[Dr. Beverly Walker-Griffea] High school was a breeze. You were able to get straight A's
every semester. But the rigors of college academics are no cakewalk. Do your college
test scores not mirror your high school success? Is your GPA in a funk? We've got the academic
cure, right here on MC 101: On The Real!
[Dr. Beverly Walker-Griffea] Hi! Welcome to MC 101: On The Real. I'm Dr. Beverly Walker-Griffea,
Senior Vice president for student services at MC. Now for some of you, high academic
achievement in high school just came naturally. You didn't have to work very hard, but you
were still on the honor roll every semester. But some of you are finding out things are more
challenging in college, and because of that your grades are suffering. What can you do?
The answers can be found in the academic support services.
[Jason Rivera] So learning centers are actually very important to students because what they
do is they provide spaces for students to come and get academic support as they're
working on different subject matter for their classes. So these are safe spaces where students
can come in and actually work independently or get support with a professional tutor,
or actually use our computers. There are a lot of different types of support that all
the learning centers across the College will provide for students.
[Dr. Eun-Woo Chang] Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education in higher education
has been a great topic in recent years; However, these topics are not easy topics for many
of our students, pretty rigorous and challenging. We provide the services for our students to
do well in their classes. Here at Rockville campus, we have a Math and Science Center.
And we also have a MAPEL Center and Science Center in Germantown campus, and Math Learning
Center and Science Learning Center at Takoma Park/Silver Spring campus.
[Doug Griffith] The IT Open Labs are available in all three campuses and the purpose really
is to provide on-campus computing resources for our students. Our labs exists so that
students can come in and use software resources that they need to support their classes. Many
students do not have particular software packages at home and we like to provide those here
in the lab.
[Jason Rivera] The Writing, Reading, and Language Centers across the three campuses are actually
very important to student success. We have one-on-one tutoring that we provide to students
in our Writing, Reading, and Language Centers in areas of writing, reading, and world languages.
We also do reading tutoring with our students and provide grammar support to our students
and other types of writing support to our students who are enrolled in non-English-based
classes.
[Dr. Eun-Woo Chang] The major roles of these centers are providing free tutoring services
by faculty, professional staff, and peer tutors. Often it's one-on-one or sometimes it's group
tutoring. In addition, we offer review sessions during the midterms and final periods for
students. Also, students can borrow textbooks or solutions manuals for specific courses,
and they can borrow calculators from the center as well.
[Doug Griffith] We have various software packages available in the IT Open Labs. Certainly
we support any word processing needs that students would have with the Microsoft suite.
Also you can use the various graphics packages within the suite as well. And depending on
the lab, we do have some other software packages that support classes. If they need really
specific software packages, we can also point them to specialize labs that we support as
well.
[Jason Rivera] We actually are a support service to students enrolled in all classes across
the college, and we do all types of different types of support with them including one-on-one
tutoring, we have group tutoring, we have language labs available to the students where
they can actually practice the languages that they're trying to speak. We also work directly
with faculty. We have faculty who identify problems with the classes or particular struggles
they are having with their classes. We'll tailor a workshop for the class and work with
the faculty to deliver that to the class. We also provide digital support to students,
so we have a lot of different types of software that we provide to students and we have a
computer learning lab for students to actually use those softwares. They're also equipped
with word processing capabilities so students can come in and use the center to write up
their papers.
[Dr. Eun-Woo Chang] Some of the engineering courses or other science courses require softwares,
and in that case actually we do have computers and we have softwares available in these centers.
We also provide a group study area and a quiet study area. We learned that when the students
actually utilize these informations from the learning centers, they not only become successful
students in their classes but also they become great students.
[Doug Griffith] For many students that are on our campuses, these labs provide a place
where they can go and not necessarily either have to bring their own computing assets with
them. They can come use the ones at campus. For some of our students this is the computing
that they have. They depend on us to be able to provide computers for them to use on a
daily basis when they're here at the school.
[Jason Rivera] I really strongly encourage all students to take advantage of all of the
academic support centers that we have available to them at Montgomery College. There are many
-- they're actually enrolled in the cost of tuition, so there's no additional cost
to the come in and use these facilities.
[Dr. Eun-Woo Chang] We have a great service available for you. I strongly encourage you
to come by and then use these services.
[Doug Griffith] The IT Open Labs are here for the students and we certainly want them
to come in and use them, and use all the resources that are available to them to assist with
their learning here at the College.
[Jason Rivera] They actually allow students a safe space to continue working with professionals
as they navigate the learning process and work toward fulfilling their dreams of graduating
college.
