8 Sunday,November5,2017•HIGHER EDUCATION/Advertising supplement to The Journal News

The goal of all colleges is to provide the best education possible and to see students graduate. In order to bolster this goal, higher education has initiated intervention strategies

to help all students regardless of academic standing through mentoring programs. Hudson Valley colleges discussed how their learning centers now provide an array of academic services which go beyond the traditional one-on-one tutoring, and how making the grade means so much more than a student’s Grade Point Average (GPA).

Centers for Learning and Success“Our PACT Program (Personal Achievement Contract) assigns a mentor to each and every student as soon as acceptance,” said Rajesh Kumar, Executive Director of Student Success at Mercy College in Dobbs Ferry.

“The program has been recognized for its innova-tion by the National Council on Education. Whether a freshman, transfer, or adult returning to school, a mentor is immediately assigned.”

Mr. Kumar explained Mercy College’s mentoring encompasses interpersonal relationships, financial aid literacy, computer technology, choosing a major, ca-reer exploration, and campus engagement. “All these facets contribute to the overall academic success of a student,” he added.

The coordinated efforts among professors, mentors, professional and volunteer tutors, and counselors en-able a student to overcome rough patches he or she may encounter. However, colleges recognize this col-laboration also applies to helping good students attain even better study habits as well as improve research and writing skills.

Making the Grade Strategies for college success

By Joan Reid

Ross A. Christofferson Director of Center for Academic Excellence, and Dr. Susan Maxam, Assistant Vice President of Undergraduate Education at Pace University’s Westchester campus.

“A mentor allows you to see the hope inside yourself ” — Oprah Winfrey

HIGHER EDUCATION/Advertising supplement to The Journal News • Sunday,November5,2017 9

Dominican College’s Academic Success Center is the hub of such support for students. “The Center isn’t just for students whose grades may be slipping,” said Dr. Debra Moniz, Director of the Center. “There are students who need help organizing their thoughts for a paper, or want a refresher on thesis formatting. We hold writing workshops to guide students on how to avoid pla-giarism when using APA style. And we offer assis-tance on how to read a textbook and test prepara-tion. All these work toward retention.”

The change in how colleges present tutoring demonstrates that it has become a success strat-egy contributing to the growth of professional aca-demic services and overall student success.

“At our Learning Assistance Center, we don’t think about it as a place only for students who are having academic issues,” stressed Dr. Brian R. Evans, Assistant Provost for Experiential Learning and Coordinator at Pace University. “Services include traditional tutoring for subject content, review sessions and workshops partner-ing faculty with student groups, academic skills guidance for students who want to talk to a pro-fessional in their major, and peer mentoring with three to four students, to discuss how the peer developed strong study habits.”

Advisors & interventionOne aspect of college life that has emerged is for students to be assigned a mentor or advi-sor the first year, especially for its influence on retention and graduation. “Having an advisor

in a student’s first year is crucial,” emphasized Ross A. Christofferson, Director of the Center for Academic Excellence at Pace.“The advisor be-comes the point person to help students navigate through college life.”

Kevin Joyce, Vice President of Student Affairs at Mercy College, echoed a similar sentiment, “Our advisors had over 2,000 one-on-one student meetings during the fall semester’s first week to discuss interests and concerns. We pride ourselves on our Intervention Progress Report System noti-fying advisors ASAP about behavior, attendance — anything seen as an impediment. With 50 pro-fessional mentors, caseloads are relatively small so personal relationships quickly identify issues to keep a student on track.”

Dr. Susan Maxam, Assistant Vice President of Undergraduate Education at Pace, said, “That is why it is important to be proactive and not reac-tive. We essentially prevent academic failure from happening with an Academic Alert System. Advisors are alerted within the first week if a student is not showing up for class or doesn’t have a book. The last thing we want to do is take a stu-dent’s money and not see them succeed.”

Another excellent strategy is the unique liv-ing arrangements Fordham University uses to complement mentoring. Dr. Maura B. Mast, Dean at Fordham College at Rose Hill explained, “A Fordham residence hall includes integrated learning communities related to majors. For ex-ample, freshmen who are interested in pre-health,

science, or mathematics can choose to live in the Science Integrated Learning Community where the resident assistants and tutors offer review sessions and time management seminars.”

Success StoriesHere are two success stories that are testimony to the diligent work of students and how abilities and self-confidence were tapped through academic mentoring.

Dr. Mast shared the results of a colleague’s four-year mentoring: “A freshman entered Fordham in pre-health and found classes too challenging. She was put on academic probation after the first se-mester. We worked closely with the dean and dis-cussed interests and options for majors. We care-fully chose courses for the second semester that would connect with her interests and improve her GPA. Three years later, she is a senior with a dou-ble major in Psychology and Communications and a 3.3 GPA. She was just selected for an internship at “The Daily Show” with Trevor Noah. Her hard work and progress inspires me.”

Mr. Christofferson shared: “We had a student who started in our lowest level math course and wanted to major in computer science. He attended the tutoring center and continuously attended math course tutoring, eventually developing a network of people who understood the material, and he had a successful first year, and beyond. Now, he is in graduate school. This is our mantra– “Setting up for success from day one,” concluded Mr. Christofferson.

Debra Moniz, Director of the Academic Success Center, tutoring student Julio Rivera in math at Dominican College in Orangeburg.

Dr. Maura B. Mast, Dean of Fordham College’s Rose Hill Campus in the Bronx, is always prepared to assist students.

Mercy College counselor and student working together with the PACT Program, recognized by the National Council on Education.

English Professor, Dr. James Reitter, helping a student in the Academic Success Center at Dominican College.

The coordinated efforts among professors, mentors, professional and volunteer tutors, and counselors enable a student to overcome rough patches…and help good students attain even better study habits.