At Union University, students have many different learning styles and countless difficult classes. The Center for Academic Success works to support students who want help.
Sherry Tignor, Erin Slater and Vernetta Anderson all oversee the different aspects of the services that the CAS offers to students. Their blood, sweat and tears are evident from the love that students have for the CAS.
Freshmen who come to Union with an undecided major are advised by Slater, who helps them find a major that they enjoy. Many students take part in the Keystone program, assisting students through the transition from high school classes to college courses, building study skills and networking with their peers.
Among other things, the CAS provides a space for test proctoring and students for study labs, supplementary instruction and peer tutoring. The powerhouse behind these four programs is Vernetta Anderson.
“In classes, students learn what they need to learn, but through academic support, they will learn how to learn,” Anderson said.
Anderson heads academic support at the CAS. She is beginning her fifth year of working at Union for the CAS. Anderson attended the University of Memphis for both her undergraduate and masters degree.
“When I was in college, we didn’t have academic support,” Anderson said. “There were courses that, if I had had a tutor or supplemental instruction, I would have had great success.”
For Anderson, getting a C on a test or paper was a complete and utter failure to her. The stress that came from not having the academic support that she needed could have been alleviated by an equivalent to the CAS when Anderson was an undergraduate.
“To have had a tutor help me connect the dots would have been great,” Anderson said. “To have a tutor tell me that this is how you study for this discipline.”
It is fulfilling for Anderson to help students who come to the CAS get the support they need. Many students feel Anderson’s commitment to helping students, but none more than the study lab leaders and tutors.
The CAS has many moving parts, from the directors to the students seeking a new perspective on learning; none of these could stand alone. However, the true backbone of the CAS is arguably the student tutors.
The tutors dedicate their time and knowledge to the betterment of their peers’ education. They excelled in the courses that they tutor and work hard to help others find ways to excel as well. Katie McCann and Cassie Fish are two such tutors.
McCann is a junior accounting major who tutors for both the Old Testament and New Testament courses. She took both courses with School of Theology and Missions Professor Frank Anderson.
“I knew that a lot of people did struggle with testing style. I kind of felt as if I had figured him out and like I knew what to expect,” McCann said.
McCann did very well, while many others struggled to do fair. Her hard work and manner of thinking spurred Frank Anderson to recommend McCann to the CAS as a tutor for his class.
“I was doing really well in those classes, and I was really enjoying them,” McCann said. “I knew that other people weren’t doing as well as me, and I wanted to help them get in the same boat as me.”
With every student’s schedule being different, each tutor has different amounts of time that they can put into tutoring. Anderson manages all the tutors and helps them to carve out times to tutor.
“Our tutors are students first, and their personal studies take precedence over tutoring,” Anderson said.
If one of the tutors needs to close one of their time slots for some reason or reschedule an appointment, Anderson is only an email away. Putting the tutors first is the CAS’s premier priority because without the tutors, there would not be a CAS.
Being proficient in your course isn’t enough. The tutors must also know how to translate their knowledge into a form that the students who come to them for help can digest. The CAS provides the tutors with the training they need to gain those skills.
“We work, not only on content from the class,” said Fish, a senior biology major, “but also study skills. All the peer tutors, study lab leaders,and supplementary instruction coaches are trained in study skills.”
Fish spent one semester as a supplementary instruction teacher, holding meetings where any student could come, study and ask questions. She has since swung in favor of being a one-on-one tutor due to the time commitment that comes with the study labs.
“Every time I get to see the lightbulb go off in their head where they finally understand and it clicks with them, that’s just the best feeling ever,” Fish said.
Many tutors tutor for classes that are more fundamental to their area of study than the classes they are currently taking to remind them of core elements as they tutor. Not only do the students seeking academic support get reminded of their current studies, but the tutors get to keep building on the basics.
While not all tutors are looking to go into teaching after graduation, they are doing their best to pass on their knowledge now. Whether it’s putting work into the lesson plans for study labs and supplementary instruction or keeping hours of their days open for tutoring sessions, Anderson’s student workers put their best feet forward.