”
“She gave me the courage to question beyond the fear,” Frackenpohl says. “There’s kind of just this peeling back of all the what-ifs and how-tos. She was genuinely committed to my success.”
Engage: Building Confidence and Community
Beyond logistics, ACCE students describe something harder to measure: a growing sense of belonging.
For Williamson, who works independently, the affirmation has been grounding.
“I don’t really get a lot of affirmation during my day apart from my family and clients. Most of it has to come from myself,” she says. “So having someone remind me that I am doing good, I am in a good spot — like 100%, it’s built up my confidence.”
The program also helps smooth the bumps new transfers might not see coming. And the program’s per-term stipend, which students can direct toward groceries, textbooks or gas, takes a small but real weight off each month.
“Even if it’s just a gas card for the term, not having to worry about gas for two months is so helpful,” Williamson says. “It’s a little thing that takes off one of your stressors.”
For Paw, who commutes a long way to campus and was nervous about navigating a new university for the first time, the stipend helped cover the textbooks that add up so quickly. More than that, her coach made intimidating things like scholarships, internships and financial aid feel accessible.
“They motivated me to keep going with my education because of all the resources they showed me,” she says. “It wasn't that scary for me to do those scholarships because they showed me the eligibility. It made things more accessible.”
Now settling into the first term at PSU, Paw is leaning into campus life — she’s a co-culture chair for a student group celebrating Southeast Asian culture and underrepresented communities, planning events throughout the year.