Seton Hall University officially opened its new Core center located in Mooney Hall 339 on Feb. 14. The Core center will provide faculty tutoring in Core I and Core II classes.
“Help for the Journey” an event that took place in Fall 2018 and “Help for the Journey and Core II” in Spring 2019 were successful events that served the same purpose as the new Core center according to Nancy Enright, the Director of Core.
This event hosted faculty tutors in the Core office for Journey of Transformation and Christianity and Culture in Dialogue. These events were a success which led to the expansion of a full faculty-led tutoring center dedicated to Core I and II classes.
The Core center’s purpose is to provide support for understanding and writing about the content of Core classes, specifically Journey of Transformation and Christianity and Culture in Dialogue.
Enright spoke on the benefits of the new Core center, “those of us who participated felt it was helpful for students to get support in the content of Core, from expert faculty, who teach regularly in the core”
The center is not meant to replace any of the resources already provided by Seton Hall like the English Department’s Writing Center and it is not meant to replace the classes themselves according to Enright.
Enright commented that there are overlaps in what is provided in terms of resources between the Writing Center and the new Core center, but that the two are meant to be complementary for students.
Dr. Todd Stockdale, Journey of Transformation Coordinator and Core Fellow, expressed his belief that the availability of faculty tutors will be highly beneficial for students who use the Core center. Stockdale said that the faculty tutors that are available can serve more than tutors but also as mentors or coaches.
“Tutoring another professor’s students allows the professor/tutor to function more like a coach or mentor, and it may help the student to open up about difficulties if the professor helping her is not the one who will be assigning her grade,” Stockdale said.
Angelise Vera, a freshman nursing major, said that she thinks the Core center would be used more on a case to case basis, detailing that every student learns differently and not everyone wants to or needs the Core tutoring.
Vera does believe however that faculty tutors can be very beneficial.
“I think that there are benefits to having a faculty tutor because they can stay on task and properly cover the material better than a student,” Vera said. “I sometimes find that student tutors can be less helpful, but they are easier to talk to.”
The faculty tutors that are available Monday through Friday according to Enright are Core Fellows Dr. Edgar Valdez, Dr. Todd Stockdale, and Dr. Ksenija Puskaric. Other Core faculty that are also available are Professor Minehle Khumalo, Sister Dr. Mary John Bosco Amakwe, and Professor Rich Fritzky.
Enright also notes that the Core center can be used beyond just tutoring as well.
“It can also be used for study groups, faculty and/or student discussion groups, showing of films, faculty development sessions, faculty book talks, and Core social gatherings,” Enright commented.
Elizabeth Rodriguez can be reached at elizabeth.rodriguez@student.shu.edu.
