News from The Learning Center

The Le a r n ing Ce nte r Ne w s le tte r : A p ri l 20 1 4 Volume 13, Issue 4 April 2014

Outstanding Peer Educators of the Year

If you see Maria DiPietro or Sarah McPherson, please congratulate them on being named co-recipients of the highest possible honor from The Learning Center the Outstanding Peer Educator of the Year Award. Maria DiPietro Lori DeConinck, Learning Center Director, first spoke with Maria when she interviewed her for the JumpStart Summer Bridge Program. She was sweet, enthusiastic a perfect candidate for and participant in the program. Since that time, Maria has become an Integral part of TLC. She has served as a JumpStart mentor, worked for Chad as a peer mentor and Second Start mentor and for Lori as a Scholarship Retention Program mentor. She has tutored numerous subjects, ranging from psychology to graphics. Maria is, as Chad describes her, a backbone of the mentoring programs. In all her interactions, she is motivating, helpful, and kind. TLC staff has never seen her in a bad mood or without a smile on her face. She has accumulated 200+ hours of mentoring, outside of Second Start and is certified by the College Outstanding Peer Educator of the Year recipients: Maria DiPietro (top) and Sarah McPherson (bottom) years and during that time has worked with countless students. She has tutored across several disciplines, including writing, psychology, math and mentoring. She has been the lead classroom assistant for Dr. Pepins Psych 211 class for 3 years, and mentored the other two classroom assistants as well. She was the force behind the new Public Speaking initiative this year. She has accumulated over 300 hours of tutoring service and is certified as a Master Level Tutor by the CRLA. She is always willing to take on additional assignments with never-ending patience and a smile and the students with whom she works are quick to sing her praises. Reading and Learning Association as a Level 1 mentor. Maria will be irreplaceable to TLC and all of our staff are sincerely appreciative of all she has done for us and her peers. Sarah McPherson Sarah McPherson is another outstanding member of the TLC staff and Selina describes her as the epitome of an outstanding peer educator. Sarah has worked for TLC for three These two ladies are similar in their kindness, outstanding dedication to TLC and their peers, and their humbleness. We are sure that neither expected to receive this honor for the 20132014 academic year. Congratulations to Maria and Sarah on an honor welldeserved!

Inside this issue:

Poetry Writing Contest Winner End-of-Year Recognition Social Learning Center Relocation in Fall 2014 Final Exam Week Walk -In Tutoring Schedule Peer Educator of the Month: March Jelly Bean Counting Contest Winner April National Poetry Mont h Events

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Special Points of Interest

Congratulations to Paul Nguyen, March Peer Educator of the Month Congratulations to Maria DiPietro and Sarah McPherson, corecipients of the Outstanding Peer Educator of the Year award

Page 2 Poetry Writing Contest Winner

On Telling a Fellow Writer the Wisdom of Bens Classroom I hope you always notice the texture of a place and you always know to give Satan the best lines. Ive learned to see a shortcoming as a virtue and that every story must reveal a truth. You must never play Risk with your family; its like a puppet show of abusive Uncle Pennybags. Meanwhile, heroin needles are splintering and Cormac is wielding a gun in his classroom. Real life cuts against all stereotypes and we accept chaos in the produce isle. I know that Karma Chameleon is a dangerous song and Everclear, its like dirt in your face. Most importantly, I know to create a character you can forgive. And that no matter the suspense you must always earn the ending. Whatever, wherever you are in life dont forget to be in it. Dont be some lofty self-loathing person hanging above you, judging you. Dont divorce yourself from your life. -Colleen DeCourcy

