Tutoring Center offers help in math, English, more

November 13, 2024

By Laura Southers

Columnist

Simply entering a library is not enough to make you whisper, but it will make you consider your approach. Maybe you do not need total silence to compose your essay.

Maybe you just need to talk out the line of approach to your argument. Maybe you need to choose which side of the argument to adopt. Whatever your chosen decibel level to study, you will have everything you need by simply entering the space for solitude and studying called a library.

Clackamas Community College’s Oregon City library is housed in the Dye Learning Resource Center. Simply approach the student working behind the desk, and you can schedule an appointment with a writing, math/science or accounting/technology tutor. You may choose an appointment running from half an hour through a full hour.

The staff running the tutoring center rotates most years. There is one non-faculty leader of the center. Josh Aman, who has been on paternity leave this quarter, will return after Thanksgiving. Aman is also an accounting/technology tutor, and the other tutor coordinators who are also on the faculty have greatly missed Aman’s effortless overall guidance of the center. 

Berri Hsiao leads the math tutoring, and Jeff McAlpine leads the Writing Center. Both are full-time faculty members, but each treasure their time tutoring.  

Hsaio has been at CCC for six years and has led the math lab the past three years. She began her teaching career at Lane Community College for “20 years … I’ve been teaching for a while.” 

“I was born and raised in Taiwan, but I’ve been here more than half my life now,” said Hsaio. “My entire family, except one sister in Germany, lives in Taiwan, and I still call it home.” 

McAlpine has taught at CCC for 21 years and has been the coordinator of the Writing Center the past six years, taking over for my current English professor Nicole Rosevear. 

When I asked what changes McAlpine had seen in the tutoring center, he said, “The pandemic changed everything.”  The previous coordinators “built a system where we could have online tutoring during that time,” said McAlpine. 

"Another big change has been how the tutors are paid. We used to only be able to compensate tutors by tuition waiver, and we were finding that we were losing a lot of our best candidates … that wanted to be paid hourly. Now we can do a combination,” said McAlpine.

Tutors are current students and they have to complete more schooling to earn their positions. McAlpine said, “They do pre-term all day training, and then they do five weeks of a two-hour class per week…plus homework that they need to complete to get their tutoring certification.” 

McAlpine said, “Our certification goes through CRLA, which is the College Reading and Learning Association … we get our guidelines of how we should set up our classes.” Once they have this certification, they can tutor at other institutions. Some of CCC’s current tutors are now studying at the University of Oregon and Portland State University but fulfilling Zoom tutoring obligations at CCC. 

To book an appointment, visit https://clackamas.mywconline.com. Here you can read bios of the tutors, which list which courses they can help with. Then choose a time when you are both available. The center operates Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m.