Category: Hunter College Learning Centers

Categories
Hunter College Learning Centers

Hunter College Libraries: A Resource for All Students

Any student that attends Hunter College should at least be aware of the library center within the East building of the institute. However many may need clarification on what the library has to offer other than a quiet place for personal research or study. Thankfully for all students, information concerning the Cooperman Library is openly available both via the Hunter CUNY website and even the Hunter Library website. Students can openly attend the library by entering 68th Street on the campus, the East building, where they have full access to all nine floors of the Cooperman Library (Hunter). The Cooperman Library is accessible to all Hunter students and provides a plethora of information and services for every student who utilizes those services.

The majority of students who don’t use the resources given by the library could be completely missing out on a space that offers plenty of support for their academic growth. There are multiple services offered according to the Hunter CUNY website, such as “collaborative work areas, reservable study rooms, and areas for quiet study”. While also offering to give genuine helpful resources or devices such as, “desktop, laptop, and tablet computers as well as printers, photocopiers, scanners, whiteboards, and lots of electrical outlets” (Hunter). Offering plenty of opportunities for students to stay during or after class hours for personal studying or studying with a group of classmates. My perspective concerning these services has been positive overall. The free-of-use printers and photocopiers have been of great use for classes that require work that needs to be done on paper. Such as classes like pre-calc or math classes in general. Personal experience with the printers has been wonderful, as it is a fairly simple process to upload images or sheets you would need for printing while you’re in the library. The library is also known for its amazing amount of space, as shown in the image below.

Image taken from Hunter College website concerning the 5th floor of the Cooperman Library.

(Image from https://hunter.cuny.edu/projects/cooperman-library-5th-floor/)

These are not the only purposes of the library, however, as many other services are open to any student who wishes to attend. As previously mentioned, students also have access to an online version of the Hunter Library via the Hunter College Libraries website; a site where access to opening hours, classes, events, books, databases, and more are fully open to use from students (library.hunter.cuny.edu). Students who know the website can set themselves up for further success by signing up for classes during specific work hours that the website offers. For example, on Friday, September 29th, a class by Professor Samantha Walsh is being offered for students of English 120, during the work hours of 10 am to 11:15 am in room 612 (library.hunter.cuny.edu). With such information openly available to students, many of them could easily join a class or event to study or perhaps better support themselves if they have been falling behind due to academic stress. Students may find these resources helpful, as it grants them the ability to follow up or gain extra time for working on assignments on school grounds rather than at home. The Hunter Library website is also a great database for exploring deep and important writing information. It provides extensive knowledge of copyright and citation tools (library.hunter.cuny.edu). Services given by the website are completely free, which further goes to support the accessible growth for each student.

(Image from https://library.hunter.cuny.edu)

Unfortunately, many students may not know how to access this website or how versatile the services can be on it. A freshman who will attend future semesters at Hunter College may not start out knowing all the advanced usage of the Cooperman Library. Thus accessing the Library should be a top priority for those students due to the innumerable benefits it could provide. As a freshman myself, learning about the Library early on has vastly improved my drive to complete school work. It has also been a helpful endeavor to head to the library in between lectures, which further helps me get work done for future lectures or read whenever I have the time. Teaching future freshmen the great benefits that are offered by the Library can be a wonderful endeavor to support their learning and advancement in their respective fields. Especially concerning the fifth floor of the Cooperman Library, which is beautifully designed and a cozy space for any student to study or simply relax in when waiting for their next lecture.

In the end, I believe the Library to be the single best resource a student can access while trying to support their future endeavors at Hunter College. With its plethora of resources and materials that all students have access to. Through both the Hunter College website and the Hunter Library website, students can set themselves up for massive success in their future lectures, semesters, and entire college careers. As a freshman, I can already see the use that the library can bring and how useful it can be for everyone.

