Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

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Students find help in GUTS

This is the third part of a series highlighting the multitude of student organizations on the University of Wisconsin campus.

University of Wisconsin students stuck with a tough question from class they just can't answer need not worry. The Greater University Tutoring Service is available on the UW campus for all students' academic conundrums.

Jason Johnson, a UW student and the newly instated director of GUTS, said the service offers unique opportunities for UW students.

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"GUTS is a registered student organization that provides tutoring services to students in the university community," Johnson said. "More specifically it has four areas or four discrete programs: Study Skills, Drop-In, Academic Match, and Conversational English."

Johnson said each program is designed to offer a unique tutoring service to UW students.

Study Skills, Johnson said, is a program offered for students who need help learning how to study more effectively. Students can participate in group workshops or make individual appointments to hone their time management skills and work on test-taking strategies, Johnson said.

Academic Match, which Johnson said is a more traditional tutoring program, matches a student in need with a tutor in their preferred subject area. Students are oftentimes pooled with other students in need of similar help and are aided by a tutor. The group meets with the tutor for about two hours per week.

Johnson said the Conversational English program was designed for international students looking to improve their fluency in English.

"[We match] up native English speakers with international students," Johnson said.

The groups feature either one-on-one participation or sometimes more to aid international students in their practicing of the English language. They also learn different American customs, he added.

The Drop-In program allows students to "drop-in" and utilize a staff of on-call tutors to help them with their school related problems. The program is offered at six locations on including College Library, Steenbock Library, the Multicultural Student Center, Union South and two private residence halls: the Towers and the Langdon.

"We have tutors at each of those centers every day and they tutor a variety of subjects like chemistry, math, physics, and foreign languages," Johnson said.

Joel Wagner, a fifth-year UW student majoring in Chemical Engineering and Biochemistry, has been a Drop-In tutor with GUTS for the past three years and said he enjoys the time he participates each week.

"I just enjoy helping people," Wagner said "Basically it's good to see when people understand things and [to] see the change between when they come in versus when they leave."

Both Wagner and Johnson emphasized GUTS is a volunteer organization and each tutor is there to volunteer their time and intelligence to help students.

"A lot of people assume that we're paid to do this." Wagner said. "But they're always surprised when they find out it is a volunteer service."

Wagner said the best part of GUTS is the sense of community it builds on campus, and the interaction between the tutors and the students who come to them for help.

"I think that its a unique experience; it's not a TA, it's not a professor, it's people who have gone through the [university] experience and want to help people who are also going through that experience," Wagner said.

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