On-campus resources to help students with midterm studies

By Antonio Miguel Escorzon •

Midterm week starts on Feb. 24. The NSU Writing and Communication Center and the Tutoring and Testing Center are two resources open for students who are studying for exams or completing assignments during the week.

Cailin Rolph, assistant director of the WCC, said it accommodates students during midterm week by remaining open.

“We’re open 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Fridays, we close at 5 p.m.,” Rolph said.

On Saturday and Sundays, the WCC is open from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. On Sundays, the WCC reopens at 3 p.m. and closes at 8 p.m.

Zach Timmons, first-year graduate student in the Composition, Rhetoric, and Digital Media master’s program and graduate assistant coordinator for the WCC, said midterm week is one of the busiest times for the WCC.

“During the midterm, that is obviously when we start getting a little bit more booked and busy, so we have a lot more foot traffic coming in,” Timmons said. “We have a lot more people who will book appointments, not only in person, but also on Zoom over the weekends.”

Janine Morris, associate professor in the Department of Communication, Media, and the Arts, and faculty coordinator at the WCC, says it helps undergraduate, graduate and professional students of all kinds with writing assignments.

“We are always here to help students who are working on assignments, papers [and] lab reports,” Morris said. “We have consultants who can help support them in all those different kinds of genres.”

The WCC utilizes writing consultants who are student staff members.

“Writing fellows are basically writing tutors,” Rolph said. “We use the word consultant instead of tutor because we like to encourage them to be as unbiased as possible and to give the students that are visiting the tools to fix [their work] themselves.”

Rolph believes students who visit the WCC and are guided by writing consultants will be more confident in how they write.

“Instead of you see someone’s paper and you’re just fixing their paper, you’re giving them the tools to fix it themselves,” Rolph said. “So [it is] teaching students how to be more confident with their writing, helping them with grammar, formatting [and] with anything; anything to do with the foundational basics of writing. We are giving them the tools.”

Melissa Montagna, associate director of Academic Support Services, said the TTC hosted webinars during the semester such as “Don’t Call it a Comeback Webinar!” and is accessible for students studying for midterms through virtual appointments and extended hours.

“We are open for extended hours during midterm week to facilitate all of those accommodated makeup, sick exams to make sure students are being able to complete them in a timely manner,” Montagna said.

Montagna said the TTC tries focusing on tutoring students in STEM-based courses and understanding the makeup of the undergraduate student population to target courses that show poor student grade results.

Jada Fenelus, sophomore nursing major, said she has had a positive experience getting tutored at the TTC.

Fenelus said that the tutors at the TTC help her go through her work, being appreciative they are there showing she is not alone and to not be afraid to ask for help.

The TTC provides four services to aid students preparing for midterms: Supplemental Instruction, Peer Tutoring, Peer Academic Consulting and Testing Services. Montagna elaborated on Peer Tutoring. She said the tutor would work with the student to come up with goals that are more realistic for the session.

“[The tutors] really hone in on like what exactly [the students] need to learn, giving them things to work on once they leave here as well,” Montagna said. “So [the students] feel like more, they feel like they are in a position of control and success moving forward, like really getting rid of feelings of stress and anxiety.”