During the middle of the semester, students crowd the tech hub and library to study. However, there is another option when those locations become too packed – the Education Support Program.
ESP offers a variety of services to students in order to help them understand their coursework better. This program also improves student’s writing ability, comprehension on foreign languages, study habit strategies, time management and even handling anxiety.
Barba Bekis, coordinator of ESP, said students who come to the center typically do better, according to institutional research.
“Students who come six times or more a semester do better grade-wise than students who don’t come or come less,” Bekis said. “We also have workshops everyday where the topics are the same, but the times are different to accommodate each student’s different schedule.”
Bekis said students who come to tutoring gain benefits from the atmosphere.
“Students who come to ESP find that energy contagious and do better as a result of seeing other students working on bettering themselves academically,” Bekis said.
While some students utilize the Tech Hub in the University Center because of convenience, others have said the tech hub is too crowded and noisy to complete their work.
Adarius Ellis, a member of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity, and a junior at the University of Memphis, goes to ESP to get away and to focus on his academics, and it has benefited his fraternity brothers.
“The tech hub is usually crowded, and sometimes too noisy, while at ESP I can isolate myself and focus,” Ellis said. “It has definitely been beneficial to me and my fraternity. It has given us a place to study and has given us the tools to get help instead of trying to seek help off campus. It’s very convenient.”
Jalen Griggs, a member of Omega Psi Phi fraternity and a graduate student at the U of M, thinks it is interesting ESP is free to students.
“My friends at other universities have to pay for tutors, and some colleges don’t communicate their tutoring programs as well as our university does,” Griggs said. “I think we do a great job of trying to keep our students academically prepared and focused.”
The ESP learning centers are located all over campus, including in Mitchell Hall, Fogelman College of Business, Patterson Hall, Dunn Hall, the Panhellenic building, the Living Learning Center and Centennial Place. ESP also has tutoring spots on the Collierville campus and in the Lambuth Learning Center.
