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Tutoring Center
helps students succeed
by
Natalie Parkvall '02
| Worried about getting behind
in a class? Frustrated because you don’t understand your
teachers or your homework assignments? Writing a paper, and not
sure about grammar, organization, or style? Have a math problem
you can’t solve? |
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| Don’t worry. There
is help: HPU Tutoring and Testing Center provides assistance
to all registered HPU students, free of charge. The tutoring
is designed to meet individual needs, and the aim is to help
students master basic skills, develop learning skills, and refine
analytical skills in one-to-one sessions. |
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| The tutors at the Center
will help “any student in any course,” said Shalece
Moback, manager of the Tutoring Center, even if it’s work
that is not a requirement for a class. |
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| Most students who come
to the Center are international students in the English Foundation
Program (EFP), but undergraduate, graduate, adult, and satellite
students, international as well as American, also use its services. |
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| The English tutors offer
help in speaking and writing for students in English or writing
classes, or any class that requires a paper or oral presentation.
Students can come in with papers, ranging from simple essays
to extensive professional papers or master’s thesis, and
get help with grammar, spelling, organization, and style. Not
only that, but if you are stuck, and cannot get started with
a paper, you can see a tutor to brainstorm ideas. |
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| If you have trouble understanding
an assignment, you can ask a tutor to explain what you need to
do. They will help, but they will not do the work for you. |
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| “Tutors are not expected
to do a student’s homework, but rather guide them to their
own solution of the problem,” said Maria Le Rossow, an
English tutor at the Center. |
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| For the speaking part of
English tutoring, students can practice conversation, pronunciation,
reading, and listening. Some students also practice oral presentations
with tutors, so they can get feedback. |
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| “The best part about
the oral presentation practice is that students can get immediate
feedback that is focused on specific things they can work on,” Rossow
said. |
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| There are two types of
practicing oral presentation, one casual, where the student sits
down together with a tutor and presents, and another more formal
practice: |
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| “The student can
request to practice in a classroom setting with a tutor, so that
the tutor can focus on the vocal projection of the student, and
so the student also can practice use of gestures, or use of supplementary
materials, such as a poster board,” Rossow explained. |
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| The Center also has language
tutors in Japanese, Spanish, and French, and occasionally Mandarin
and German. Any student who takes a language class is required
to see a tutor to practice conversation, reading, and grammar. |
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| For students who need help
in other academic areas, there are “MABS” tutors,
or tutors in math, arts, business, and science. Tutoring is offered
in “hundreds of courses,” said Moback. The list of
courses is too long to present, but the main fields are: biology,
chemistry, economics, computer science, finance, quantative methods,
and math. There are also computers available for computer science,
economics, and certain math courses. |
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| The Tutoring Center is
not only good for improving your grade for one specific paper
or assignment, but also for helping you to be successful throughout
your education. |
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| “ It’s not
just about getting a good grade for this one thing, but learning
strategies and how to improve on your own when you don’t
have a tutor available,” said Moback. “[Students]
improve their grades in the short term…, but they also
learn a lot on how to study better and how to be independent
learners. [They learn] how to share their work, improve it, and
revise it, so that even if they don’t use the Tutoring
Center in the future, or if they’re not able to do it,
they’ve learned to ask somebody to look at it, and go over
it, or have study groups,” she said. |
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| In November 2000, the Tutoring
Center’s English/ESL (English as a Second Language) program
was certified by the College Reading and Learning Association
(CRLA) and can now award certificates to English/ ESL tutors
who have completed the required training. “After documenting
our tutor training program, we were able to confirm what we already
suspected: that it was more than rigorous enough to meet national
standards,” said Carol Perrin, director of the Tutoring
Center. “ The discovery gave us a sense of achievement, …[and]
tutors receive a certificate that recognizes their competence.” |
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| The Tutoring Center is located on the 6th floor
in the Library Building, 1060 Bishop St. at the downtown campus.
Tutoring is also available in selected subjects at the windward
campus, in the Atherton Library and the Cooke Academic Center.
Appointments are not necessary as help is available on a first-come,first-served
basis. Hours are Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday
8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday 12
a.m. to 5 p.m. |
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| For more information, call 544-9334. |
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