Resident assistants, orientation leadership, learning assistants, peer counseling, etc.

Helping Students Learn Chemistry
by Harini Babu

For my student engagement experience, I was a learning assistant for Chem 110 over the summer at Penn State’s University Park. During my time as a learning assistant, I helped students gain a better understanding of chemistry by answering their questions either in class or during recitation.

I wanted to become a learning assistant because of the large impact that other learning assistants had on me when I was in class as a student. I remember struggling a lot in chemistry, but with the help of the learning assistants at that time, I was able to work hard and do well. Chemistry can be a difficult topic and unfortunately it does have a bad reputation as being a hard or close to impossible. However, I wanted to fight against this reputation and help other students understand chemistry instead of fearing it. At the end of my time as a learning assistant, I was able to change my student’s opinion about chemistry and helped them gain confidence in their new-found abilities.

As a student who had already taken the course I was able to pinpoint difficult topics and concepts that would be hard for the students to learn. I also remembered how I approached these concepts while I was learning which enabled me to teach the students better as well as teach them the tricks that I learned while learning the material. To become a learning assistant, I had to take a class that highlighted the different ways to expand student’s learning via different metacognition strategies. This class helped me to make connections for students who weren’t able to understand the concepts or who were struggling in class. I was also in lecture, so I was able to learn from the professor on how to approach students and answer their questions in a way that would make sense.

I learned that every student is different and how to adapt my teaching style to meet each student so they can understand the material better. This year I was able to get a position as a guided study group leader which means that along with attending lecture and answering questions, I will be able to teach small groups of students. I will be helping them understand the material in a smaller environment which will help them understand the material better. This experience has been invaluable to me in terms of helping me determine my future graduation plans as I am still deciding if I want to pursue a path in teaching. Overall, I am very grateful to be able to participate in this experience. With it, I am able to continue to look into the various options and paths that I can take in the future.

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Giving Back to Penn State
by Jessica Tatone

My engagement experience occurred during the summer of 2019, when I worked for the Penn State Office of Student Orientation and Transition Programs as the Campus Liaison for the New Student Orientation Welcome Crew. During my experience, I worked at New Student Orientation check-in. I was one of the very first people that new, transfer, and international students interacted with, and as such, I successfully represented Penn State with integrity, honor, and respect throughout my experience. Over 8,000 incoming students were welcomed this summer, and I had the opportunity to interact with hundreds of students every day. I also worked in the SOTP office, specifically coordinating among the other members of the Welcome Crew to plan, organize, staff, and facilitate summer and fall Welcome Week events. I assisted my supervisor in determining vendors, creating volunteer schedules, finalizing specific details, and facilitating the engagement events.

This was an important experience to me because I could give back to the school that has provided countless opportunities for my own academic and professional development. Being on the NSO team helped me to better understand the inner-workings of Penn State and translate my knowledge of the university to incoming students who have the same questions. As for the impact I made in this experience, I believe that I put all of my efforts into making the check-in and Welcome Week experiences as welcoming, friendly, and informative as they could possibly be. I was always attentive and kind to students if they had a question about NSO or Penn State in general, and if I didn’t know the specific answer to a question, I would offer the students a specific resource the university provides to help them resolve their issue.

My academic background of Security and Risk Analysis gave me an edge in project planning, as we discussed potential hazards and other situations that may require us to think of different planning options. My major focuses heavily on the importance of effective communication, and I was able to give directions, answer questions, and pass on important information to students, families, and their guests in ways that were both helpful and easily understood.

Overall, I think that this was a great experience for anyone in any major. I gained valuable experience interacting with many different people of diverse backgrounds and interests, and I was able to polish both my interpersonal and my professional communication skills. Every day we were given a basic job description, but no two days were exactly the same because we made the job our own. We applied team-building strategies that allowed us to have fun while we provided guidance, actually engage with the incoming students, and learn how to be a contributing member of the Penn State community. The people, the situations, the connections, and being part of the Penn State team all contributed to a very well-rounded experience that taught me many applicable, real-world skills.

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