Emily Mirabelli
Copy Editor
The BC Academic Success Center (ASC), formerly known as the Learning Resource Center is one of the most invaluable resources BC has to offer. The centers are located on every BC campus and center meaning Central, South and North Campus’ and the Pines and Miramar West Centers.
The Academic Success Center is a part of the National Tutoring Foundation, which was established in 1992 to create a membership organization for tutoring professionals. The NTA has expanded all around the U.S. and 13 other countries as well and is now the oldest and largest tutoring organization.
Students can visit the ASC at any time during the week. It is open Monday through Friday, as well as certain hours on Saturday and Sunday.
The ASC helps students with a wide range of subjects including: Computer Sciences and Business, Language, Math, Science and Writing. Special tutors are provided for each area, which means that the tutors within each subject are experts in that field and can help even the weakest student.
Megan Geeting, a BC student who primarily attends Central Campus commented, “I never really thought about going to that center until I got stuck in a science class. I figured I would give it a shot and I ended up doing really well in the class and even enjoying it.”
If one-on-one help is needed, it is best to make an appointment with a tutor to ensure a time slot and make sure there is plenty of study time, but if it is as simple as getting stuck on a homework question, walk-ins are more than welcome.
Student Veteran Mike Carroll was quick to speak highly about the one-on-one tutoring. “Coming back to school is hard enough, but being thrown into classes that seem completely unrelated is a nightmare.
The ASC tutors continuously help me with my classes and have also helped with my study habits.”
Another component of ASC is an online feature called “My Writing Lab,” which helps to strengthen and assess students overall abilities with English and grammar. The online lab is composed of several checkpoints and status updates to show a student their progress.
Once the lab is complete, there is a “mastery check,” which makes sure the student is competent and has passed the lab.
Along with the writing lab online, there is a writing center within the ASC where students can go and get their ENC or other class papers looked at and critiqued.
The tutors will not “edit” student papers, but they will sit down with the student and point out mistakes or give constructive criticism on how to write a stronger paper.
Often times, teachers will create extra credit assignments where the students must clock in a set amount of hours in the ASC in order to receive extra credit. This idea helps students in a multitude of ways and helps to motivate students to gather extra credit points.
Christian Silva used those extra credit hours to raise his grade a letter grade and sharpen his math skills.
“At first, the teacher told us that if we went to the math lab, we would get extra points and so I did, which turned my B to an A in the class and then, as I kept going, I realized aside from the extra points, the tutors were just really helpful,” he said.
The ASC is free to all BC students and students may go to any center at any BC location as long as they have a valid BC I.D.