Mansi Bhimani wants transfer students to know they’re not alone.

As a first-gen transfer from out-of-state, the current executive advisor of student government says that while the transfer student community at UT might be quiet, transfer students are everywhere.

Whatever their reason for transferring, these students made up almost a fifth of new undergraduate Volunteers last fall. Next week, Bhimani along with the Student Government Association plans to highlight these students through a new program: Torch.

Torch aims to help current transfer students build leadership skills and find community as well as acclimate future transfer students to UT, according to Cooper Woods, who serves as Torch advisor. SGA Vice President Ella Blair will oversee the program. The program stopped accepting applications last Wednesday, and will begin meeting next week on Wednesdays from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

The cohort’s biggest project will be the Torch Transfer Student Guidebook, according to Woods, a senior majoring in finance and accounting. The guidebook will provide tips, tricks and advice geared towards future transfer students. Navigating between classes, best practices for advising, becoming involved on campus, and food recommendations are some of the proposed content.

“I would say the transfer guidebook is really there to serve, to help transfer students find their way around UT,” Woods said. “When you’re coming from another university, you don’t always know those things, and it sometimes can be a hard transition trying to figure that out on your own.”

Beyond creating a transfer student guidebook, the program aims to develop leadership skills and build community for transfer students. For example, Woods said he plans to set up discussions between Torch and various campus leaders next semester.

Torch will serve as a pipeline for creating future leaders to serve in SGA and other organizations across campus, according to Woods, who added that Torch will provide a voice for the transfer student community in student government decision-making and discussions with university administration.

SGA executives Blair and Bhimani, a senior anthropology major, hatched the idea for Torch at a leadership conference over the summer, after Bhimani said it was difficult for transfer students to get involved at UT.

They originally wanted to incorporate transfer students into the First-Year Council program, which helps first-year students become involved on campus; however, they pivoted to creating a program designated specifically for transfer students, according to Blair, a senior political science and history major.

“I was like, ‘why are we even trying to add them into First-Year Council?’” Blair said. “Why don’t we give them their own space, so that they can create their own community and not feel like they’re just being added onto something else.”

The current SGA administration told the Daily Beacon in August that some of their top priorities are to increase their engagement with students and showcase how engagement with SGA can improve students’ college experience.

“So we notice kind of within SGA at the moment, we don’t have a lot of transfer students that are involved,” Blair said, “and so we are really trying to bring that group in, give them that space to kind of advocate for themselves and talk about their experience behind that community, really enjoy everything SGA has to offer.”

While Woods will support Torch’s initial cohort as its interim advisor, in following semesters Blair hopes that Torch can recruit an advisor from their own ranks.

“We’d like it to eventually have it be someone that is a transfer student that is helping lead and direct Torch because we want to make sure that transfer students are being given those opportunities and that agency to advocate for themselves,” Blair said.

Audrey Hammonds, a sophomore economics major who transferred to UT from East Tennessee State University this fall, said her biggest challenge so far has been navigating UT’s large campus. She said she appreciates how Torch could bring transfer students together.

“I think it would be good to get in with other people who also transferred here as well, just so you can talk to them like ‘what issues have you been having?’ or just kind of find more connection on that level,” Hammonds said.

Shannon Roberts, a sophomore majoring in business finance and pre-med, transferred this fall from Colorado Mesa University. She said she’s had to get accustomed to more rigorous coursework and the comparatively large student body at UT, and thinks transfer students could benefit from more guidance.

“I feel like a lot of transfer students transfer in from smaller universities. It can be kind of a shock to go to such an overwhelming, huge place,” Roberts said.

Bhimani said that transfer students should be aware of both the opportunity being a UT student provides and the limited time they have to make a difference.

“If you chose to come to UT, make UT every single part of your life, and do the most you can until you gotta go,” Bhimani said.