By Emily Hughitt:
Howard Payne University plans to open the new Center for Student Success on the top floor of the library in room 201 in mid-October.
The Center for Student Success was proposed in January 2023 and will be a more cohesive program for student support.
Assistant Vice President for Student Success Dr. Wendy McNeeley said they are making many changes to their tutoring program.
“We are working to extend our peer tutoring offerings, subjects and hours,” said McNeeley. “We partnered with a new online tutoring company that offers even more subjects and upper-level subjects. So, students will have more options now than they have had previously.”
The Center for Student Success will not only host tutoring services, but all learning services.
“The center will encompass all academic support programs,” said McNeeley. “It will house the learning accommodations, the developmental studies program, testing, and academic advising for freshmen. We are also looking to do academic coaching and bridge programs.”
The academic coaching would exist to help students understand what they want for their careers and how to get there.
“It’s not really giving them advice, like academic advising,” said McNeeley. “It’s using questions to get students to think about what their career, academic, and class goals are.”
McNeeley said she believes more students will get the help they need through the new center.
“There’s just a need that we focus on student success more,” said McNeeley. “We want to give students every opportunity to be successful. If we have resources that students can take advantage of and it helps them, that’s better for the students.”
The Center for Student Success expansion will also create more student worker jobs in tutoring.
Senior biology major from Friendswood, Sydney Ben, said being a tutor has changed her perspective as a student.
“Tutoring has made me more aware of the responsibility that I have as an example and resource to other students,” said Ben. “I get to offer students advice and resources that I didn’t have or wish that I had when I was a younger student.”
“The students I tutor give me experience that I can benefit from,” said Ben. “Getting to work with them makes me polish my people skills and my writing skills. It makes me appreciate the student body a bit more and gets me in touch with people in all different circles.”
Ben said she believes the better accessibility and advertisement of the center will make it more available to students.
Photo of Yellow Jacket Editor, Emily Hughitt