Annabel Dougherty rediscovers herself at Carolina

When Annabel Dougherty arrived in Chapel Hill, she was starting entirely anew.

After two years at Grinnell College in Iowa, Dougherty left behind friends, professors and teammates to transfer to Carolina and pursue a degree in management and society. While Dougherty was excited to be at a top-ranked university, she struggled to find her place in the campus community.

“Grinnell had 2,000 students, compared to Carolina’s 25,000,” Dougherty said. “It was a really scary transition.”

This experience stuck with her. Dougherty began to think: How can transfer students help ease one another’s transitions?

That idea turned into the UNC Transfer Lounge, a place where transfer students can come together to discuss the shared experience of switching schools.

“The main mission of the lounge is to help transfer students flourish from Day 1,” Dougherty said. “We use the space to connect with transfer students as transfer students. It’s important for them to know that the leadership has been in their shoes.”

Dougherty’s constant drive to keep busy was key to her adjustment.

At Grinnell, Dougherty played basketball and brought that expertise to her role as a manager for Carolina’s women’s basketball team. While the experience was a rewarding one, Dougherty says she spent most of her early days at Carolina trying to “force herself to hold onto a past identity” from her time at Grinnell.

Dougherty eventually found a new identity through a much different physical activity: the ballroom dancing team.

“There was so much energy there, and they were so outgoing,” Dougherty said. “I think I really found my people there.”

Dougherty also began developing strong connections with professors in the Shuford Program in Entrepreneurship, her minor. Professors like Tim Flood and Bernard Bell, director of the Shuford Program, are two she considers to be mentors.

“I am very much an entrepreneur at heart,” Dougherty said. “It’s something I’ve always known about myself, but working with professors like professor Flood and professor Bell really let that side of myself flourish.”

Dougherty went on to co-create the UNC Transfer Lounge. She worked on the initiative together with Luke Fayard, another mentor and the transfer student coordinator for the Center for Student Success; Neil Sharma, graduate director of Academic Affairs; and Holland Bodner, a journalism undergraduate who transferred from Hampton University after her sophomore year.

“It’s no longer difficult for me to devote my time to all of these things because I get to directly see the results of what I’m doing,” Dougherty said. (Johnny Andrews/UNC-Chapel Hill)

Located in the Shuford Suite (Gardner 104) from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Monday, the lounge has quickly grown into a tight-knit community after launching in August 2024. Dougherty and her team also offer transfer students who feel out of place one-on-one mentorships that can help point them in the right direction.

“A lot of the time the philosophy seems to be that we should just treat transfer students like regular students, but that doesn’t really work,” Dougherty said. “Transfer students have very specific needs, and you don’t realize that transfer students are struggling unless you are one. We all want this to be a space where we recognize and work to overcome those struggles.”

In addition to her work at the lounge, she’s also a coach at the Carolina Financial Well-Being Center.

“Discipline is freedom” is a quote from tennis star Venus Williams that Dougherty appreciates. With the work she’s done at Carolina, she’s made it a more welcoming location for future transfer students like her.

“It’s no longer difficult for me to devote my time to all of these things because I get to directly see the results of what I’m doing,” she said. “That means a lot to me.”