Learning Resource Center (LRC)
Tutoring Services

    The first time I walked into the LAP I was greeted with smiling faces of women that I later came to know as friends. After being introduced to the fellow tutor's, I began to work. Moving around from table to table, answering questions that ranged on all levels of mathematics and the sciences.

    I have learned so much from my experiences in the LAP. The videos that the tutors are required to watch helped me use positive reinforcement when answering questions with the occasionally no so positive person. The tapes also reminded men that we all started at the beginning at one time and to be sensitive to others feelings, because what may be easy or come easily to you may not be so for others.

    Being in the LAP made me feel good, a part of something special. A place where the students are the teachers and the teachers (tutors) are the students. Not only did I help by giving guidance to my peers but also in return they instructed me. Things that I had forgotten, shortcuts, alternative ways of solving problems were taught to me. Tutoring also reinforced what I already knew and helped me retain information better.

    Having taken many mathematic and science courses I was able to apply the techniques my previous teachers had used that I felt were most successful. I came to find that humor and flat out just having fun are the best strategies. Learning should be fun. Most of the things that I remember from junior high and high school were from the instructors that created game worksheet to take home. Or they would go as far as to explain why we're doing what we're doing. I do my best to not only teach a person how to do a problem but to understand it.

    In almost every class the instructor always says, “don't be afraid to ask a question, there are no stupid questions.” As much as that is said, people still refrain, even myself. When I first started tutoring in the LAP I felt bad, guilty and sometime stupid if I couldn't answer a question. I myself was afraid to ask other tutors for their assistance. I slowly overcame this. I learned that not everyone knows all of the answers all of the time. I know now that we, all of the tutors, are a team. Working together to achieve a similar goal. I'm not afraid to ask for help any more in the LAP or in my classes. I now try to teach that to the people I tutor. Letting them know that it's okay to have questions and that if it was easy everyone would be doing it.

    I plan to come back to the LAP again, and again. I have enjoyed the people I've met and the knowledge I've gained. The LAP has made a footprint on my heart and I will remember it forever.