Hello Everyone! I am Sam Clark, a junior at Scripps majoring in Psychology and double minoring in Music and Native American and Indigenous Studies. I am a huge advocate for students to use the resources on campus, so today, I will focus on the academic resources available to our students. All these resources are housed in the office of Academic Resources and Services (ARS), located in a central part of campus close to the housing, so it has easy access for students.
Within the ARS office, there are a few different things to point out. It is where tutoring is run from, both the side of being a tutor and having a tutor, another student resource, a note-taker or needing a note-taker, the accommodations portion of the office, and an academic coach.
Now let’s take a little dive into each of these areas:
Tutoring: At Scripps, having an academic tutor is free, but the student tutors still get paid for their work. The tutors are peers, often upperclassmen or someone who has taken the class recently who you set up meetings and meet with as much or as little as you need. The primary role of the ARS office here is to facilitate the connections and pair you with a tutor. I have utilized this resource and found it especially helpful. The students who were my tutors were always very understanding and patient, and I did not feel judged at all, which was super nice.
Note Taking: Even though most of the classes you will be taking at Scripps will be discussion-based, it is still helpful to take notes during class. For some people taking notes can be challenging, distracting, or have a circumstance that prevents them from taking notes. Students can request a note-taker in class, so the ARS office will reach out to the professor. The professor will recommend a student in the class to be a note taker, or ARS will have an idea of someone in the class who has done it in the past or would be good at it. This is also a student job option on campus, and students can be paid for this position. What is great about the note-taking system is that no one ever has to know who needs the note-taker if you don’t want them to. The person taking the notes will send them to the professor, who will send them to the people who need them, or the notes will be sent to the ARS office, and they will send them to you.
Academic Accommodations: Scripps offers academic accommodations for students who qualify. If you were someone who had them in high school and wants to continue to have them, you would send similar paperwork you need for getting them in high school to the office, and they can help you through the process. Suppose you have not had accommodations before but find yourself in a circumstance where you need them in college. In that case, you can contact the office and have them work with you to figure it out. Once you have the accommodations, each semester, the accommodations office sends out a letter to each of your professors outlining the accommodations you have. When you set up a meeting with the professors to discuss accommodations, they already have an idea of what will be discussed. The office also sends them across campus, so if you are taking a class at Pomona, Harvey Mudd, or any other 5Cs, the Scripps office will communicate with them, which is super helpful.
Academic coach: The final resource I mentioned is a unique and helpful role they have. The academic coach is someone whose job is to meet with students as much or as little as the student wants and helps you figure out how to balance your life, school, and social life. I found this super helpful, especially in my first year, as I was trying to balance having more free feeling time but also having to find time to do homework and spend time with friends and recharge and relax. The academic coach was able to look at my schedule with me and if I was feeling incredibly overwhelmed with exams or something helped me decide what to study for when and how to manage my time. I highly recommend this resource and think it is underutilized by students!
The Academic, Resources, and Services office is also a great place to go if you are looking for academic support but need help knowing where to start or who to reach out to. Hopefully, this helped you get to know some of the academic resources available to Scripps students! If you have any questions about other resources or anything else, please reach out to me at: [email protected]