When Elena Wong-Carrillo and Tala Alahmar met on the campus of Oakland Community College (OCC), they knew pretty quickly that they’d found a kindred spirit in each other. Both were born outside of the United States, both knew they wanted to pursue educational opportunities after community college, and both exuded a warmth that drew others to them.
They excelled in their classes at OCC and were actively involved with Phi Theta Kappa, the honor society for students pursuing associate’s degrees, along with other campus leadership roles. They applied to transfer to U-M and were accepted at the same time.
The friends transferred in August 2021 as students in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, with Alahmar pursuing a degree in international studies and Wong-Carrillo in political science. “It was really meaningful that we both transferred together at the same time because we were able to become roommates, and it created an instant sense of community,” Alahmar says.
From Syria to Michigan
Alahmar was just 10 years old when she witnessed the Arab Spring and the start of the Syrian civil war, when the sounds of assault rifles became commonplace and violence reached her school’s doorstep. Clean water and electricity grew scarce.
Alahmar noticed something all around her city: “There were so many signs on the street of propaganda, thanking the Russian regime, thanking China and Iran, and I remember asking my parents why there was so much foreign interference,” she says. “Of course, I didn’t ask it like that. But I couldn’t understand why they all wanted to tell us what to do. Why couldn’t they just leave us alone?”
She and her family left the chaos of their home country and moved to suburban Detroit in 2018. At the time, Alahmar was thinking about college. “I didn't have any SAT scores and I didn’t really know anyone that went through the higher education system in the United States,” she says.
“My uncle suggested that I go to community college, so I went to Oakland Community College, thinking I would get some prerequisites for a semester and then transfer. But I ended up staying there and getting my associate’s degree and really getting involved on campus. It made my experience so much more meaningful.” She rose to the role of international president of the Phi Theta Kappa honor society.
When Alahmar began to plan in earnest to transfer to a university where she could earn a bachelor’s degree, one school kept coming up in conversation. “Every time I would meet someone, they would say, ‘of course, you want to go to Michigan, right?’ And so I thought, that’s the obvious choice, and the more I learned about it, the more I knew it was the right option for me,” she says.
In 2021, she transferred to LSA. The observant pre-teen who noticed foreign propaganda in Syria had grown into a young adult with an interest in international affairs, one that was nurtured as a student at U-M. She also worked as a transfer student ambassador at LSA, a position in which she could talk with prospective students about how they could prepare for their journey at U-M.
She earned her bachelor’s degree in 2023, then went to Georgetown University, where she earned a master’s degree in democracy and governance in spring 2025. Much of her education was supported by scholarships from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation.
Today, she is a foreign policy fellow on Capitol Hill in the office of Massachusetts Congressman Seth Moulton. “I have worked on legislation, helped prepare the congressman for his meetings, and I have worked with the national security advisor in the office,” she says. “I have also staffed him during meetings with ambassadors and foreign officials and helped write his remarks for his speeches. I’ve learned and grown so much.”
The fellowship ends later this year, and she is searching for her next opportunity, ideally in the international affairs and human rights space. Meanwhile, she continues to provide guidance to community college and transfer students.
“Even now that I am done with both my bachelor’s and my master’s, I’m still finding ways to connect with people who want to transfer and encourage them to do so,” Alahmar says. “It's such an empowering community to be a part of.”
Better Together
Wong-Carillo was born and raised in Monterrey, Mexico, not far from the border with Texas. Her dad got a job in Michigan when she was 16, moving the family to Rochester Hills. She attended nearby Oakland Community College, where she graduated with two associate’s degrees in 2021. Like her friend Alahmar, she was active in Phi Theta Kappa, serving as an international vice president and regional president.
“Tala and I became so close, especially during the pandemic, when she was one of my lifelines,” Wong-Carrillo says. “When we were preparing for transfer, we applied to a lot of schools together, and we would have transfer-application-preparation Zoom meetings and help with each other’s essays.”
Her goal was to attend U-M, which has one of the top political science programs in the country. Another draw was that her fiance, whom she met at OCC, previously transferred to the Marsal Family School of Education at U-M. “Then when Tala and I were both admitted, it felt like a no-brainer for us to take that step together as a team,” she says.
As roommates, their friendship grew, rooted in similar senses of humor, “similar life stories and similar roles in our families, and in the political instability that made us leave our countries,” Wong-Carrillo says. “We just connected a lot. Tala also ended up learning Spanish at U-M and I ended up learning how to cook some Syrian food.”
After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in political science in 2023, she began working as a transfer student recruiting coordinator for LSA. She works with students at 11 community colleges in Michigan—including OCC.
“I’ve found my passion in higher education,” she says. “It is so wonderful to kind of go back in time and support someone like myself when I was in that stage. It feels like every day I’m making people’s lives better. It's truly humbling.”
She hears often from prospective and new transfer students who feel daunted by U-M. “A lot of them think they’re already behind their peers, or feel like they don’t belong here. They wonder, is there a place for me? I can tell them that, looking back, U-M was always for me, and it was always for all of these students. I can tell them that the University of Michigan is just as much for transfer students as it is for people who are traditional college students.”
Wong-Carrillo travels a lot for work, and when she has time, she visits her friend, former roommate, and fellow transfer student Alahmar in Washington, D.C.
“And I’ve actually seen a similar story, just last semester, with another group of students who met during our programming and they became close friends. They ended up transferring together and moving in together,” she says. “It’s such a good pathway, doing this with a close friend.”
Top: Tala Alahmar and Elena Wong-Carrillo celebrate their graduation from U-M. Middle: Tala Alahmar outside the U.S. Capitol, where she has a fellowship. Bottom: Elena Wong-Carrillo works with transfer student Renata Perez Rosillo in her job as a transfer student recruiting coordinator for LSA. Top two photos courtesy of Tala Alahmar; bottom photo by Doug Coombe.
This story is part of a series focusing on LSA’s support for transfer students, initially published in recognition of national Transfer Student Week in October 2025. Learn more about transferring to LSA.
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