Communications

The Academic Success Center Welcomes new staff and pilot program for 2023

January 2023

The Academic Success Center (ASC) is excited about the upcoming year as it brings some new changes. The ASC is solely focused on tutoring and writing assistance since the transition of the SMART Lab out of the center. To assist with that renewed focus is a new assistant director of tutoring and writing services and a new Academic Services Administrator who will oversee the ASC Ambassadors team and the Study Skills Mentoring program. 

The ASC is developing a new peer learning collaborative initiative for the 2023-2024 academic year.  The pilot program called PASS (Peer Assisted Study Sessions) will launch in the Fall semester. 

This is a non-remedial approach to student learning that supports academic success by integrating “what to learn” with “how to learn." This participative model will provide academic support to all student enrolled in historically difficult subjects. 

The PASS Leaders (PL’s) are students who already took the course and will be embedded in the courses. The PL’s attend class alongside their peers and hold scheduled, out-of-the-class group study sessions for the students enrolled in the class.

The sessions are driven by students’ needs and the trained PL’s utilize collaborative activities to ensure peer-to-peer interaction in the study groups. Collaborative learning strategies they may use are the Think-Pair-Share technique, assigning attendees to be discussion leaders, participating in group surveys, and utilizing the Boardwork Model. Students earn higher subject grades while they learn effective study skills and these groups are an efficient use of student study time.

This peer model not only assists the students in the study sessions but the PL’s gain valuable skills like strengthening their own study skills, transferable skills that employers and graduate schools are looking for including leadership, public speaking, collaborative teamwork, critical thinking, on the spot problem solving, and develop networking skills through building relationships with faculty, staff, and the other students.

This Summer, the ASC will also start its transformation into a new space redesign that will be more open, modern, welcoming, and focused on centralizing tutoring and writing services in one common area.

The ASC tutoring and writing teams are excited and looking forward to the new year and working with campus partners in bringing quality learning support services to help our students achieve their academic goals. The ASC is a place for students to learn in a community with one another by engaging, collaborating, learning, and succeeding.