Students rarely develop school-prompted interest in science in ways that lead to out-of-school engagement. Existing research has highlighted that positive science identities foster this out-of-school engagement. We have been investigating a form of out-of-school engagement called transformative experiences - a construct that characterizes moments where students engage in free-choice transfer of science concepts to everyday settings in ways they find meaningful. Based on interviews conducted with undergraduate students who had indicated deep out-of-school engagement based on a transformative experience survey, we compare and contrast three cases that illustrate a broader spectrum of factors that may contribute to students' engagement outside of class. While our analysis corroborates previous findings concerning the role that science identity can play, our analysis sheds new light on ways in which topical interest and classroom dynamics can also foster transformative experiences.