By BY: EVA MONHAUT
Staff Writer
With midterm tests upon students, finding help to keep their grades afloat may become a higher priority. The Academic Center for Excellence (ACE) offers a wide variety of free services to students to help them excel in their courses. The main hub of ACE is located on the 4th floor of the Schurz Library, along with the Writer’s Room, The Learning Center and administrative offices.
Many students may not know that ACE goes beyond the Writer’s Room and Learning Center. The Math tutoring center is also a great resource for students, located on the 3rd floor of Northside, room 310; and the Computer Science tutoring center can be found on the 2nd floor of Northside, room 209.
Tutorial Services Administrator Kristy Patterson, said these services should be used by all students because of their ability to help students reach their fullest potential.
“Tutors have taken the same classes and have figured out how to manage that coursework well. Plus they are fellow students, and tutors are trained in different areas to help students learn and grow as opposed to giving them answers,” said Patterson.
In addition to these on campus services, there are online tutoring sessions in some courses. The availability of online tutoring changes from semester to semester, but often covers writing courses which can be done through Zoom conferences. Most tutoring services have both drop-ins and can be scheduled ahead of time via the ACE website.
Additional programs offered through ACE include embedded tutoring, which involves tutors interacting with students in their classrooms. Ginny Heidemann, director of ACE, urges students to use these resources in the classroom, because they are there to help students succeed and can help students get their questions answered when the professor may be busy. Students can sign up for Study Smart coaching, which will help them concentrate on better study habits in general.
The Write Well Coaching Program is another resource available to students. It has the added benefit of working with the same tutor repeatedly. This is to allow students to develop a better relationship with their tutor.
Patterson urged students to not only visit The Writer’s Room but to also take advantage of resources such as the Write Well Coaching Program.
“They [tutors] can get to know your strengths and weakness as a writer and help you build a relationship to build those skills,” said Patterson.
The tutors all go through mentoring and skills training to make sure they know how to work with students to help them learn and succeed.
ACE is an opportunity for students to hone their writing skills, maintain their GPA or work on bringing their grades up.
Students that visit the ACE tutoring center five times in a semester, and follow the ACE scholarship guidelines on their website, could potentially earn a $500 scholarship.
