Meet Some of Our Student Employees

Over the past year, the UT Learning Center employed almost 300 UT students in a variety of leadership roles, including Tutor, Peer Mentor, Supplemental Instruction (SI) Leader, Peer Group Educator, Senior Preceptor, and Student Assistant. We are one of the largest employers of students on campus.

We asked some of our student employees about their experience working at the Learning Center and what learning means to them. Here's what they had to say ...

What Learning Means to Me

Learning is something we all will be doing for the rest of our lives, so it is something I try to have fun with. Being able to learn with the people around me has always been one of my favorite ways to take in new information. Hearing new interpretations and ideas helps me stay excited about learning.

To me, learning is a lifelong adventure, full of twists and bends along the way. These obstacles have come to me in the form of new situations that have required me to adapt my learning process in order to succeed. The UTLC is an innovative and interactive program that encourages this type of multi-dimensional learning and helps students succeed in their academic pursuits.

Everyone learns differently, however it is in that we constantly learn that we are similar. Every day presents opportunities to learn something new or fortify something old. It is whether or not we want to stop and pay attention that we take hold of those opportunities. Learning is an important and valuable facet of life. It is imperative that each and every individual determines how he or she learns most effectively. The tools for learning are laid out before us, we just need to take hold of them and use them.

Learning is the ultimate social activity. For me, learning means the opportunity to make sense of the world around us, while practicing compassion and empathy. Learning helps us build communities, bridge cultures, and develop ourselves to become more tolerant and understanding.

To me, learning means the opportunity to grow as a person and to discover new perspectives. Learning goes beyond the classroom and continues long after graduation. You can never stop learning, or learn too much. Learning makes life more interesting and occurs in many different contexts. If you live life right, learning will be unavoidable.

Learning is often thought to be a process only used in academics, but learning, to me, applies to life in general. Yes, you learn in the classroom but life teaches you lessons as well, and, just like in the classroom, if you don't learn from those lessons you won't be able to progress. Every trial, tribulation, struggle and triumph presents another opportunity to learn and make you stronger.

Learning is not just acquiring knowledge, but knowing how to apply that knowledge to help you continue to grow as a person. It's about how you adapt to certain situations and learn from your mistakes. Learning to me is being able to look back and see those mistakes and realize that you are not the same person now as you were then. It is knowing when to ask for help and allowing people to help you when you need it.

Working at the UT Learning Center

I love working at the UT Learning Center because tutoring gives me a great chance to help other students understand (and even become rather fond of) calculus, which can sometimes be a pretty frustrating subject to learn.

I get to see a lot of hard-working and dedicated students learn and excel at mathematics -- an achievement that might seem impossible to them at the start of the semester. As a student who suffered through logarithmic functions and convergence tests, I too have memories of hair-pulling and fist-shaking. The best part about being a tutor is getting to lessen that stress a bit for other students -- and even prevent an epidemic of premature baldness in the process!

"Don't work harder, work smarter." Never were truer words uttered and yet for years this was an empty phrase for me. I was working hard, quite hard in fact, and never quite getting the results I wanted. As for working smarter, what did that mean? My ideas about how to work smarter involved just working harder and I was back to square one.

Then I started working at the UT Learning Center. Normally, I'm not one for the phrase "it changed my life ," but in reality it did. Smarter is supplementing your notes, smarter is reviewing within 24 hours, smarter is reading selectively, and smarter is five line summaries of what you've learned. By working smarter, I started cutting down on my study time and improving my grades.

For me, that's what the UTLC is all about. It's about learning new skills and strategies that in the end make a world of difference. So if you want to work smarter instead of harder, I would recommend stopping by the UTLC. It could be the smartest thing you ever do.

My role as a peer educator has enabled me to impart the personal and academic lessons I have learned during my time at UT. It has been rewarding to see my mentees excel as a result of my guidance, and circumvent the errors I made as a new UT student. I have been fortunate to enhance the UT experience of my mentees and they have likewise enhanced mine. I have become a more effective student as well as a more skilled listener, communicator, and creative problem-solver. Because of this great experience, I am resolved to pursue a career centered on the educational and personal development of people.

"I have applied this experience to all areas of my life. I have gained more confidence in my instincts and have gotten really good at asking reflective questions. My relationships have improved and I am more aware and accepting of individual differences and preferences."

"Mentoring has helped me so much. Not only has it led to meeting all these amazing, talented fellow mentors, it has helped me become a better person. I'm actually practicing what I preach more, I'm learning tobecome a better listener, and it's opened up all these doors and shown me all these resources at UT that I was previously unaware of. I know this experience has already helped me now and especially for my future career in nursing."

"The more students I know, the more I understand the diversity of the student experience and this allows me to better help the students, but also helps me appreciate my time at the Learning Center and in college in general."

"Mentoring has definitely given me a great insight into student life at UT. Having dealt with a variety of student and study problems has directly helped me evaluate my own performance. The mentoring experience has given me much more confidence in my communication and interpersonal skills. I have definitely improved my listening skills and mentoring ability (problem solving, empathizing), both of which will be invaluable qualities to have for life."

"Mentoring has made me more aware that doing well academically does not only rely on intelligence. School is like a game that learned techniques and strategies can beat. I learned that different people have different ways of studying and learning. You must be patient and understand how difficult it is for people to change whether it comes to school habits or life habits. I've learned how to interact with all sorts of people - a great asset."

Working as a Peer Academic Coach at the UT Learning Center has impacted my life tremendously. Not only have I had the opportunity to gain a significant amount of self-knowledge about my own approaches to learning and higher education, but I have also improved my interpersonal skills. I have had the unique opportunity to work with a wide variety of students from different ethnic, cultural, and educational backgrounds which is a valuable skill I am proud to take with me into my professional career.

The Learning Center has been a home for me for the past three years. Tutoring here helped me retain and further develop an understanding of my course work. My experience here has been more fulfilling than any other job I've held, and more fun than at least a few of my own courses. To me, the Learning Center represents a great opportunity for personal development, both as employees and as students.

I joined the SI program because I wanted to be a better TA, but I didn't know how. The SI training and meetings provide specific examples of techniques to try that helped me understand how my students learn. Specifically, teaching my students study skills provided them with the information they needed to be better students in my class and others, giving them more confidence. With confident students, I can ask more challenging questions, engaging them more with the material. My students' confidence also gives me confidence as a teacher, and I enter the classroom with a better attitude toward teaching.

UT Learning Center is in Jester Center, Room A332A, Phone: 512.471.3614, Open: M-F   9 a.m.- 5 p.m.
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