Samantha Raghu – Staff Writer
As a means of ensuring the success of all students on campus, Gustavus offers a wide array of academic support programs to assist students through the challenges they face with writing, analyzing, and organization throughout the semester.
One of the programs offered is the Multilingual and International Student Tutoring program led by Pamela Pearson, the Lead Coordinator of the program.
Pearson elaborates on the types of assistance offered throughout the program, along with her role working with students.
“Multilingual and international tutoring is similar to other forms of academic support on campus. It might feel like a tutorial in the Writing Center, tutoring in an academic department, or office hours with a professor. The difference is that in CICE we focus on supporting the linguistic and cultural needs of multilingual and international students,” Pearson said.
“Most of the time in my role as Multilingual and Intercultural Program Coordinator, I help students with academic reading and writing tasks. I can help analyze prompts and connect you to other resources on campus — like the library — in order to get started on assignments. Sometimes students want help with classroom discussion skills or making presentations, so we can do that too,” Pearson said.
Along with one-on-one tutoring, Pearson offers advice to students who are encountering challenges within their academics they are unfamiliar with and helps them navigate that and find a solution.
“I recently worked with an international student who had encountered an academic honesty situation and didn’t know how to respond or what steps to take. I can offer perspective and suggestions,” Pearson said.
While Pearson continues to thrive as Lead Coordinator, executing her role in accordance with COVID-19 guidelines has hindered her capabilities of reaching out to students.
“The only real challenge I’ve faced is that I’m new this year and it’s been tough to connect to students during the pandemic. I look forward to the future when I can be in the Writing Center or CIE to meet people in person. That’s what I’m most looking forward to,” Pearson said.
Ana Martinez, a sophomore international student from Mexico City, Mexico, offers her own experience with the program when applying for studying abroad.
“I wanted to apply to study abroad and had to submit an essay soon. I started panicking and I was like I just have tomorrow to finish it. So I emailed [Pearson] and she was really nice and she made me read my entire essay and then we just made a couple of changes. The space was overall really comfortable,” Martinez said.
Martinez has also utilized the program under COVID-19 restrictions, which made the experience for her a lot more efficient.
“I think this form of tutoring was actually easier online because I usually just shared my screen and we both were able to read and make changes to an essay more quickly,” Martinez said.
Martinez also offers some advice to students looking to seek out assistance.
“I would say, go for it. I think it can be scary, especially for me since I’m pretty shy, but take advantage of the program and it’s also comfortable to go with a friend too if that’s what you prefer,” Martinez said.
Multilingual and International students in need of academic support and assistance are encouraged to reach out to Pamela Pearson at ppearson@gustavus.edu.