The Tutoring Center has helped student Joshua Desmond improve his grades in the classes he takes each quarter. “The tutors have helped me improve drastically in my studies and test scores,” Desmond said.

Sabrina Stevenson, the Tutoring Center manager, and her team try to make the Tutoring Center a welcoming place.

“There’s a little area that has refreshments and a microwave, hot water for tea and coffee going all the time,” Stevenson said. “People can come, they can bring their lunch and do their homework.”

The Tutoring Center offers three types of tutoring: drop-in tutoring, by appointment and e-tutoring. With drop-in tutoring, students can use the center without an appointment. Drop-in covers a variety of subjects such as math, biology, chemistry and English. For drop-in tutoring, tutors are around so that if students have questions, they only need to raise their hands.

“We have a large whiteboard where they can see when tutors are going to be in, for the subject they need, so they know when to come back,” Stevenson said. “That information also is online, so they can see the subjects we cover and they can come in when they need to come in.”

For drop-in, students can go as many times as they want, and they can go in just to do their homework. The Tutoring Center has a number of textbooks, that if a student can’t afford their textbook or they forgot it at home, they can go in and use it to do their homework or study.

The second type of tutoring is by appointment, for students who need a more one-on-one approach. ”

In this type of tutoring we have an even wider variety of subjects,” Stevenson said. “Students also can just come in for writing help, they don’t have to be taking an English class.”

The Tutoring Center staff encourages students who are taking pre-college level classes to go in for one-on-one tutoring.

“We want to make sure that they can pass and get to college level,” Stevenson said. “Any of the college level courses are consider high barrier courses. The reports that I’ve seen show that they have high failure rates.”

The staff also recommends group tutoring for specific subjects. “The sciences, chemistry and biology work well in groups and any foreign language,” Stevenson said. “We offer tutors that can work with an entire group of anywhere from four to six people.”

The third type of tutoring is E-tutoring. Comprised of a consortium, in which Pierce has a partnership with all the community colleges in the state of, and some from outside of Washington.

“This tutoring goes on from 8 a.m. to around midnight, almost seven days a week,” Stevenson said. “They cover an even wider variety of subjects.”

With this type of tutoring, students have different options, such as live chatting with tutors, to talking with them through headsets or video chat.

The Tutoring Center also offers an E-writing lab, where students can submit their papers and someone will look it over and send it back with some editing and comments.

Professors also encourage their students to use the Tutoring Center. “I think it benefits the students, especially is they have a tutor in the field,” Robert Sager, Science professor, said. “In our case we have a student for atmospheric science, so students have a place to go for this course.”

For students who need even more help, the Tutoring Center has started a new program called Supplemental Instruction (SI).

“SI is kind of an advance level above tutoring. It’s actually attached to a course,” Stevenson said. “Right now we have three SI sections running, Math 54, Math 98 and Biology 241.”An SI leader is attached to the class and attends every class to get to know the students and identify where the trouble spots are. The Tutoring Center offers SI sections two or three times a week, when students can meet with the SI leader.

Everything that the Tutoring Center offers is funded by grants and S&A funds. So all of the services are free to students.

The Tutoring Center not only helps students better their grades but it gives tutors a life changing experience.

“It is funny because students are here to learn from us but I learn so much from them,” Marion Abney, tutor, said. “I have noticed so much change in many of the students who come in and use our resources, whether it is drop-in help or one-on-one tutoring. We provide everyone with the tools that they need to be successful in school.”

The Tutoring Center is here to help students do well in school, and the students are seeing results.

“Since I’ve begun my academic career here at Pierce, I have used the Tutoring Center as an aid to help me succeed in the courses I’ve taken throughout each quarter,” Joshua Desmond said. “I think the Tutoring Center its one of the most valuable resources available to students.”

The Tutoring Center located in the fifth floor of the Cascade Building in room C526. Hours are from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. and until at 2 p.m. Fridays.