Thrive Academically

Your GPS to Success

Guided pathways to students' academic success need to begin prior to beginning their college journey.   By offering a strategic and supportive program which identifies possible at-risk students and provides ongoing peer support, students have a better opportunity at thriving academically.  Hood College's Guided Pathways to Success (GPS) program offers this individualized support through Blazer Academic peer coaches (BAC's).  GPS is offered to all undergraduate students, however, data has shown that certain incoming groups have lower retention rates.  The students in these at risk groups at Hood College are part of the program and invited prior to classes starting in the fall semester.  

During this session, the student presenters (BAC's) will provide an overview of the GPS and BAC program, discuss examples of how GPS provides support for students while fostering growth both academically and promoting self-awareness, share assessment data, and engage the group with guided questions to allow sharing of ideas and collaboration for their own GPS program. Specifically, communication with invited students, training, reporting, and assessment for GPS students will be addressed. The GPS program includes targeted interventions for possible at-risk students and promotes academic and social growth through tutoring and coaching.  

Presenters:

Will Lantry, Hood College

Hadiya Phillips, Hood College

Isabel Malaga Mateo, Hood College

Liberty Chenault-Randall, Hood College

Supporting Internationally-Educated Students in Supplemental Instruction: Reflections from a Peer Leader Training Workshop

Supplemental Instruction programs support academic success, yet peer leaders often receive little preparation for addressing the varied needs of participants. This presentation examines a virtual training workshop created for peer learning leaders in the University of Maryland’s Guided Study Sessions program on supporting internationally educated students in collaborative learning settings. The training addressed often overlooked participation challenges in collaborative learning environments, especially for students with diverse educational and linguistic backgrounds. It examined how facilitation norms, participation expectations, and assumptions about “engagement” influence who feels able to contribute. The workshop included an overview of international students’ experiences in U.S. higher education, discussion of participation differences in peer-learning contexts, practical facilitation strategies, and mock sessions for practice. Feedback from 24 of 45 participants indicated the training was relevant and increased leaders’ confidence in applying these approaches. The presentation concludes with implications for peer-learning practice and peer leaders’ multicultural competence.

Presenter:

E. Caswell Eshun, University of Maryland

Together We Can Go to Infinity and Beyond

A tale of how math, science, writing, and other academic support professionals work together, along with faculty and staff, towards student success. 

Our intent is to showcase our Academic Center by highlighting both its successes and challenges in order to open a lively discourse of how learning centers are faring in this ever-changing academic world. We plan to share our successes such as the percent of students tutored, number of visits, and variety of courses served. We will have open discourse about the challenges that we face including changes in student population, resistance in seeking support, and competition with AI.
We will discuss initiatives such as welcome back events, class visits, and tours that we have developed to bolster student success both internally and via collaboration with faculty and staff.  We will also present our structure and data collection systems along with results of a multi-year data study on how our students have performed in their supported courses.   We hope attendees will provide feedback and share stories from their centers so we can learn from each other.  We want this session to inspire you to effectively handle challenges and to expand your reach and influence.

Presenters:

Debbie Asbury, Assistant Director and Lead STEM Specialist of Academic Services, Carroll Community College
Marsha Nusbaum, Senior Director of Academic Services, Carroll Community College

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Thrive Professionally

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How Peer Tutoring Shapes Tutors' Professional Growth

Peer tutoring offers far more than academic support for tutoring recipients. This form of experiential learning elevates peer tutor self-efficacy while instilling career-readiness skills and facilitating professional identity development within the tutors themselves. This session will share findings from a recent qualitative phenomenological study that explored the employment experiences of peer tutors at a small community college. Through in-depth interviews with current and former tutors, the study revealed the motivations that drove students to pursue tutoring roles, the factors that influenced their retention, and the lasting personal and professional impacts of the experience. Participants will gain insights into how peer learning assistance programs can support career readiness, skill development, and purpose-driven growth to ensure student workers thrive professionally. 