The Learning Center Newsletter: April 2014 End-of-Year Recognition Social

At the end of each academic year, The Learning Center hosts an End of-Year Recognition social for all of our Peer Educators. The evening is full of award and certificate presentations for all Peer Educators who have worked for The Learning Center. All of our tutors and mentors were able to spend time with the faculty and staff that assist with our office, while enjoying a delicious spread of Italian style entrees and desserts. Special recognition was given to graduating seniors and students who have completed levels of College Reading and Learning Association (CRLA) training within the 2013-2014 academic year. This year, 25 tutors achieved Level 1 Tutor certification, and 11 tutors achieved Level 2 Tutor Certification. Mentors Lynsay Bell, Joe Cote and Maria DiPietro earned Level 1 Mentor certification, and tutors Samantha Bergeron, Robert Harte, Karel Ngnibo, Alex Nash and Paul Nguyen earned Level 3 Master Tutor certification. The Learning Center recognized 132 Peer Educators, 41 of whom are graduating seniors. Each graduating senior was presented with a gift from The Learning Center, an engraved paperweight, to express our offices gratitude for the Peer Educators hard work. Additionally, the Outstanding Peer Educator of the Year co-recipients were announced in a theatrical manner, as The Learning Center staff revealed the names of the recipients through a funny, theatrical skit using terminology from the popular Hunger Games books and movies. Please see the article on page one of the newsletter for more information about the recipients. We hope that all who attended the April 21st End-of-Year Recognition Social enjoyed the evening as a small token of thanks and recognition for the amazing work that our Peer Educators and Faculty volunteers do!

The Learning Center is moving to the Learning Commons in Fall 2014

If you are looking for The Learning Center in Fall 2014, you wont find us in Stark Hall! The Learning Center will be relocating to the Learning Commons building, next to the Dining Center. In addition to housing The Learning Center, the Learning Commons building will also be the home of the new library, Instructional Support and The Center for Teaching and Learning. Additionally, The Learning Center will be planning an Open House in early Fall 2014 to welcome the SNHU campus community to our new space, and to promote student awareness of our new location. We are very excited to transition to this new space and are sure that this relocation to a more centralized campus location will enable us to help even more students than we currently are! See you in the Learning Commons in the Fall!

The new Learning Center classroom set up will be similar to our Located on the second floor of the current space with moveable tanew building, the new Learning bles to accommodate multiple Center space will feature two students attending walk-in tutoring classrooms, centralized staff sessions. offices, and a conference room.

The Learning Center will be able to offer all of the same tutoring services currently available to students in Stark Hall in our new space.

Volume 13, Issue 4

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Peer Educator of the Month: March

The Learning Center is extremely pleased to announce that senior Paul Nguyen has been named Outstanding Peer Educator of the Month for March. Paul is a senior in the 3Year Honors Program and is a dedicated and talented Math tutor. With nearly 500 hours of tutoring service, Paul has assisted countless SNHU students in their math courses. This year he has been the class assistant in the Three Year Programs statistics and calculus classes as well as working several hours of walk-in tutoring each week. Even as a busy student himself, Paul still makes time to work with students as a 1-1 tutor. peer educator next year. We wish him well in all of his future endeavors. His dedicated service to the students of SNHU is greatly appreciated.

Congratulations to Marek Rivero, the winner of the Jelly Bean Counting Contest!

that he tutors. He consistently is a resource for the other math tutors and his positive, upbeat attitude is infectious. Students describe Paul as extremely helpful and comment on how he is able to assist them in building their confidence in math.
Marek had the closest guess (605) to the number of jelly beans in the jar (611)!

Paul is patient and truly cares Paul will be graduating in about the progress of each student May and we will miss having him as a

April National Poetry Month Events

Each year, the month of April is designated as National Poetry Month. The Learning Center put together several events to encourage participation in National Poetry Month after many National Poetry Month events in 2013 were a huge success. Beginning April 1st, flyers with different excerpts of poetry were distributed around campus, and poetry postings were displayed on the SNHU televisions, with new poems appearing every week! University College students were able to submit their original pieces of poetry to The Learning Center. English professors David Swain, Sarah Howe and Allison Cummings volunteered as judges, and voted to choose the winning submission. Student Colleen DeCourcys submission On Telling a Fellow Writer the Widsom of Bens Classroom was chosen as the winner, and can be seen on page two of the newsletter. Colleen also received several volumes of poetry as a prize, and will have her piece published in the Penman Press. From April 8-10th, students were able to share their thoughts regarding what SNHU Poets say. by writing the title or a line from their favorite piece of poetry, on The Learning Centers poetry banner. Many students, faculty and staff stopped by to share their favorite, including President LeBlanc. The poetry banner is available for viewing in Stark 12. The Learning Center also sponsored Poem in your Pocket Days from April 1517th . Students were able to participate in this national event by stopping by the promotional table to peruse a variety of poetry samples and take a few with them to keep in their pocket throughout the day. We hope you were able to enjoy the April National Poetry Month events sponsored by The Learning Center!

The Learning Center Stark Hall 2500 North River Road Manchester, NH 03106 603.645.9606