With finals week and exams approaching, Loyola offers resources designed to minimize the stress students face studying for exams and completing final projects. The Phoenix has compiled a guide to navigating the university’s offerings which help students with writing, general studying and the challenge of balancing schoolwork with activities and athletics. What’s available at the Writing Center? Loyola’s Writing Center will continue to offer its regular services including scheduled in-person appointments and asynchronous written feedback appointments. Students also have the option of partaking in online appointments, according to Writing Center Director Amy Kessel. “Students can make appointments in three different modalities,” Kessel said. “They can do face-to-face in one of the Writing Center locations, which is the IC, Corboy on the Water Tower Campus, and we have a little location in the Crown Center.” If spots to meet with tutors are full, Kessel recommends students “camp out” on the second floor of the IC or in Lewis Library at the Water Tower Campus in case someone else cancels their appointment. Kessel said the tutors are helpful and she recommended students schedule their appointment in advance through their website. Anthony Shoplik, assistant director of the Writing Center, said tutors are happy to help students with any part of the writing process, whether it’s helping a student start an essay or making last-minute suggestions. “Even if someone is having trouble getting started on an essay, our tutors can talk with you about the prompt that you have for your class and …
With finals week and exams approaching, Loyola offers resources designed to minimize the stress students face studying for exams and completing final projects. The Phoenix has compiled a guide to navigating the university’s offerings which help students with writing, general studying and the challenge of balancing schoolwork with activities and athletics.
What’s available at the Writing Center?
Loyola’s Writing Center will continue to offer its regular services including scheduled in-person appointments and asynchronous written feedback appointments. Students also have the option of partaking in online appointments, according to Writing Center Director Amy Kessel.
“Students can make appointments in three different modalities,” Kessel said. “They can do face-to-face in one of the Writing Center locations, which is the IC, Corboy on the Water Tower Campus, and we have a little location in the Crown Center.”
If spots to meet with tutors are full, Kessel recommends students “camp out” on the second floor of the IC or in Lewis Library at the Water Tower Campus in case someone else cancels their appointment.
Kessel said the tutors are helpful and she recommended students schedule their appointment in advance through their website.
Anthony Shoplik, assistant director of the Writing Center, said tutors are happy to help students with any part of the writing process, whether it’s helping a student start an essay or making last-minute suggestions.
“Even if someone is having trouble getting started on an essay, our tutors can talk with you about the prompt that you have for your class and can help you start sketching the direction of your paper as well as helping with the finishing touches on essays,” Shoplik said.
Brandi Molby, assistant director of the Writing Center, said students often assume the Writing Center is only helpful for completing first drafts, and the center isn’t useful for last-minute adjustments.
The Writing Center is a good option if students just want to talk and think through their paper, according to Molby. If a student is working on an academic paper, their brain is still doing a lot of creative thinking in a lot of different ways, she said.
Alexa Vushaj, an English major who volunteers at the Writing Center, said students should utilize the center before and during finals week. It’s beneficial to get input and thoughts from other people.
“Even if you feel comfortable and confident in your writing, I think it is such a great idea to visit the Writing Center,” Vushaj, a 20-year-old junior, said. “Go ahead and talk to somebody about what you have so far. You can work your way through it and work your way up in the writing process.”
What’s offered in the Tutoring Center?
The Tutoring Center is hosting its annual Finals Showdown event from 3 to 9 p.m. Dec. 9 in the STEM Center in St. Joseph’s Hall and Dec. 10 and 11 from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on the sixth floor of the Mundelein Center, according to an email from the learning specialist at the Sullivan Center for Student Services August Winters.
No appointment is needed for the Finals Showdown and services such as supplemental instruction or group study sessions and peer tutoring are free for all students during the event. In addition, students can meet with a success coach for helpful tips on note-taking, time management, exam-preparation and goal setting, according to the Tutoring Center webpage.
Erica Lundt, a graduate student, said the main aspects of success coaching is to help students get back on track. It is beneficial for first-year students during finals because it teaches them different skills such as processing stress during finals, according to Lundt.
“At some point in a student’s life, there is a struggle point that we don’t have the necessary resources,” Lundt said. “What we are doing is helping them learn different skills to help their academic needs and personal needs.”
Students can partake in two-hour review sessions with supplemental instruction leaders and peer student tutors throughout the event, according to the Tutoring Center. Review sessions for different subjects are at different times from Dec. 9 to Dec. 11.
The Tutoring Center also has a Finals Success Kit with various resources for students to use before and during finals week, according to the Tutoring Center webpage. The kit consists of documents which can help students with self care, developing a student plan and forming a weekly plan to use leading up to finals week.
What’s available at the Wellness Center?
Mira Krivoshey, associate director of the Wellness Center, said the office offers supplemental mental-health related activities and resources for students during finals week in addition to their usual programs. They offer group counseling, psychiatry and mindfulness resources for students.
“We offer some additional programming for students during finals week,” Krivoshey said. “In terms of our mental health services, they don’t change. During the semester, we offer brief individual psychotherapy for students and drop-in mindfulness groups for students.”
The Loyola Wellness Center website includes a mindfulness section with 30 daily tips for coping with stress during finals week.
Also included are recorded meditations for students to watch, created by Dianna Stencel, a social worker and mindfulness expert at the Wellness Center.
“The stress that students feel around finals is totally valid but a certain amount of stress is really healthy,” Krivoshey said. “If you didn’t care or you didn’t stress about it you wouldn’t study for your finals. But if it tips over into paralysis or being so stressed that you are burned out, that’s not healthy.”
The Wellness Center recommends in the mindfulness resources section of the website students should take time for themselves by walking around campus to let their stress levels go down.
What’s offered for student athletes?
The Loyola Athletics Department offers a set of resources for student athletes to use during finals week. The resources include documents with tips on test taking, time management, reading and note taking and math study tips.