Categories
About Hunter College Learning Centers

Hunter Rockowitz Writing Center: First Hand Experience

(Logo of the Hunter Rockowitz Writing Center).                                                     Cite: Design, Twenty Six. Hunter College Rockowitz Writing Center, hunter.mywconline.com/schedule.php. Accessed 27 Sept. 2023.

Writing an essay is one thing, but writing an effective essay with impact can be challenging. I’ve struggled countless times to write essays with cohesion and deep analysis put into it. Starting an essay can be a frustrating experience for me, at times it feels like the only option is just throwing things in the wall to see what sticks and I know I’m not alone when it comes to this situation. My rough relationship with writing was a main factor as to why I was intrigued by checking the Hunter Rockowitz writing center. I assumed the writing center was just there to give tips and simple writing formats for students to follow, I didn’t really have any expectations. I’ll be telling you my experience with the writing center, the good, the bad, and to see if it fulfilled my expectations.

The Web Experience

I checked the website for more information, the website explains and gives you insight as to how this resource can help you, Stating the goals being “to improve students’ reading and writing processes, how they engage texts and write papers, and in the effort help students actively participate in their own education and to appreciate the educational value of all the courses offered in the college’s curriculum” (Hunter Rockowitz Writing Center). I found the website to be pretty unpleasant to navigate. The website did a poor job showing you how to make an appointment. I had to type up Hunter writing center appointments in order to make one instead of it just being on the website presentable for everyone to see, it was only till after I learned that it was shown in a subcategory in the students section. I felt it should’ve been shown in the homepage of the website, and even if it was in the homepage, it shouldn’t be a searching game to find it. Besides that I knew the best way to experience the writing center was to of course get help from the writing center. In order to book an appointment, you’d need to make an account using your hunter college email. After that it’s only a matter of picking whether I’d take it online or in person and what tutor to work with and the time slot. I had a pretty easy experience with booking the appointment. I picked Ana for an in person chat in the afternoon since I had no classes at that time.

Appointment Time

(A glimpse of the front desk at Hunter Rockowitz Writing Center thats located at the 7th floor library).                                                                                                      Cite: Rollison, Jude. “The Who, What, When, Where and Why Q&A of the Acting Director of the Dr. Murray and Anna C. Rockowitz Writing Center at Hunter College– Part 1.” The WORD, hunterword.com/index.php/rockowitz-reading-writing-center-rocks-for-students-by-jude-rollins-2022/. Accessed 2 Oct. 2023.

When the day finally came, I went to the 7th floor at the library and I took a seat around the lounge area. The tutoring center is broken down into different color strips, each color representing the different departments and their designated spots. I explored a bit on my own to learn that the writing center was represented by the orange color. With the little time I spent sitting and checking, it was overall a pretty quiet room, sometimes there was chatter between a couple of students but that was as noisy as it got. When the time struck two o ‘ clock, the people in the front booth guided me to the booth where I’d be talking to Ana.

Me and Ana greeted each other, she started off by telling me what I needed help with. I told her jokingly how I needed help with writing an effective blog post about the writing center that didn’t drag itself or the reader. She was surprised with what I was asking for but she was eager to help, she started off by telling me questions about why I chose the writing center as my topic for the blog post. I stated “I chose the writing center because I felt I was going to use this resource in the future, but also because it just fits well with the class I needed to write the blog for”. I then elaborated that it was for my English 120 class. I then asked her for her reasons as to why she chose the writing center. She told me how she was deciding on a film major but instead she found it more fulfilling to teach others writing skills and she plans to teach abroad. The conversation turned to this great back and forth, asking questions about the writing center. She reassured me that “the writing center doesn’t spoon feed students writing tips and information but instead they try to lead the students to a direction they feel satisfies their writing assignment the most” (Ana). That’s one of the things I worried about when checking the writing center and I’m glad I got the answer I wanted. Ana also told me her experience working at the center and how it’s a great place to focus on work in general. When it finally came time to talk about the blog post, since I was writing a blog post and not a standard essay, Ana gave me the advice to check out editorials from NY Times magazines. From my own personal checkings, the editorials are structured to be short articles that get their point out in the first few paragraphs, this form of writing is being used to help write this very blog post and I feel is a lot more flexible than a standard three to five paragraph essay. After taking in the feedback, the appointment was finished and I had a better picture as to how I would write the blog post.

