Amalia Rojas Enriquez, Coordinator
Title V
This fall 2017 has been full of learning opportunities for Title V Supplement Instruction staff. Last week, the program coordinator and math liaison of Supplemental Instruction (SI) at Hostos were invited to be a part of an exciting cross campus panel discussion on best practices with other CUNY SI campuses including Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC) and LaGuardia Community College (LaGCC). The panel, hosted at BMCC, welcomed each campus to share the structure, training efforts and best practices of their SI programs. A best practice we were able to share with our peers was the SI Hostos training efforts. Title V focuses on training Peer Leaders (PLs) not just on SI techniques but on the importance of mindsets, learning styles and engaging students. Trainings aim to provide the peer leaders with a space that fosters their own learning first, helping them understand that this will help with the students they are serving.
As part of the ongoing training, First-year Seminar (FYS) Peer Leaders were assigned to provide two workshops for FYS students this semester. These workshops complemented topics offered in the FYS courses. The PLs spent time preparing and researching as a team. We wanted them to take initiative and work together to provide workshops to their peers that would help them throughout their academic journey. The PL’s did a lot of internal reflection on the things that they struggled with during their first year in college. The topics presented were time management and a survival guide through midterm week. These topics were addressed using Google calendar and tools that touched upon developing effective study skills, creating effective study notes, selecting important information to study and self-care. All Hostos students were invited to participate in these interactive workshops by discussing the issues behind these themes – allowing the PLs to relate with their peers on the struggles of managing time and studying – and completing activities that could be incorporated in their life as a student.