Learning Commons Spotlight: Tabitha Dey

The Learning Commons is starting a new monthly award that features students we work with who have shown greatness in academic excellence, social leadership, peer development, and/or community engagement. These students are nominated and selected by the Learning Commons team. They are interviewed and receive a gift card to the Kohawk Shop! Stay tuned to learn more about this month's recipient: Tabitha Dey!  

Academic Success Story

“My academic success story is changing my major. I helped myself with that by getting the help I needed," Tabitha exclaimed. When she first came to Coe, she planned to major in biology and neuroscience to become a neurosurgeon. However, when she took the class Organismal & Ecological Biology, she began to struggle, so she took the initiative to reach out for help by visiting the Learning Common's Biology Support Specialist Spencer Stout. He said, "She has since studied with me every single week and has applied so many new skills/study habitats to not only pass her biology classes, but excel!” 

After reflecting on her plans and goals, Tabitha ultimately realized that majoring in biology and neuroscience wasn't the right path for her, so she changed her major to nursing. Tabitha reflected, "Even though the class was difficult, it ended up turning me in the direction that I wanted." She has discovered a new passion and is very happy with her nursing major! After college, she currently plans to work for a few years then go back to school to get her master's and become a nurse practitioner.

Campus and Community Engagement

In addition to being involved in various Coe sponsored events, Tabitha is a member of Alpha Gamma Delta and currently serves in a leadership role as VP Chapter Wellness. With this organization, she has participated in volunteer work such as volunteering with HACAP. Additionally, Tabitha works at Mercy Medical Center and has engaged in various charity events with them such as a cancer walk. 

Advice

“I didn’t want to get help, but then I learned if I do get help, I have a better chance of succeeding," Tabitha exclaimed while reflecting on what has helped her succeed at Coe. She gave this advice to other Coe students:

• Take advantage of the free academic resources here at Coe such as tutoring and SI sessions.
• Get to know your professors and ask questions. Since Coe is small, it's a lot easier to build relationships with your professors and get one-on-one help if you need it. 

Reflecting on the advice she would give herself, Tabitha said, "Don’t procrastinate, go with my gut feeling, and do what’s going to make me happy in the end." She definitely seems to be following her own advice as she's pursuing her new path in nursing. As Tabitha said, “It was a big shock to me when I first decided that I didn’t want to be a doctor, but now thinking back on it, this is probably one of the best decisions I’ve made.”  

Starting Out Strong in a New Semester

It's the beginning of a new semester! This can be both exciting and nerve-wracking as you begin to navigate your new responsibilities. Balancing school work with extracurriculars, jobs, or anything else that demands your attention can be overwhelming. That’s why it’s so important to develop good habits that work for you. Stay tuned for tips on starting out strong in the new semester!

Develop Helpful Habits

• Work on your time management system. Strategies that work well for some people may not work at all for others, so it's important to find what clicks for you. Some ideas include:
• Use a planner/calendar to stay organized and keep up with your work. You can write down important dates and/or create to-do lists for the work you need to do each day.
• Prioritize tasks. When you're overwhelmed, determine which tasks are truly important and which ones can wait. Start with the most urgent ones.
• Use breaks. Taking regular breaks while studying can help refresh your brain and increase your energy, motivation, and ability to focus. Make it a habit to allow yourself to take some breathers. 
• Establish a routine. What does your schedule look like? What time of the day do you work best? Some people need a lot more flexibility to be productive, but for others, scheduling times to work can help them stay focused and always stay on top of their work. This leads to avoiding procrastination. Try to begin working on stuff further in advance. 
• Remember to take notes and review them. Work on finding the note-taking strategies that work for you and try to stick with them.

Set Goals for the Semester

• What has worked well for your in the past semester(s)? What do you want to improve on this semester? Ask yourself questions like these to develop goals. 
• You can set specific intentions for each class or have some overarching goals for all of your classes. You could create short-term goals at the start of each week, each day, or even each study session, or you could create a few long-term goals for the whole semester. Everything is up to you, but goal-setting can be a helpful way to stay focused and motivated to achieve the outcomes that you desire. 

Ask for help

• Remember to ask questions when you have them!
• Be aware of your resources:
• Go to your professors' office hours
• Learning Commons (learn more about all of these resources here):
• Tutoring
• Supplemental Instruction
• Writing Center
• Test Proctoring
• TRIO / Academic Achievement Program
• Request For Academic Support Form
• Make an appointment with a Learning Commons consultant

Take Care of Yourself

• Be careful not to take on too many responsibilities. 
• Engage in regular self-care. Find what helps you reduce stress. 
• Make time for yourself: do things you enjoy to help prevent burnout!

We hope all of your semesters start off strong!