Ouachita’s Academic Success Center is exactly as it sounds: a center for students to achieve success in their academic studies. The center seeks to help students become independent and efficient learners so they are better equipped to meet Ouachita’s academic standards and attain their educational goals.
The center will challenge and encourage students to become actively involved in their learning. The ASC offers many different resources for students who are facing challenges associated with schoolwork.
One of these resources is the Student Success Services which provides aid in study skills, time management, identification of learning styles, goal-making and other areas.
The ASC also provides tutoring services, which has three options available to fit a student’s needs or learning styles. These include small group tutoring, one-on-one tutoring and walk-in lab tutoring.
“I strongly believe that every person who desires to pursue an education should go for it,” said Nicole Porchia, Student Success Coordinator. “I am passionate about higher education and students being successful in college and accomplishing their dreams.”
Porchia and the coordinators for the program share their passion about helping students succeed with the student-peer tutors are as well.
“I like tutoring my peers because I enjoy helping people and I love to learn,” said Stacy Beck senior political science, history and French major and student-peer tutor.
“Not every stage in the road to success will be enjoyable or easy.” Beck said that she wants to help make the courses as enjoyable and understandable as possible for her peers so that they can succeed.
“I recognize that everyone learns differently and I want to show my fellow students that a different approach to teaching may be the perfect mode of assistance for them,” Beck said.
Elizabeth Blankenship, senior biology major, said that tutoring is a great way to serve others.
“I enjoy seeing the great amount of progress my peers make just by offering them a few hours of my spare time,” she said.
Jason Curlin, junior English and Russian major who serves as a tutor, said that he loves learning random things, but hates to see people who love studying their major become hindered from “a successful future or high GPA by classes in other fields that have no bearings on their future.”
Lida Lee, senior history, Russian and political science major, said that she enjoys tutoring her peers because she is given the opportunity to help someone “and to give them hope to not give up on a class, and [let them know] that it is okay to ask for help.”
Paige Onyuru sophomore biology and chemistry major said that tutoring other students not only allows her to expand her own knowledge in a particular subject, but also provides her with challenges not seen in an everyday setting.
“Knowing that everyone has different learning styles and speeds, I realize that I, the tutor, must find a way for students to derive an answer that is correct while understanding the process behind it. A correct answer is not always the right answer if a student does not understand ‘why,’” she said.
Onyuru said that finding an answer that makes sense to the student challenges her problem solving skills and allows the student to see the materials from a perspective that is comfortable for them.
“At the end of the day, tutoring benefits both the student and the tutor,” she said.
Sarah Honeycutt, junior biology and communication disorders major, said, “I enjoy tutoring because I love seeing others succeed. I want to help them achieve their goals and do the best that they possibly can.”
For more information, visit www.obu.edu/success. Online students can also register for tutoring sessions or sign up for Student Success Services. Contact the Academic Success Center by email, academicsuccesscenter@obu.edu, or call, 870-245-5381. Offices are located in Lile Hall, suite 122.