Presenter:

Ashley Ruby, Director of the Learning Commons & Academic Success, Garrett College

Empowering Graduate Assistants: A Pathway to Professional Success in Learning Centers

This presentation highlights the transformative role of graduate assistantships in fostering career growth within higher education. Through personal narratives and collaborative experiences, we demonstrate how these positions lead to successful transitions into staff roles by equipping individuals with essential skills such as management, training, and group coordination. We also explore the reciprocal benefits of GA supervision, as it allows supervisors to refine their leadership skills, including coaching, delegation, and fostering a supportive work environment. By sharing these experiences, we aim to inspire others to embrace GA supervision as a means to cultivate both their own professional development and the success of their team members. Let us explore potential outcomes of the impact of mentorship and professional development opportunities on GAs' trajectories.

Presenters:

Sandrine Tchatie-Leudeu, Learning Specialist: Math Coordinator and Technology Specialist, Towson University

Siamak Salmasi, Science Tutor Coordinator, Towson University

Tyler Ung, Supplemental Instruction Program Manager, Towson University

Neha Salvagi, Math Graduate Assistant

Matthew Vollmuth, Science Graduate Assistant

Leveraging the Power of Peer Engagement: How to Be a Head Tutor

We will incorporate an interactive discussion prompt to encourage meaningful engagement: “If you could design the ‘perfect’ peer support structure on your campus, what elements would you prioritize? What problems would it solve?” Participants will work in small groups to brainstorm solutions, share institutional perspectives, and relate our model to their own campus needs. This guided conversation will prompt attendees to think critically about scalability, communication systems, leadership development, and student-centered design. By closing with collaborative vision-building, participants will leave not only understanding the impact of head tutors but also imagining how peer engagement could strengthen their own academic support ecosystems.

Presenters:

Oluwaseyi (TJ) Femi-Falodun, Head Tutor, Mount St. Mary’s University

JonPaul Marschall, Head Tutor, Mount St. Mary’s University

Rhiannon Perry, Head Tutor, Mount St. Mary’s University

Thrive Socially

Building Belonging: Relationships for Low-Income Students within a Tutoring Context

Students from low-income areas can greatly benefit from tutoring in a different way from that of more affluent peers. They highly value developing a relationship with their tutor and cultivating a sense of belonging. Based upon the presenter’s research, attendees will learn methods of developing friendly relationships through familiarity between tutors and students, and subsequently between students and their peers and teachers. Some of these methods include attending to each student’s individual needs while navigating through emotions, drawing on students’ pre-existing knowledge, demonstrating patience with the students, creating a collaborative environment, and utilizing and connecting with the students’ lived experiences. Attendees will also learn about the importance of these relationships and their positive impacts on the students. A main opportunity for this is through offering various forms of tutoring to students such as face-to-face, online, group, and repeating appointments. Attendees will collaborate with others present to discuss how they can implement the various forms of tutoring appointments and methods of building relationships at their own institutions.

Presenter:

Emily Knight, Writing Center Tutor, McDaniel College

Making Accessibility Practices Accessible to Student Workers

Academic libraries are a hub for students to receive research help, materials assistance, and often tutoring. All these services are supported by professional staff but are made possible through student employees that provide assistance to and tutoring for their peers. Spaces such as libraries and learning centers aim to assist students in gaining help from others. Because of this, we want to ensure that they are accessible for learners of all kinds to utilize; however, since students are the lifeblood of these campus places, how can student employees best support accessibility in their limited role? This presentation will describe the accessibility presentation given to library student workers that reviewed previous accessibility measures and ways that they can contribute to the library’s accessibility within the scope of their role. In this session, the attendee will learn about accessibility and have the space to brainstorm and discuss how they can contribute to accessibility in their roles on their respective campuses. 