[Dr. Beverly Walker-Griffea] Those resources are great for general study purposes, but
what if you're studying with an industry-specific goal in mind? I'm here with Jeanette -- she
wants to be a pharmacist. How do you use the academic support center?
[Jeannette Noumsi] Well, I like to go to Science Learning Center in Germantown, where I can
meet with different tutors and use some study materials from the center. There's also
a quiet room over there and I love it very much. I go there often.
[Dr. Beverly Walker-Griffea] She must really like it -- I heard the passion. MC has plenty
of Academic Support Services aimed directly at helping students with particular academic
aspirations.
[Dr. Rodney Redmond] The College provides Writing, Reading, and Language Centers for
its students because it firmly believes that these skills are lifelong skills, they're
not just academic skills.
[Dr. Tacy Holliday] The Science and Math Learning Centers at all three campuses are devoted
to supporting science students in completing their course work successfully, navigating
through Montgomery College, and getting out with a good grade or the ability to transfer
as needed to wherever the need to go.
[Angela Pickwick] The purpose and the goals of having a Medical Learning Center for Health
Science students is so that our students can be successful. The health sciences are very
rigorous and so we need to make sure that as the students go through our programs here
at Montgomery College, that we have the resources for them outside the classroom to come and
continue to learn content. And then at the conclusion of the programs prepare to take
their certification exams and be successful on the first attempt.
[Dr. Rodney Redmond] Providing these skills and helping students to perfect and enhance
these skills increases their chances of employment, increases their chance of mobility once they
are employed, and then of course the community in turn appreciates the college for helping
to produce a highly competitive, highly diverse, well-qualified workforce.
[Dr. Tacy Holliday] The employers look for critical thinking skills, reasoning ability,
as well as content knowledge. And so whether you're looking to get a job in the biotech
industry or statistics or any job that's going to have you rely on those skills you're
learning in chemistry, biology, physics, engineering, and math. -- the skills that we will help
you learn are exactly the ones that you will need to be successful with your next job.
[Angela Pickwick] The Medical Learning Center, other than providing content and affirmation
of knowledge learned in the classroom, resources here allow the students opportunities to be
more successful on the first attempt at taking their Board exams or their certification or
licensure exams. Nationwide and also in the state of Maryland, the are policies and regulations
about these certifications and basically there to help protect the public, and in order to
practice in some professions you have to have that certification and license.
[Dr. Rodney Redmond] The skills that the students improve and enhance by using the services
of the Writing, Reading, and Language Centers really do help them to better compete in the
job market, help them to maintain upward mobility in the job market, and also helps
them to outshine some of their colleagues because they have some tools -- they have
some strategies for which they can attack a written assignment.
[Dr. Tacy Holliday] We bridge and support the learning that takes place in a classroom
in a way to allows students to develop the independent study skills that will let them
be successful. We help them by providing science content tutoring, math content tutoring, or
whatever content tutoring is needed, and by doing that we help them learn how to be affective
not only at Montgomery College but wherever they may choose to transfer.
[Angela Pickwick] In addition to our human resources here, we have access to some anatomical
models, we have access to print and non-print materials as well as 45 computers here in
the center where students can access software packages and other online resources from which
to, again, gain knowledge in terms of content for their discipline or prepare for their
certification exams.
[Dr. Rodney Redmond] We would definitely encourage students to come into the center, make use
of the facilities -- we're here to serve students and we love serving students.
[Dr. Tacy Holliday] Montgomery College invests a lot of resources to ensure that you complete
your courses successfully and that you get to the next college or even a transfer or
into the job of your choice. And the learning centers are a great way to take advantage
of those resources.
[Angela Pickwick] Any student that comes to Montgomery College for any coursework or any
program of study, they need to stop by, they need to, you know, meet people in the center
so they know that it's user-friendly and that were all here for the same common goal,
and that is for the students to succeed.
[Dr. Tacy Holliday] Montgomery College is all about helping students achieve their dreams
-- finding those endless possibilities.
[Dr. Beverly Walker-Griffea] Are those the only ways MC supports students? No way! We've
got plenty of other programs to help out students from every walk of life. I have Nima here
with me -- a business major. He wants to be an accountant. Nima, how do you use the
academic support services and what other programs do you take advantage of at MC?
[Nima Emamian] Well, accounting and business can surely be tough, but whenever I have trouble
I head to the Math/Science Center, where they have a wide variety of great tutors and wonderful
friendly staff who never let me down!
[Dr. Beverly Walker-Griffea] Wow, that's wonderful! But I'd like to take a look at some of the
other programs offered at MC.
