With the fall semester starting, tutoring services have officially opened to help students in person and online.
Tutoring Services Coordinator Ryana Fisher said there are paid tutoring positions available for students who are interested in helping their fellow students.
“Most of our tutors are students who gravitate towards helping other students, so whether they’re helping out their friends or helping out in a classroom, these people are willing to help you find the answers if you’re struggling,” Fisher said. “Who would not want to join us and become a tutor so that they can get paid to do what they are doing for free?”
Student Services Support Supervisor Fong Vang said that becoming a tutor will allow people to not only help students, but also help themselves.
“Students should become tutors because I think it’s a rewarding position. Not only are you able to help a fellow student to be successful in their course studies and reach their goals,” Vang said. “But it also helps you reinforce what you have learned so you are better equipped for any additional classes you are going to take in that particular subject. It’s a win-win scenario for everyone.”
Vang said that thanks to the pandemic, the tutoring services have started using a software program called Penji, which is a massive help with coordinating online tutoring and helping students.
“When Covid-19 hit we didn’t have a formal online system like Penji,” Vang said. “Now that we are using Penji, we now have an all in one service as Penji is integrated with Canvas, students have ease of access.”
Math Center Instructional Assistant Pedro Rubalcava said that while people are showing up both in person and online to get help with math, he hopes that he can remove the negative stigma from math and make people excited to learn about it.
“I want to show people that math has a sense of humor, so I created these different colored flyers to advertise the Math Center and each one has a different comic strip on the back for each color,” Rubaclava said. “I like to call myself a math Jedi or a math coach and I even made these different humorous signs to try to lighten the mood around doing math.”
The Tutoring Center resources are available at the Learning Resource Center in room 216, the Reading and Writing Center in LRC 203, the Accounting Lab in LRC 216, the Math Center in LRC 205 and the English as a Second Language or ESL Center in LRC 216.
They will also hold an open house on Sept. 13 and Sept. 14 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.