OXFORD, Miss. – A handful of upperclassmen in the
University of Mississippi’s School of Engineering are
tutoring an exponentially larger number of their peers and
underclassmen through a program they have launched and
maintain.
Five juniors and seniors provide the tutoring sessions,
which are held each Tuesday in Carrier Hall. Tutors
voluntarily offer their services to fellow students at no
charge. The number of students served each week averages 15
to 30, with noticeable higher attendance around exam time.
Students showing up for the tutoring sessions get help with
engineering classes only.
“The program is about older engineering students, ready to
begin their careers, aiding their younger peers,” said
Andrew Campbell, a senior electrical engineering major from
Terry and president of the campus chapter of the Institute
for Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
The program was started in 2006 by Mary Sada Scott of Horn
Lake, then vice president of the Engineering Student Body.
Campbell oversees its operation. He is assisted by current
ESB president Christin Burns, a senior chemical engineering
major from Hartselle, Ala., and vice president Joey
Parkerson, a junior chemical engineering major from French
Camp.
Most of the material and courses students have questions
about are ones the tutors themselves struggled through in
previous semesters, Campbell said. “I feel our experience
really give us unique insight into explaining the material
in terms they can better understand,” he said.
“I think the tutoring program is a great idea,” said senior
engineering student Scott Montgomery of New Orleans. “It is
a lot easier for students to learn from people they feel
are their equals, especially when those people have taken
the same courses and made the same mistakes.”
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