Vaulting ambition

Today is the first day of week 9. Counting this week, we have two more weeks of instruction and a week of finals before many of you take off for vacation, prepare for more classes during the summer, and get ready to transfer into the workforce or to a university. As the term winds down students are facing the mounting pressures of finishing class assignments and projects, studying for exams, and preparing for finals. Tutors have the added burden of assisting struggling students as they work to finish their own projects and do their own studying. The beautiful weather helps little, as bright sunny days and warm breezes are big distractions when intense studying and hard work is required for success.

I encourage everyone to concentrate on time management and putting the few days that remain in this term to good use. 

Please keep the following dates in mind.

Wednesday, May 28^th at 3pm: Outstanding Student Reception in Jacoby Auditorium. Several students from across campus will be presented with the Outstanding Student Award in recognition for their hard work and commitment to UCC. Among the recipients will be our own Rebecca Foster, Ian Founds, Tyler Cheek, and Graham Founds. In addition Robert Lee, a frequent visitor to the Success Center and friend to many, will be awarded.  

Friday, May 30^th 12:00 pm – 5:00 p: Spring Fever party in the common areas in the center of campus. There will be food, music, a bouncy house, water fights . . .  need there be an excuse to party?

Friday, June 6^th at 3:30 pm: CRLA / 1000 student celebration in the Success Center. The Success Center has seen over 1000 student visits this term so far. To celebrate this and acknowledge all your hard work in helping our students, there will be a pizza party instead of the regular Friday meeting. We will also be presenting tutors with the CRLA certifications that they have earned to date.

June 9-13^th: Finals week.

Friday, June 13^th at 6:00 pm: UCC’s 50^th commencement ceremony. Please join the faculty and staff in congratulating the students who are celebrating their graduation from UCC. At least three Success Center tutors will be graduating this spring, and this is a fine time to congratulate them and show support for your fellow team members. In addition, many students who have utilized out services will be graduating and cheering them on will be a wonderful way to show our pride in their accomplishments.

I also want to remind everyone of some housekeeping issues that need to be addressed.

The ESB writing Lab: writing instructor Brent Lewis hosts a writing lab in the Success Center from 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm Monday through Thursday. This is an ideal resource for any student who needs writing help or guidance.

Weekly Reflection: Weekly reflection forms will be sent out Friday and will be due the following Friday. Returning these via Email or via hard copy is fine, but they must be returned to Daniel by the Friday due date. Daniel will be scheduling one-on-one meetings with all tutors, however it up to all employees to approach Daniel and let him know your availability for these meetings.

Emotional Bank Account forms: These are being turned in with some regularity, which is a very good thing. There have been some comments that when tutors are thinking back on the day’s interactions, it’s hard for them to remember details. I would encourage people who are experiencing these difficulties to take notes throughout the day of their interactions with other students so that they are better prepared to bank account forms.

Summer availability: Please Email Daniel and let him know if you will be available to tutor during the summer or fall term. He doesn’t need your exact schedule right now, but just a general idea of your availability status. Due to schedules changing near the beginning of each term, the final schedules will likely be ready during the first week of term. Remember that the entire UCC campus is closed on Fridays during the summer.

I would also like to remind everyone that we as a team need to take pride in our center. If there is any downtime while you are on shift, keep an eye out for chairs that need to be pushed in, coffee that needs to be made, or errant papers left behind on the tables or at the computer stations. Taking a moment to keep the center organized and ready for students is very important in welcoming visitors.

I want to thank each and every one of you for your dedication to UCC, its students, and their success in college. The increase we’ve seen in the number of student visits this term is evidence that our services are not only needed but appreciated.

“I have no spur

To prick the sides of my intent, but only

Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself,

And falls on th'other. . . .”

Macbeth, Macbeth. Act 1, scene 7. 25–28

 So, what are you ambitious about as this term comes to a close?

Knowing is Half the Battle

Hello Success Center Staff,

I wanted to make sure that you were all aware of some campus events coming up in the next couple weeks:

The debate club will be having a debate on Friday May 30th at the Center Stage in the Whipple building starting at noon and ending at 1 pm.  The topic is, "Should Oregon open primary voting so that unaffiliated voters are able to participate." Two of our tutors are heading opposite sides of the debate: Tyler Cheek will argue for the proposal and Susie Day will argue against the proposal.  I am encouraging you all to show up and give your support to our Success Center co-workers.  

Our student government (ASUCC) is hosting the annual Spring Fever event also on May 30th.  Spring Fever will start at noon and end at 5 pm.  ASUCC is looking for some volunteers to help with the Spring Fever event.  If anyone is able to help, please contact Susie Day or another student government representative.  If you volunteer your time, you will receive a free tee-shirt as a "thank you" for your time.  

