he Course S TO R Y B Y PAU L A P R I C E TA N N ER • P R O F I L ES & P H OTOS B Y J EN N I F ER M EER S J O N ES ’0 8
It is common knowledge that the number of students seeking college degrees has risen to an unprecedented level: in 2013 more than 14.4 million students were enrolled in a college or university, working toward a bachelor’s degree. What is less well known is that, across the U.S., roughly half of the students who begin a bachelor’s degree never finish it. Katie Bonner wants students at UMHB to beat those odds, and as the director of the university’s Center for Academic Excellence (CAE), she devises programs to help students succeed in their studies and complete their degrees. “There is a big gap between high school and college-level work, and there are many students who
struggle with that transition,” Bonner explains. “Our goal is not to do the work for them, but to encourage them and help them develop the skills they need to do well on the college level.” UMHB’s Strategic Plan of 2010 called for the university to ramp up efforts to improve student retention, and the CAE has been working handin-hand with the Office of the Provost to do just that. The center sought and obtained International Tutoring Training Program certification from the College Reading and Learning Association in 2011 and implemented a new training program for tutors soon thereafter. Coupled with efforts to increase student awareness of tutoring opportunities, the changes have generated impressive results. In the fall of 2012, the CAE held 950 tutor-
ing sessions, an 83 percent increase over the fall of 2011. In the fall of 2013, the center logged 1,442 tutoring appointments, which was a 52 percent increase over the previous fall. Bonner attributes this growth to several factors. “We have really excellent students working as peer tutors,” Bonner says. “We train them to make their tutoring sessions more than just subject focused; we encourage them to build relationships with the students, so they will feel comfortable coming back for help when they need it. And our tutors often end up recruiting other students to come to the study sessions. We provided the tutors with hoodies that say “CAE Tutor” on the back; when they wear them around campus, they serve as human billboards!”
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