Student Success Center

The Student Success Center’s academic coaches provide first-year students and selected transfer students academic advisement support throughout their first year of college. Academic coaches schedule at least 5 meetings (quarter-term meeting, mid-term meeting, registration meeting) with each of their students during students’ first academic year at Villa.

Using the Self-Determination Theory as a guide, our academic coaches build strong and supportive relationships with each of their students, focusing on accomplishing three goals:

• Educate first year students about academic information that is relevant to their chosen program of study.
• Assist first year students in recognizing their needs (academic and non-academic) to develop their self-advocacy skills.
• Ensure first year students know basic information about campus technology.

To provide additional support to students during first year in college, Villa staff members serve as mentors. Mentors are not academic advisors or faculty. Mentors are there to help answer questions, provide social support, and guidance to develop a supportive social network on campus, and celebrate student successes! The goal is to help students feel part of the Villa community. This year, 35 of Villa’s staff and administration members volunteered to serve as mentors. The program is optional, but all students are encouraged to participate.

For Mentees
For Mentors

The Student Success Center believes that establishing a relationship with our students is an important component of a successful college experience.  Villa Success Roundtable Series, a summer bridge program, was developed to support all incoming, first year students prior to the beginning of their first fall semester. Every August, incoming students are invited to join the Villa community and attend a series of conversations where we will share advice and answer your questions about how to be an outstanding college student.

Register

Our well-trained, enthusiastic, and compassionate peer and professional tutors will guide Villa’s students through their studies. We offer free and unrestricted access to individual or group tutoring for all programs and courses offered during the given semester.  The goal is to foster each student’s growth throughout his or her time at Villa. The Student Success Center tutoring services are certified by the National Tutoring Association.
For tutoring expectations for students, click here.
For instructions on how to register for WC Online or to make an online appointment, click here.

We Offer Tutoring in:

• Understanding concepts
• Homework assignments
• Study strategies
• Testing strategies
• Time management strategies
• Writing assignments, such as, developing topics, organizing thoughts, developing an effective paragraphs with support from outside sources, revising before paper is graded, editing for grammar, and citing correctly in MLA and APA format.

Selected studio courses are supported with embedded tutors who are upper level college students that excel in their course work. Embedded tutors work closely with the faculty for the duration of the course. They attend classes and assist students during class activities, offer additional guidance, perspective, feedback, and answer students’ questions. The goal is to provide more one-on-one assistance during class activities and expose students to the benefits of tutoring.

The Assisted Learning Lab (ALL) program at Villa Maria College is inspired by the supplemental instruction concept, but is molded to fit the culture, climate and needs of Villa. Instead of offering basic, pre-college level courses, we are providing supplemental instruction to our credit-bearing college level courses. ALL sessions revolve around student-to-student interaction and cooperative learning. The goal is to assists students with understanding difficult class content.

New York State Public Health Law requires colleges to collect proof of immunity. The PTA and OTA programs have additional immunization requirements for their programs. Information about the requirements can be accessed here. Any questions about the requirement or copies of records can be sent to[email protected].

Villa Maria College supports students with disabilities in providing reasonable accommodations to meet educational goals. To access accommodations students must:

• Voluntarily identify themselves as needing accommodations during the admissions process or when they are enrolled.
• Make an appointment to meet with the Director of Student Success. During this meeting students should provide documentation of disability. Students will sign a release so instructors and other campus offices can be informed of accommodations.
• At the beginning of each semester, discuss accommodations with instructors.

Typical accommodations may include but are not limited to: separate testing location, extended time on tests, test questions read aloud, LiveScribe pens for note taking, tape recorder, textbooks in alternative formats, and noise cancelling headphones.

For more information or to schedule an appointment, email [email protected].

The Library now coordinates all accommodated and make-up tests. Please see the Library’s Testing Center page for more information or to schedule a test.