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Special Events and Workshops develop Student Skills and Sense of Community

Introduction / Context / Special Events / Success  / Student's Story / Resources 

Academic workshops, social events start here
     Beyond tutoring and daily business, special academic workshops and social occasions designed to build a sense of community round out the "homey" feeling for the CLIC. 

Academic events  and campus tours
    All SSS students are welcome to enroll in a 3-credit College Success Course which focuses on good study skills and other fundamentals to college success. 
    Faculty members help with midterm academic interventions for students facing special academic difficulties by sharing evaluations of student academic progress with SSS staff in person or in writing. 
     The Collaborative Learning and Instruction Center (CLIC) is staffed with tutors at all times.  Students who want to work with a tutor place a flag on their table, and tutors join them on a first-request basis. 
     In addition to one-one tutoring the lab initiates math and English study groups (based on student demand),  encourages peer tutoring, offers scholarship and transfer workshops.
     It also hosts special events on themes including Immigration Rights and Fields of Opportunity - exploring careers with community mentors, Time Management and Study strategies and routines for students not enrolled in the 3-credit course. 
     Students also appropriate the corners of CLIC space for Phi Theta Kappa meetings, collecting signatures to run for Student Senate, and on-going service projects like clothing drives. 
     Since this is a two-year college, all students who continue on must transfer. Transfer field trips are scheduled to a half-dozen of the area colleges students are most likely to attend. Organized by Marcia Kato, transfer adviser, trips provide students with campus tours and meetings with campus leaders who answer their questions. 

Social activities raise awareness of diverse cultures - on campus events are scheduled during daytime hours
     Director Maureen Shadair finds "our most successful services include cultural events, both on and off campus," which give the program's ethnically diverse students opportunities to celebrate each other's cultures and build a sense of community.
     Fifty six percent of SSS participants are Asian-American, 23% African or African-American, 15% European-American students and 7% Hispanic.
    Especially popular is each semester's International Foodfest where each student brings a potluck representing his/her traditions. This event is also shared with their school professors, so students can get better acquainted with professors in a social atmosphere.
    Each February the Lunar New Year is celebrated, coordinated by SSS staff with Chinese, Vietnamese and Thai students. 
     Attendance is best when events are held over the noon hour, so students with busy schedules can combine lunch with social networking. 
   And students suggest which cultural events in the Seattle area they'd like to attend. Examples include going to Alvin Ailey Dance Theater or attending a lecture by Native American writer Sherman Alexie.

Staff and students pose during Lunar New Year festivities

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Costumes, chocolates and red table cloth add to Lunar New Year festivities for SSS students at South Seattle CC