Melina Morales is a baton twirler in the Fresno State Bulldog Marching Band, a member of the Fresno State Army ROTC and a nursing major.
Between all of that, the fifth-year senior fits in more than a dozen hours of work each week as a tutor in the Learning Center’s Tutoring program in which she once sought help for chemistry, anatomy and physiology.
Tutoring, one of three academic support programs in the Learning Center at Fresno State, allows students to study with the help of tutors and move at their own pace within an inclusive and collaborative learning environment.
“I showed up every single day even if I didn’t have lecture days. I just showed up to try to do my homework in case I had questions [the tutors] could try to walk me through,” said Morales, a Porterville native.
“People have this assumption that you have to be completely struggling with the course to see tutoring. That’s not the case. For me, I would just go in to talk to them or tell them about my day. I just like how lighthearted it was. It feels like a safe space. They don’t make you feel like there’s something wrong with you for struggling in academically hard courses. They’re hard for a reason.”
This academic year, 2,000 students have made nearly 9,400 visits to the Tutoring program, which is located on the bottom floor of the library along with Academic Success Coaching and Supplemental Instruction. Forty-six tutors support about 600 courses, helping students in those subjects during drop-in sessions or in scheduled in-person and virtual sessions.
Attending tutoring 14 times a semester, or about once a week, is associated with narrowing equity gaps in final course grades, especially for underrepresented minority and Pell-eligible students, meaning they come from low- and medium-income households, according to tutoring data collected in fall 2022.
“Tutoring is a powerful relationship in which Fresno State students support other Fresno State students. And some of our most effective tutors have used tutoring themselves,” said Tony Losongco, Tutoring program coordinator.
This year, the Learning Center received certification as a Level 1 and Level 2 certified tutor training program by the College Reading and Learning Association, a leader in learning assistance, reading and academic support programs worldwide. The certification means the Learning Center met the organization’s high standards for tutor selection, training, direct service and evaluation.
Every tutor, even the most experienced tutors like Morales, trains before every semester with mock tutoring sessions and topics such as learning theories, syllabus analysis, and campus resources. Tutors also attend monthly training with a project-based learning agenda that culminates in shareable content to demonstrate what tutors have learned during tutoring.
Morales started attending Tutoring as a freshman for help in chemistry then for anatomy and physiology during her junior year. She earned A’s in the last two classes. Her tutors, also nursing majors, were graduating that year and suggested she apply to become a tutor.
Now, Morales is a health tutor and can often see more than 10 students a day in tutoring sessions. Tutors are on hand to help in a variety of subjects, including computer science and business, which often get a lot of students looking for help, she said.
“I would honestly just go down to the Learning Center and explore,” Morales said. “People will be in the third year and be like, ‘I’ve never seen this before or I didn’t know this was here.’ Go down just to check it out.”