Presenter:

Delaney Runge, Library Services Coordinator, Mount St. Mary's University

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Thrive Personally

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Cultivating Belonging for Success

A sense of belonging is a basic need, a human right. It’s a feeling that people matter to each other and to the group (Strayhorn 2019). Through an engaging discussion on skill-building, accountability, and effective communication, participants will learn practical strategies of belonging. Attendees will leave with: 1) Understanding of what belonging looks and feels like in college and life, 2) Effective Communication strategies for accountability and self-advocacy, and  3) Positive habit stacking strategies to implement immediately. 

Presenter:

Wynette Richardson, Assistant Professor of English, Community College of Baltimore County

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The Care Bear: Incorporating Mental Health First Aid Into Tutor Training (And Beyond)

What training topics do you consider essential for your peer educators? And what policies, procedures, or practices can you enact at your learning center to foster student and tutor mental health and well-being? In this presentation, attendees will learn about the ways that ethics of care and Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) certification prepare undergraduate peer tutors to practice self-care, care for their colleagues, and care for their students. We will go behind the scenes to look at how care ethics are woven into the training, policies, procedures, and daily operations of the McDaniel College Writing Center, how MHFA training and certification supports tutor training across multiple topics, and how the Director of the Writing Center found local community partners to help fund it all! Both the Director and peer tutors will share how they thrive personally while working as learning center professionals.  

Presenters:

Vanessa Flora-Nakoski, Director of the Writing Center, McDaniel College

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Personal Branding Foundations: Strategies to Navigate Purpose and Identity 

Personal Branding Foundations: Strategies to Navigate Purpose and Identity is an interactive workshop to align students and educators on defining what you are known for and how people see you through strategic, purpose and value-based action. 

Presenter:

Nia Parks, MFA Candidate in Community Arts, Maryland Institute College of Arts

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Creativity: It's Fun and Games

There are many misconceptions about creativity. Current frameworks in student—and learning center thinking often portray creativity as an unreachable talent. This limits the ways we think about what creativity is, who can be creative, and most importantly, how to improve it. Creativity is an integral skill whether you are a poet or a mathematician, and it is the job of learning center professionals to begin to break down these barriers to creativity. While difficult, there is a bright side revealed in the research: the best ways to improve creativity are by having fun. Consider ways fun can be strategically applied to all stages of Center operations, including community events, tutoring sessions, and tutor training. Together, we will rediscover what it means to be creative through fun and games, letting go of the things that hold our thinking back and embracing a silly solution to a serious problem. 

Presenter:

Hannah Loveless, Advanced Peer Tutor, Writing Center, McDaniel College

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Thrive Collaboratively

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They Don't Get It Yet: Intro to Work at the Learning Center

Learning center professionals have an extraordinary opportunity to influence not just how student staff perform their roles, but how they grow as individuals entering the world of work. This interactive session reframes the traditional supervisory model and invites attendees to step into the role of coach and facilitator, offering strategies to support both the personal and professional development of student employees. Participants will reflect on how to foster a sense of belonging and purpose within their teams—guiding staff for "just a student worker" to an empowered campus contributor and prepared staff person for the post graduation workplace. The ideal participant will be professional Learning Center staff that conduct recruiting, hiring, onboarding, training and/or evaluating of Learning Center student staff. 

Presenter:

Gorgette Green-Hodnett, Coordinator of Academic Enrichment Programs, University of Maryland

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Thriving Together: Building a Holistic Student Experience through Collaboration

This session will explore how meaningful collaboration can strengthen the overall student experience. We’ll share how we worked more intentionally across the units of our academic support center to build connections with faculty and student organizations to provide targeted study skills and writing support, and implement the LEADs initiative to develop tutors and SI leaders as student leaders. By focusing on cross-collaboration and a holistic approach to student success, we’ll highlight how a connected tutoring community can help students feel seen, supported, and empowered to thrive academically and personally.

Presenters:

Anna Cortese Lenick, Director of Integrated Academic Support Services, Delaware State University

Anika Pennington, IASS LEAD QRC-Math Tutor, Delaware State University

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