Since May 2022, the library has been packed full with more tools and services for students to take full advantage of.
SFCC’s Library has turned into Learning Support. Adding to the technical upgrades and improved study spots, many support services for students have now been integrated under the same roof.The goal of Learning Support is to make these services more easily accessible and to have all faculty and staff aware of what is available so they can suggest services that can benefit students based on their needs. This idea came from the Dean of Professional Studies, Library, and Workforce Education, Christ Pelchat.
“What’s so cool about this is we may have a student come in to check out a laptop, and in conversation with them, we learn they may be struggling with housing or might have some food insecurities,” Director of Learning Support, Kathy Albin said. “And because we’re all in close proximity, our circulation staff can say, ‘Hey! Why don’t you stop by the workforce transition office.’”
Through the workforce transition office, students are able to apply for six different specially funded programs depending on their needs.
“We have our Passport to College Grant, which helps foster youths and unaccompanied homeless youths,” Albin said. “Then we have our Supporting Students Experiencing Homelessness Grant. That is to help support those who are in jeopardy of losing their housing, [or] need to get housing.”
Those two programs are for eligible students in all academic fields. The other four are available for career and technical education students. Those grants include Basic Food Employment & Training (BFET), Opportunity Grant, Worker Retraining, and WorkFirst.
If a student mentions that they are having a hard time finding work, or that they don’t understand how to make a resume, they will likely be informed of the career education department.
“Our career education used to be our work study program,” said Albin “It still does house our work study, but it also has a coordinator there that helps with resume building and job applications.”
Another department that has been integrated into Learning Support is academic support whose tutoring centers can be found all around the campus including in the library. While peer tutors do not require any additional training in most of the subjects they assist with, they are informed in what is available for students depending on those student’s needs.
“One thing that we really work on is making sure that the peer tutors know about all the services that are available at SFCC,” said Manager of Learning Support, Jordan Apfelbaum. “When a student is struggling in a class, it’s not necessarily the content that has the area of biggest struggle.”
Another big part of Learning Support is having faculty be knowledgeable in what is available to students. To achieve this, they have organized a program called the New Faculty Academy.
“This is the first year they’ve piloted this program,” said Albin. “New faculty get together on a very regular basis and learn about all the supports to help students on campus.”
And of course if a student mentions struggling with research they will be directed to the library . At the reference desk students can get help with research, evaluating sources, citations, and avoiding plagiarism. Students can schedule times to have a librarian assist them with their research for up to an hour. They also provide a 24/7 libchat service where student’s questions can be answered at any time because they are sent to librarians around the world.
“I think that it’s important for students to know that all these services are housed in building two,” Albin said.