Finals season is often a challenging and stressful time of the school year for many students, and studying can be especially difficult.
When Anthony Barnes ’27, a biology major, experienced this stress during his time as a first-year student, he started using the Success Center and improved his study habits, he said.
“Things went downhill my freshman year,” Barnes said. “I had a lot of support here, and I began using the Success Center by going to tutoring and the learning consultations that they have.”
The Success Center, located on the ground floor in Bellarmine Hall, comprises five offices that provide support services to students, wrote Kristin Goldberg, director of the Office of Learning Resources, in an email to The Hawk.
“The Office of Learning Resources helps students study more efficiently and effectively and to make a smooth academic transition to the university,” Goldberg wrote. “We run both the peer tutoring and the supplemental instruction (SI) programs.”
The five offices within the Success Center include the Office of Learning Resources, the Office of Student Success, the Office of Student Transitions, the Athlete Center for Enrichment and the Office of Student Disability Services, Goldberg wrote.
Seamus McBride ’26, who works at the front desk in the Success Center, said he uses the academic coaches at the Success Center as a resource.
“I had a big issue with studying during high school, and now I’m much better about organization and time management,” McBride said.
The Office of Learning Resources did over 2,000 individual tutoring appointments in 2023, in addition to other individual non-tutoring services, Goldberg said in an interview with The Hawk.
“We call that one contact hour, a student walks in and we are giving them a service. We saw just shy of 13,000 contact hours last year,” Goldberg said.
Katie Harper ’25, an SI leader for calculus and a Spanish tutor at the Success Center, said her passion for math led her to be an SI.
“I found calculus very interesting when I first took the class,” Harper said. “I was excited for the opportunity to help other students understand the material and develop their problem-solving skills.”
Brent Rolle ’26, a neuroscience major, said that in his first year, he used the Success Center’s tutoring services only when he was worried about his grades or when it was almost time for final exams, but now he meets with a tutor more consistently throughout the semester.
“The more you go to get tutored, you will get more familiar with the students tutoring you, then you can become friends,” Rolle said. “That says a lot about the environment in the Success Center.”
Goldberg said students now tend to care more about how they balance studying for finals and how they prioritize their sleep and self-care than they did when she first started in the academic support field, a shift she views positively.
“This is very important,” Goldberg said. “How well you take care of yourself during finals is key.”
