Learning Services

By Nicole Patterson

ONE OF MOUNT ST. MARY’S DISTINGUISHING FEATURES is its emphasis on principles of Catholic Social Teaching including human dignity—an understanding of the sacred dignity that each person is “fearfully and wonderfully made” in the likeness of Christ. The moral measure of our institution is to what degree it enhances the life of the human person.

The Department of Learning Services offers a variety of programs designed to help students succeed academically. What started in the mid-1970s as a resource to assist a professor’s child with autism has grown to include programs like disability services, peer tutoring and Summit Scholars. Learning Services supports students on their academic journey.

“Everyone is truly welcome here. It doesn’t matter who you are. God put you on this Earth and you as a person are worthy of being who you are and who you want to be,” says Jane Hollabaugh, administrative assistant in Learning Services. “We’re going to accept you and love you just because you’re you.” Hollabaugh, who graduated from St. Joseph College in the Class of 1975, has worked at the Mount for nearly 25 years. A sign posted outside her office door reads: Peace to all who enter here.

As times have changed, and she reminisces about driving her 1958 Dodge Coronet with fins and a push button transmission, she has seen Learning Services transform and expand to include student accommodation letters, changes to the law, testing and diagnoses to name a few. The individualized and confidential services students receive are a testament to the Learning Services team, Mount faculty members and, of course, the students themselves.

In accordance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the first disability civil rights law to be enacted in the United States, discrimination is prohibited against people with disabilities in programs that receive federal financial assistance. That law set the stage for the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). In 2008, the ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA), signed into law by President George W. Bush, allowed for a broader legal definition of “disability” and provided greater protections against discrimination under the law.

“We have graduated students with Tourette’s Syndrome, students with autism, students with attention deficit disorder, students who are blind and Deaf,” Hollabaugh notes.

Director of Learning Services Denise Marjarum had a vision for what Learning Services could become. Marjarum, who received her Master of Science degree in counseling from McDaniel College, spent the last 20 years at the Mount after working at another private, liberal arts college for 15 years. While much of the work of Learning Services is done in the background and under the radar, the work and the relationships fuel her purpose. Each member of Learning Services sits around the table in their conference room nodding their heads in solidarity.

“Working with students with disabilities was always what I wanted to do since I was a little kid. I knew I wanted to teach. Early on, for whatever reason, I saw people with disabilities as human beings and individuals to be respected—even when the rest of the world didn’t,” Marjarum adds. In the first grade she learned sign language. In elementary and middle school, she would get mad if she saw students with disabilities being bullied or mistreated.

Some of the students from Learning Services continue to reach out for support well after graduation. The Learning Services team chimes in with examples of how alumni still send emails or call to share what’s going on in their personal or professional lives. These strong relationships underscore the need to create communities and social systems that reflect the underlying love and inherent dignity of each person.

Learning Services also offers peer tutoring free to all students. Peer tutors (students) are trained and faculty-recommended. Their service allows students to better comprehend course content, prepare for exams and develop efficient strategies.

In August 2021, Associate Director of Learning and Success Kristin Sites was thrilled to announce the Learning Services

Peer Tutoring Program received Level 2 (Advanced) Certification through the College Reading and Learning Association’s (CRLA) International Tutor Training Program Certification. Level 1 has been in place since 2012. Many of the Mount’s peer tutors are individually CRLA-certified.

“Part of the reason I came here 11 years ago was because Denise tasked me with fixing the peer tutoring program, which I did,” Sites says. “Admittedly, it took me a little bit of my 20s to figure out what I wanted to do. But I figured out I loved working with students in an academic support setting, particularly with peer tutoring programs because I was a peer tutor myself and did a little professional tutoring during graduate school,” she recalls. She received her Master of Arts degree in college student personnel and counseling at Shippensburg University. Her graduate school advisor, Jan Arminio, co-wrote the book Why Aren’t We There Yet? Taking Personal Responsibility for Creating an Inclusive Campus. Sites says she learned a lot about social justice and what it truly means to value the dignity of others.

In 2010, originally tasked with peer tutoring and retention, Sites made valiant strides. She created Mount Cares, a referral system for faculty and staff to share a concern about a student. Each student is assigned a case manager to help assess their needs, understand and inform a larger picture and reach the student. “I created Mount Cares. Back in the old days, we didn’t have any reporting system—just a four-week report and midterms and final grades were the only student checkpoints,” Sites explains.

“You came in for the graduate assistant interview, and I swear all four of us looked at each other and actually said: ‘Get that kid. Don’t let him leave the building,’” Sites says of Assistant Director of Learning Services and Summit Scholars Program Coordinator Lucas Dayhoff. Everyone around the table laughs. Now in his

eighth year at the Mount, he began as a graduate assistant in Learning Services.

“I first started under Kristin with Mount Cares and helped her get data and fell in love with the work over time,” he admits. “I got to work with and mentor some really great students. It was just so rewarding.” Marjarum soon tasked him with running the Transition Program targeted at students with lower high school GPA and SAT scores. Many of these students are first generation college students.

Dayhoff developed Summit Scholars, a mentoring system designed to assist new students with a successful transition from high school to university academics. Students in the program are appointed a Learning Services staff member to meet with them on a regular basis to develop their study, organizational and time management skills—while being a personal advocate for that student’s first year at the Mount. Summit Scholars are also encouraged to attend peer tutoring appointments and frequent the Writing Center, led by Assistant Professor of Communication and English Jordan Loveridge, Ph.D.

The outreach and communication between students, their parents, faculty and advisors have made a positive impact. Dayhoff is hopeful to partner with director of Mount 101, Department of History Chair and Associate Professor Timothy Fritz, Ph.D., to pilot one group of Summit Scholars through Mount 101, a summer bridge program designed to offer students two three-credit courses while also fostering a sense of friendship and community through field trips and events. Dayhoff says that’s the dream.

Disability Specialist Amber Barnhart, C’10, is an example of Learning Services work in action. “I came to Denise because I needed some academic support. But then by the last two years of college, I was tutoring and working in Learning Services,” Barnhart says.

After graduation, she completed a counseling program at McDaniel College and worked with students with disabilities and clients in their homes, but she missed the academic setting and when she saw an employment ad for a learning specialist at the Mount, she knew. “That’s where I want to be,” she thought. “This place has always had a connection for me since I was little.”

Barnhart created a case management system for students with disabilities so each and every student who comes to Learning Services is paired with a team member. “They know they’re not alone. They’re not a number. They are a person and they have an advocate,” she adds.

Each person seated around the table has shared why they care about Mount students, how their experiences helped them create something new and how they continue to work to create a more equitable college experience for all students. Marjarum emphasizes it is her job, goal and life’s work to make sure these students aren’t pushed to the margins but integrated into the Mount community and have a regular college experience.

Visit msmary.edu/learningservices to learn more.