During the spring semester, the Student Success Center (SSC) fostered over 1,200 student visits. With most student visits using the SSC for social interaction, academic mentoring and study space, the center continues to be a powerful and welcoming resource for the Miner community. If a student steps into the SSC once, they are more likely to return and visit again.
Meet Chyna Howell, Student Success Center manager
Chyna Howell is dedicated to building meaningful connections and nurturing a sense of belonging within the Miner community. She’s passionate about empowering students to achieve their goals and thrive in their academic journey. She’s always willing to connect and collaborate with other departments to make every student’s dream of success a reality.
Student success coaches help Miners develop soft skills
As peer-to-peer mentors, student success coaches assist Miners with developing soft skills that have a ripple effect on academic success. During the spring semester, the team of nine student success coaches mentored more than 30 students. The term “soft skills” refers to skills like time management, note-taking and study strategies.
In addition to mentoring their peers, success coaches educate others at events and presentations. Last semester, success coaches assisted in two of the center’s most popular events: “Donut Stress, Reach for Success” and “Mining for Success.” Both events drew over 50 students. At “Donut Stress,” students learned about stress-coping strategies and campus resources during testing season. At “Mining for Success,” students mapped out their semester goals by making a vision board.
Academic mentors offer tutoring in 70 courses
A team of 12 peer academic mentors, representing various science, technology and math fields and over 70 courses, supported S&T retention efforts through individualized tutoring. The Student Success Center continues to provide tutoring services in-person at the center, and is piloting just-in-time tutoring in Thomas Jefferson Hall, which includes after-hours tutoring in Engineering Physics I and Calculus II. The mentors provided more than 470 tutoring sessions last semester. The most popular subjects were Calculus I and II, Engineering Physics I, C++ Programming and other programming courses.
Student Success Center welcomes furry friends
The Student Success Center continues to host weekly visits from Sherman the basset hound on Mondays. The center also welcomed a labradoodle named Biscuit into the family, and Biscuit visits every Thursday. Several other furry friends lThe Student Success Center continues to host weekly visits from Sherman the basset hound on Mondays. The center also welcomed a labradoodle named Biscuit into the family, and Biscuit visits every Thursday. Several other furry friends like Anita the basenji, who loves to eat cheese, visit for frequent Miner cuddles. The center thanks the Alliance of Therapy Dogs and Missouri Patriot Paws for their continued support. The center staff and students look forward to more visits from our furry Miner friends.