My experience with the Hunter Rockowitz Writing Center was overall positive. My only negative experience with it was navigating through the main website, but everything else went by very smoothly. The tutors were eager to help with any issues students have with their writing assignments and are of course the best part about this experience. The room is also just relaxing and is a great place to finish any remaining work. I didn’t even mention the many extras that come with the writing center, like weekly tutor sessions and online sessions for those who prefer to get advice through online interaction. I didn’t use those resources because I tend to learn better in person but that doesn’t mean it can’t be helpful to others. I would say the writing center did exceed my expectations and I would recommend it to others. 

Work Cited:

Ana. Personal interview. 27 September 2023.

Design, Twenty Six. Hunter College Rockowitz Writing Center, hunter.mywconline.com/schedule.php. Accessed 27 Sept. 2023.

Rockowitz Writing Center – Hunter College, www.hunter.cuny.edu/rwc. Accessed 27 Sept. 2023.

Rollison, Jude. “The Who, What, When, Where and Why Q&A of the Acting Director of the Dr. Murray and Anna C. Rockowitz Writing Center at Hunter College– Part 1.” The WORD, hunterword.com/index.php/rockowitz-reading-writing-center-rocks-for-students-by-jude-rollins-2022/. Accessed 2 Oct. 2023. 

Categories
Hunter College Learning Centers

The Dolciani Mathematics Learning Center

Image that shows students seated in tables in the Dolciani Math Learning Center on the 7th floor of the East Building.
7th floor of the Dolciani Mathematics Learning Center (Hunter College Cooperman Library)

Amidst all of Hunter College’s educational centers in areas ranging from science to foreign language lies the Mary P. Dolciani mathematics learning center (DMLC). The DMLC is located on the 7th floor library of the East Building in Hunter College’s 68th campus. The DMLC offers flexible hours for both online and in-person support and tutoring. The center is open Monday through Thursday from 8:30am-3:00pm, and Friday from 8:30am-12:00pm. DMLC offers tutoring in any mathematics or statistics course offered at Hunter. If you prefer watching videos or completing practice problems to assess your math learning, the DMLC offers multimedia materials and online workshops on their website, free and available for all Hunter students.

As a freshman I decided to take advantage of Hunter’s in-person tutoring before my first statistics test. To sign up for small group tutoring I made an appointment through the Navigate mobile app. I selected “schedule an appointment,” then selected the type of assistance I wanted and what mathematics course I was enrolled in. From there a list of available dates and times were shown for me to choose from. Once I selected a time suitable for myself, I had the choice whether to meet with a tutor in person or online, (since there may not always be tutoring time slots that are suitable for you, it is best to schedule an appointment as soon as possible before spots are taken). I chose in-person tutoring, but if online tutoring would be more convenient to you, you’d follow the same steps but click on “online tutoring” and afterwards you’ll receive a Zoom link to meet with your tutor on Zoom. (Tutoring – Hunter College). I would definitely recommend in person tutoring because it helped me brush up on topics I hadn’t understood during class and because of this service I was able to earn a good score on my exam. 

If you feel strongly suited in any math or statistics course, you may want to consider a part-time position at the DMLC. The center offers a variety of part-time positions during the fall and spring semesters. A test is required for each set of courses to assess your mathematical abilities and determine what areas you are qualified in to be able to tutor students (Employment – Hunter College). The tutor application can be found in the employment subheading on the DMLC’s website.

The Dolciani mathematics learning center offers Hunter students a vast amount of resources to be able to expand their math knowledge. Their online and in-person services allow anyone to be able to reach out for additional support at their convenience. Taking advantage of the center’s services, listed on their website, and frequently attending tutoring will help you feel prepared and confident in your math abilities so you can start off the semester on the right foot.