With an abundance of general requirements and upper-division classes, there are times when students need additional help with certain fields of study. When in need of assistance, Washburn University offers tutoring centers.

Some students become embarrassed about visiting the tutoring centers on campus. Emily Engler, senior physics major, suggests not to be.

“We all can’t be great at everything we do in school and we are all going to have areas that we don’t excel in,” said Engler. “Plus if going there was something to really be ashamed of, Washburn wouldn’t offer it as a resource.”

The main spot for tutoring on campus is on the third floor in Mabee Library. This area offers tutors in various areas including psychology, writing, science and math.

During her four years at Washburn, Engler said she greatly appreciated the Mabee Library writing center, especially during the junior-level composition course she took the spring semester of her sophomore year.

“I was thankful that they offered help in the area I struggled with most and that there was always someone just waiting to help me,” Engler said.

During her first few years at Washburn, Engler was friends with many of the campus’ math tutors.

“They were each interested in teaching themselves and being tutors gave them a trial run to see if they could effectively teach the material to someone else,” Engler said. “They told me how much they loved the experience of retaining the information even better through teaching.”

Most tutors who apply for a tutoring position have the desire to help students. This was one of the reasons Allison Colonna, senior psychology and Spanish major, joined the tutoring staff January 2016.

Colonna elected to tutor writing and psychology and will tutor again in fall 2016 before graduating in December.

During the week, Colonna typically works every other day and averages about 10 hours. She said the quantity of students depends on the week but is always the busiest around Success Week.

“One day during Success Week, I edited 15 papers and had a line of students waiting for my help the entire time,” Colonna said.

Though her position allows her to be a role model for academic success, Colonna said the one downside is making students wait for help due to her ability to only help one student at a time.

Colonna interacts with a diverse group of students through tutoring. Through editing papers she learns about different majors and topics that she didn’t know about beforehand.

“This is definitely a job where I’m giving my time and energy to help people, but I get so much out of it in return because I get to learn new things,” Colonna said.

In addition to the students she helps, Colonna has established friendships with her fellow tutors.

“There are so many great tutors here and everyone is very passionate about the subject they teach,” Colonna said. “They are always enthusiastic and willing to help the second a student approaches them.”