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Strategies for success, sweet treats, and prizes attracted students to the first session of the Academic Success Workshop series, Wednesday, Aug. 29. The Student Success Office offers a series of academic workshops every semester, which take place on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 3 to 4 p.m. in Axe Library, room 113.
Ashely Waddell, Student Success counselor, captivated the group with a presentation of simple study-strategies students can use to become more successful in their classes.
“I love doing workshops,” Wadell said. “I think that they’re helpful for students.”
Academic Success Workshops provide simple strategies that can help bridge the gap between the skills students’ innate and learned skills.
“My goal for every workshop is that a student can walk away with something (they) can do today,” Wadell said. “Like something (they) can implement today … that’s really important to me. I hope that the students that were there today got something that can help them at least get a little bit better with studying.”
Wednesday’s workshop outlined study basics such as note taking, time management, and utilizing textbooks. Santiego J. Saucedo, freshman in mechanical engineering, said he learned about the workshops in his freshman experience class.
“I was recommended to come here to learn more about time management and other study skills I can apply throughout the semester,” Saucedo said. “It was good. There were a lot of points that sometimes we don’t recall, we just look over.”
Kamya Sahay, freshman in gender business from India, said she read about the academic success workshops on the Pitt State international page on Facebook.
“… They tell us to focus … you have to do this, you have to do that, so that’s why I came here,” Sahay said.
Wadell said she tells her students to never settle, that even the best student can improve their study skills.
“I know from our research here on campus that lots of students don’t feel very confident about their study skills … but we don’t see the room nearly as full as I would like … given that a lot of students feel like they have room for growth,” Wadell said.
Among students in attendance was Henri Valikangas, senior in electronic engineering from Finland, who enjoyed the presentation.
“I think they make pretty strong points,” Valikangas said. “… They have many things in there I have noticed on my own while I’ve tried to work on my studying habits. I found out that it’s a lot of repetition … doing some actual exercises is something you need to do.”
Information about other campus resources available to students is also part of the workshops’ curriculum, such as the Student Health Center, Career Services, and the Student Recreation Center.
“It was really good because I also learned about resources we have on campus and things that are available to us that we didn’t know about …” said Saucedo. “…. There’s (the) writing center, there’s the tutoring, there’s other places like the student health organization, like counseling and nutritionist … because you know most of us are on our own—we really are still learning how to diet and schedule how life goes.”
Academic Success Workshops are open to all students interested in attaining success and making the most of campus resources. Additional information is provided on the Pitt State website and resource offices across campus. From positive campus feedback, Wadell plans to continue hosting the workshops to help students improve study habits and more as necessary.
“Every semester we do these (workshops) … and we have people that are coming back week after week, telling me, ‘hey this really worked,’ or, ‘knowing how to do this really helped,’ or, ‘I tried this, and it worked for me,’” Wadell said. “You know, that is good.”