Last weekend ASUCC held their sixth annual dodge-ball tournament.  Our Success Team was able to come in second place behind the National Guard team.  The second place prize was a $75 gift card for Abby's Legendary Pizza.

While we are on the topic of pizza, we will be having a celebration for having over 1,000 student visits to the Success center for tutoring this term.  We will hold this event instead of having our tutor meeting on Friday June 6th.  I want to thank and congratulate our staff for doing a great job with getting students logged in and providing excellent support to our students at UCC.  We have been helping an average of just over 50 students each day.  We will also be giving out the CRLA certificates earned by each tutor on June 6th in addition to our previously mentioned celebration.  I appreciate all of your hard work and keeping up with what you are being asked to accomplish during your work week.  Since there have been some changes recently, I wanted summarize the tasks that need to be completed by all Success Center employees.

• E-Mails: Regularly (multiple times per week) check your student email account and any other e-mail address that you provided to the Success Center.  If you receive an e-mail from a Success Center staff member I need you to respond to it promptly.  Also, remember to log into G-Chat when you clock on to tutor.
• Tutoring Blog:  Each employee needs to read and post a response to the tutoring blog by the end of each week that a blog is published.  I will send e-mails out with a reminder of the web address for the blog (SuccessCenterTutoring.blogspot.com).
• Student Bank Entries: Each day that you work in the Success Center we need each employee to record three entries (deposits/withdraws) to the student bank.  These entries need to be interactions with UCC students that go beyond your typical day-to-day interactions.
• Weekly Reflection Form: Fill out the reflection forms when they are e-mailed out to you on Friday's and have the previous week's completed form e-mailed to me.  I sent out the first reflection form this Monday, May 19th, which should reflect your experience during this term so far, however the reflection forms going forward will be based on the events of the previous weeks.  Please spend some time to provide quality responses on the reflection forms.  I will start scheduling the one-on-one follow-up meetings for next week.

We will be having our tutor meeting at 3:30 this Friday like normally scheduled.  Campus, including the Success Center, will be closed May 26th for Memorial Day.

Question:

If knowledge is half the battle, Can anyone tell me what the other half is?

Spring Fever

Success Center Staff,

It is easy to let yourself get distracted during this time of the year; the school year is coming to an end and the beautiful sunshine has started blessing us with it's presence more frequently.  I do encourage you to enjoy the warmth of the sunshine when the opportunity is there, however always keep in mind what your priorities are and make sure you are getting the most important things accomplished.  It is also a good idea to keep this in mind during your tutoring sessions as other students will be struggling with similar distractions.  Sometimes it is an extremely important skill to be to help students recognize these distractions and come up with ways to minimize the influence that they have on students avoiding their schoolwork.

• UCC is hosting their sixth annual dodgeball tournament on Saturday May 17th at 9 am in the UCC gym. Teams can have anywhere from 4 to 10 members.  Registration is $30 per team and the campus center will be accepting applications until May 15th.  Some of the success assistance have formed a team and I encourage the tutors to create either one team or create teams with other students.  It is fun to get involved with the school while getting connected with other students on campus.  More information is available in the campus center including the rules which everyone participating will be expected to know.

• The CSM program that is ran by our department has been rapidly growing.  We currently have 38 students enrolled in the program and enrollment for the Spring term will stay open until May 29th and then will open back up for Summer term on the first Monday of Summer term.  If you have any questions regarding the CSM program, please talk with either Blake Norton, Amanda Welch, or Tyler Ramos.  Our "Referral Form" is now available to use on the website on the Success Center's page.  We have also finally been approved for our CRLA tutor center certification as of the beginning of this month. This is super exciting and I will be following up with all of you about this shortly.

• We have hired two new tutors that will be starting next week.  Corrine Brown will be an additional accounting tutor as well as some other subjects as well.  Edgar Perez was hired to be an SI tutor for some of the Spanish courses.  Edgar will also be in the center for an hour each week holding a study group for the Spanish students on Thursdays from noon until 1.  We have also hired a new success assistant named Dustin.  Please welcome these new members to our staff as soon as you get a chance or see them around in the center.

• There have been some concerns around students having some expectations of our staff in the Success Center to work on their computers.  The Success Center does not provide computer repair services.  The services that we do not provide consist of but are not limited to: debugging, repairing/installing software, or installing programs.  The Success Center provides students with academic support and skills/tools to be successful moving forward through their futures.

If you guys have a chance you should watch this video from Nick Vujicic:                        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4uG2kSdd-4 

"I think the biggest disability that we have as human beings is unbelief.  Everything starts with a vision, and a man without a vision dies."   -Nick Vujicic