By Emily Ferro –
Media Credit: Emily Ferro
Saturday, March 31, tutors from the Salve Regina Academic Development Center made their mark at the New England Peer Tutor Association’s (NEPTA) conference in Worcester, Mass. Held annually, this conference features workshops designed and presented by tutors, for tutors. The Academic Development Center at Save was proud to have two separate presentations at the conference.
Not only does this speak volumes about the commitment of our tutors to their work, but it shows their passion for their subjects, and their willingness to learn and improve. Presenters attended four workshop sessions, with the option to attend a variety of different workshops, varying from a workshop dedicated to organization in writing, to engaging quiet students in tutor sessions, to even workshops dedicated to specific subject areas, such as math or philosophy.
The conference had 250 attendees and 27 presentations. The Salve Regina tutor presentations were “Illuminating Your Research Paper: How to Extinguish Common Mistakes in Writing the Research Paper,” and “Tutoring Abstract Concepts: How Dairy Cows Can Help Crystallize Plato’s Republic.”
According to Cynthia Bassett, the Writing Center Coordinator, “They were professional, poised and answered questions without missing a beat.” The presentations were given with ease and the presenters “did the ADC proud,” Bassett said.
Maire Buckley, who presented on writing and preparing research papers, said, “NEPTA was a great experience. It felt great to be able to present and speak in front of my peers, administrators, and teachers from other schools throughout New England.” She later added, “It was a wonderful learning experience and I can’t wait for next year.”
This is the second year in a row that Salve has contributed presentations at the annual NEPTA conference, and Stacey Bush, the Assistant Director at Salve’s Academic Development Center, has expressed interest in hosting the NEPTA conference at Salve Regina in the upcoming years. Bassett is a proponent of this idea, stating, “I think it would be a wonderful opportunity to showcase our facilities. It would also be a great opportunity for professional development in our staff.”
Dean Zawadski, who presented on tutoring philosophy, stated, “Presenting [at NEPTA] has actually inspired me to submit a proposal for a poster presentation at the next philosophy conference in the fall. So I plan on attending other conferences in the future.”
The tutors were not the only ones to benefit from what the conference had to offer. Academic Development Center administrators were invited to attend the conference as well, and while the tutors gave their presentations, the administrators attended workshops to offer new learning and teaching strategies, such as experience working with online tutoring, which is a relatively new idea.
The conference has been looked at by all Salve attendees to be a beneficial experience and future participations is certainly expected.
