Campus Connection

Seats are filling up in the Centennial Hall classroom on Tuesday evening, but the students aren’t expecting a professor to lead them. They’re looking to a fellow student for guidance. “Some time people think I’m a TA, but I’m not,” says UWL junior Bri Mark. “I’m just a student who knows the content and has some tips and tricks to be successful.” Mark is a leader in the Supplemental Instruction (SI) program. She has already passed the course and now leads activities in an organized study group twice a week in addition to the material that the professor covers in class.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyFaYmV5Yec&ab_channel=StrykerEagle The program started in the fall in three courses: statistics, organic chemistry and general biology. It will enter its third semester with the same courses in the fall. “SI set me up for success,” says Kaitlin Bronk, who took SI for organic chemistry in the fall. “In O-Chem you need a study group. SI was an easy way to make friends and the study group was automatically there.” Those relationships have continued beyond the semester. Bronk finds herself working with those same students now that she is in an advanced level O-Chem course. “I wish we had an SI leader,” says Bronk. Murphy Learning Center Director Lee Baines runs the program. He says the goal is for the student leaders to never actually answer a question from the students, but rather to encourage them to check other resources, including asking other students. “It’s important to have this extra option,” explains Mark. “You can easily get stressed learning test to test in all your classes. We’re trying to teach students how to be better learners in general and not just study for an exam.”