[Amanda McIntosh] Adult learners at Montgomery College have access to a lot of great resources.
An adult student at MC is defined as a student who is over the age of 25, or maybe is a parent,
or who is a veteran. And so we have services at all three campuses for all of these students.
Students have access to counseling and advising services at all three campuses, we have financial
aid, we have resources on all three campuses for adult students to help them integrate
into the system.
[Harry Zarin] All three campuses -- Rockville, Germantown, Takoma -- have a Disability Support
Services office. There's designated counselors on all three campuses. So our job is: we get
the students in, they provide us with documentation, we verify the presence of the disability,
we also look for what are the recommend accommodations, and that information comes from the provider
of the information. So we then help the students find those accommodations at the campuses.
We have assistive technology, we've got hardware/software, we can offer extended-time
testing, note-taking services -- a variety of things on all three campuses.
[Dr. Michael Mills] At Montgomery College we see distance education courses as an opportunity
to provide more access for students. A lot of students are not able to get to campus
because of work schedules or family life situations, so we're offering distance education courses.
Students can take classes at their convenience, they have access to the material 24 hours
a day, seven days a week, and can get online, you know, whatever time fits their schedule.
They don't have to come to campus to take tests -- they can do those online, they submit
assignments online -- so it opens up a world of opportunity for students who just cannot
get to a campus.
[Teresa DeLisi] Montgomery College Early Learning Centers offers childcare for Montgomery College
students who are parents to children ages two-and-a-half to five. We believe in providing
support for our Montgomery College student families so they can focus on their academic
goals. We offer full-day and half-day options for flexibility to support the student schedule.
We are a developmentally-appropriate, nationally-accredited program. We provide numerous services such
as tuition assistance, parent trainings, and also flexible scheduling to support students.
[Amanda McIntosh] If you first get started and aren't sure where to go, we have an
office at the Germantown campus. It's called the Germantown Options for Adult Learners
program, and you can stop by and meet with me and we'll do some education planning,
academic advising, and we can give you access to a list of resources that you can use in
helping to plan out your curriculum, how you're going to pay for college, what classes you
might take and things like that. [Harry Zarin] We'll have students coming
in with various physical disabilities. Some of the students coming in can't fit into
the traditional desk/chair accommodation, so part of our job is to work with the Facilities
office to come up with furniture that we feel is accessible. For example, we've ordered
some accessible desk/chair accommodations and all of the desks have a crank on that you
can use your hand and you can raise or lower the level of that surface. We'll also deal
with other issues -- somebody has a visual problem, they've got to sit up close -- we'll
work with the teachers to get them priority seating. We've got deaf students coming
in that need interpreting services, so we have one counselor on every campus who knows
sign language, plus we have a coordinator who works with all the interpreters for the
College to try to help bring interpreting services for our deaf and hearing-impaired
students.
[Dr. Michael Mills] The students who take distance classes have the advantage of the
same services that on-campus students do: counselors available to them through either
e-mail or telephone, some counselors are using video conferencing to chat with students;
financial aid assistance; admissions assistance; career counseling -- so all of the students
are taking distance courses have the opportunities to access all the services that on-campus
students have.
[Teresa DeLisi] Parents have expressed positive feedback with regard to our program and supporting
them and having them focus on their studies. We've had two recent Montgomery College graduates
who have received our grant for tuition assistance, and they have shared at the time of graduation
the importance of childcare being offered and supporting them and what a benefit it
was to have our program.
[Amanda McIntosh] We're here to make this experience easier for you to navigate, and
we're here to help you and we want to see you be successful, so come in and meet with
us.
[Harry Zarin] If you're a student in high school and you had accommodations and you
needed them then, you're going to need them now. The only thing I can encourage you to
do is get in here early, talk with us, get your paperwork in so we can fill you in with
what we offer and how much we can help you become a better student.
[Dr. Michael Mills] We want all students to have the opportunity to take a distance education
class, so we would encourage all students to take advantage of the opportunities that
Montgomery College offers.
[Teresa DeLisi] Please feel free to come by and visit our program. We would love to have
you spent time in our center with your children and learn a little bit more about what we're
all about.
[Dr. Beverly Walker-Griffea] Our show is coming to an end -- mmm, mmm, mmm. We've heard
some wonderful tips today, and one that I want you to have is to use MC's Academic
Support Services to improve your test grades and to make the most of your college career.
Thank you so much for watching MC 101: On The Real. We end our show with student artwork
images from all three MC campuses. See you next time!