College tutors honored during National Tutoring Week at MNSU

Michael McShane
News Editor

It’s National Tutoring Week and Minnesota State University, Mankato’s Tutoring Center is taking this chance to thank every one of their tutors that has taken time out of their day to help other students succeed. 

The MNSU Tutoring Center, which employs more than 50 employees, will be celebrating National Tutoring Week with a party to recognize the tutors.  

“National Tutoring Week is a way to appreciate the work that our tutors do and thank them for the support they give to this campus,” Lindsay Stepan, the assistant director of math, science and business, said. 

Tutoring can be a very challenging and complex job in which tutors take on the responsibility of answering questions from students. 

The busiest time for tutors are midterms and the end of the semester finals. 

“We always tell our tutors that their job is to do their best, they don’t have to know everything about everything,” Teresa Neubert, the assistant director for Writing, ESL, Speech, Languages, said. 

At MNSU, tutors work part-time, working five to 20 hours a week. There are people who go by the term “professional tutor” who work 40 hours a week. 

While MNSU doesn’t have any “professional tutors”, they have dedicated tutors who take on the challenge of answering questions and helping solve problems. 

The tutors at MNSU are graduate assistants and undergrad peer tutors. Every single MNSU tutor has to have a 3.0 and an “A” in the class they are tutoring. Every tutor is paid for their work at the Tutoring Center. 

With that rule applied, if a tutor has As in multiple different courses, they can tutor all of those courses as long as they retain that A in the classes.  

The subject most in need at the tutoring center is chemistry tutors. Currently there are only four students who tutor in chemistry. 

“My goal for chemistry tutoring is a lot more than that,” Stepan said. “It is one of our most demanded subjects. 

For the tutors they do have, the MNSU Tutoring Center will be having a dinner party for tutors only to celebrate their involvement at the center. 

Cake will also be available for any students coming into the tutoring center. Students wishing to become a tutor can fill out a form from the Center for Academic Success on the MNSU website.