During my freshman year of college, I struggled to find a place where I belonged, leaving me to feel isolated and marginalized. As I transitioned to my new life as a college student, I didn’t know where to look if I needed help or wanted to get involved on campus. I lacked the guidance and support I needed to help me navigate my way through an entirely unfamiliar environment.

Slowly, as I spoke with more students, and ventured to different nooks and crannies of the campus, I learned of different resources available to me such as the Purple Apron Food Pantry and the Purple PEERiod Project. Although the Hunter College campus had seemed daunting and unfamiliar during my first few weeks as a college student, there was actually an array of resources and programs available to support me once I had stumbled upon them. I realized that there was a place for me, it just took me some time to find it.

Now, as a senior at Hunter College, I am a mentor in the Hunter College AANAPISI Project (HCAP) Transfer Pipeline Program, where I am responsible for connecting incoming transfer students to campus resources in order to meet their needs and ensure a seamless transition to Hunter. I leverage my knowledge of Hunter’s resources so they don’t have to go through the same grueling process that I did, where I needed help, but didn’t know where to look. As a mentor, I have connected transfer students to the counseling center, tutoring centers, scholarship opportunities, and clubs based on their respective needs.

Without the support of the Transfer Pipeline Program, the transfer students that I work with would have had to endure the anxiety-inducing experience of navigating an unfamiliar environment all on their own. However, as timely and supportive as this program is for transfer students, it points to a larger issue in my educational institution and the CUNY system as a whole- the lack of access to resources.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to upend the lives of students, now more than ever, students need to know what resources they have access to so they don’t fall through the cracks. Because supportive programs such as HCAP have a limit to how many students they can help, it falls on the educational institution to ensure that all students have the help they need to persist through college and earn a degree. In order to empower students to seek help, there needs to be a comprehensive CUNY-wide platform available to all students that displays the resources available on all CUNY campuses, ranging from professional development programs to basic needs services.

Hafsah Ansaris a senior at Hunter College, CUNY and a member of YI-New York’s Fall 2021 Young Advocates Program.